Red

It's 2002 Toronto. Meilin is a 13 year-old Chinese-Canadian girl on the verge of adulthood. Her family cares for their temple honorable their ancestor who turned into a red panda to defend her family. One morning, she wakes up to find herself transformed into a red panda.

This is a coming-of-age story from Pixar. It's fun. I love the characters. There is a realism in these characters. They feel very authentic. Aside from the supernatural, this is really a story of a girl trying to find her way through puberty and dealing with her mother-daughter relationship. There are no big name actors other than Sandra Oh which does give this a feeling of non-Hollywood. The Toronto locations are also part of that. This has plenty of fun while dealing with some real tween issues.

There's a reason this movie is a PG and not a U! Everyone having a little turn because a 13 year old girl is given some maxi pads and has crushes on boys - it's not woke, it's reality.

And if you have a problem with characters wearing turbans/hijabs, then I really think you need to look deep inside yourself!

This movie doesn't feel like a Disney/Pixar because it's cringey and has anime elements - but it's still fun, and my 10 and 8 year old boys had no problem at all with seeing sanitary protection because guess what, they see it in our bathroom every day!

In the latest Pixar movie, Rosalie Chiang voice a 12-year-old girl in Toronto in 2002. She is the daughter of a tiger mother, has nervous breakdowns when she comes in second in spelling bees, and is securely under the thumb of her mother -- voiced by Sandra Oh -- although she adores a boy band, of which her mother severely disapproves. But being at that age, she finds a change in her body: under great emotional stress, she turns into a giant red panda. This turns out to be true of all the women in her family.

In what may be described as 'fantasy autobiography' -- the director was born in China, moved to Canada at 2, and was twelve for most of 2002 -- we see the expected Pixar combination of technical excellence -- the red panda looks like a plush doll, with every one of its million or two hairs carefully drawn -- and story telling. It hews a little too closely between its literal and figurative meaning -- we're dealing with menarche in some form -- with jokes about her mother bringing tampons and similar products to school, embarrassing the protagonist. But I laughed out loud and leaked some tears, and what more can you demand of any movie?

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"Turning Red is undoubtedly the riskiest, possibly the most divisive work in Pixar history. Without any remorse or restraint, Domee Shi and Julia Cho unapologetically approach the sensitive topic of (female) puberty in a quite shocking, positively impactful manner.

A narrative that unquestionably explores the hormonal, emotional, and sexual developments of its characters, conveying a message of self-acceptance and understanding of human evolution through its metaphors loaded with youthful excitement.

With the well-known technical attributes from the successful studio, this film will serve as an essential companion for all pre-teens who will deal with or are going through this inevitable and "inconvenient" phase of life.

One of the best movies of the year until this day."

Rating: A-

A lot of people are complaining about the story, character development, saying things are rushed, but personally I had no problem with it. It's on point like most Pixar films. Hell I even enjoyed the animation, it's something a little different and it's honestly kinda charming. So why did I give it a 6/10? The jokes! The jokes in this film are so cringy and bad it takes a lot out of it. I get some of them are about the pains of hitting puberty but a lot of them could've landed better. I just feel like Pixar wants to create straight drama sometimes and the mouse forces them to include comedy. Either way it's a mostly enjoyable watch.