Learning To Be Red

You might have heard the catchy song Nobody Like U while scrolling through your For You Page these past few weeks. This lively song comes from one of Pixar’s newest films, Turning Red. The movie came out March 11th, and since then it has been a success with a budget over 175 million dollars in less than a month since its release. In my opinion, the movie lives up to its immense amount of popularity. 

This film follows thirteen year-old Mei Lee, and her amusing yet appalling gift of turning into a giant red panda when her emotions are too much for her to handle. The movie focuses around Mei’s coming of age and how growing up while still trying to fit into your parents expectations, can cause us all to turn into an angry red panda.

Producer Domee Shi, does an amazing job of capturing the stress and pressure many face when having to be the goody two shoes and being the perfect child for your parents when your friends and those around you always seem to be having fun and looking carefree. Shi also gives us a lot of Asian representation with Mei and her parents, who are Chinese. I liked that she went out of her way to cast Asian voice actors to play the voices of her characters, which is rare to see. 

Mei Lee’s mother disapproves of any new behavior and, unwillingly, embarsses her constantly. She begins to rebel when she starts to have crushes and fangirls over a boy band known as 4*Town. After a second-hand embarrassment accident, Mei wakes up as a red panda for the first time and learns that in order to be in her human form she must stay calm and composed. This symbolizes for many, how it feels to have anxiety and anger issues. 

This gift for Mei, is a curse as her mother teaches her that her abilities were caused because of her ancestors and that she faced the same situation when she was younger. 

The rest of the film then follows up with even more embarrassing yet relatable moments as Mei learns the meaning of being and loving yourself and the power that friendship truly has. 

The movie overall was very fun to watch, from the visuals, to the laughs, to finding yourself wondering if you yourself will wake up as a red panda. It’s a movie that, in my opinion, is suitable for all ages. I rate this film a good 9/10, definitely go watch it. Like right now. GO!