Review: Pixar's 'Turning Red' navigates the perilous adventure of being a teenager

Turning Red
4 out of 5 Stars
Director: Domee Shi
Writers: Julia Cho, Domee Shi
Starring: Rosalie Chaing, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Hyein Park
Genre: Comedy, Animation
Rated: PG for thematic material, suggestive content, and language

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) – Synopsis: 13-year-old Mei Lee is a typical teen who loves boy bands and turns into a large red panda when she gets too excited. Okay, not so typical.

Review: You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who loved music as much as I did in my teens. My room was essentially a shrine to the bands that I loved. My mother was often weary of the odd people in exaggerated makeup that adorned my walls. We fought over the length of my hair. We were the cliché.

So, when 13-year-old Mei Lee decides that attending a concert by boy band 4*Town with her friends is the most important thing in the entire world. I could relate. When Ming, Wei’s mother, is quick to blame Wei’s friends for manipulating her daughter into rebelling against the system and enjoying terrible music rather than accepting that Wei liked what she liked because she liked it. I could relate to that too.

And when Mei woke up one morning and discovered she had turned into a large red panda. Well, who hasn’t felt like an outsider forced into a spotlight where their attributes are judged by their peers? I’ve been a big red panda more times in my life than I care to recall.

That said, I’ve never actually turned into a red panda. Mei, for better or worse, has. In fact, she changes into a red panda every time she gets overly emotional. Being emotional is what teenagers do best.

No, I was never a teenage girl in the 2000s obsessed with a boy band. Nonetheless, I was Mei. Maybe not entirely. Enough to understand.

“Turning Red” is the story of a teenage girl trying to establish a sense of identity that is both true to where she comes from and to the place she eventually wants to get to. Her body is rebelling against her and the importance of having the approval of her parents and her friends starts to feel like an impossible mathematical equation.

It is a film that celebrates Chinese heritage, tradition, and all the tropes and cliché that come with it. The family dynamics are perfect. I love that a roomful of people with the best intentions can accidentally cause a worst-case scenario. I love the size of the personalities.

Having spoken to director/co-writer Domee Shi, I can tell you that this is a deeply personal story. That doesn’t make it inaccessible. It makes it genuine. For Shi, this is what being a teenager felt like.

“Turning Red” challenges us to forget about target audiences and encourages us to embrace what we love. For Mei, that is finding a place where she can celebrate being a Chinese Canadian who still carries around her Tamagotchi and listens to a band called 4*Town even though they have five members.

The more I think about “Turning Red,” the more that I want to watch it again.