What is it with amazing, animated films about generational trauma lately? Turning Red is another delight from Pixar, opting for a more fun, poppy story than the heavy outings that the studio has been making lately. However, this doesn’t mean that the film isn’t stuffed full of fantastic characters and emotional moments and is refreshingly tackles a period in life that is often not discussed in children’s films.
With every Pixar film that comes out it’s obligatory to comment on the exquisite animation that’s on offer and Turning Red is no different. What’s unique about this film however is how distinctive its style is, harkening back to more traditional anime styled animation, and it works so well. Every moment the film breaks reality and becomes hyper-stylised is beautiful, from the crazy, funny character introductions, to one of the best-looking cooking scenes in a film period.
What makes this film shine though is the way it tackles its themes. For a film that its primary target audience is children it’s incredibly refreshing to try to explore more “mature” subjects and ideas in fun, and inventive ways. Despite the metaphor being overtly obvious, the film still attempted to talk about periods and other aspects of puberty that kids go through which was good to see they weren’t trying to shy away from it. The backlash to this has been hilarious though, especially since the film even explores the criticisms in the film itself. Mei’s mum says she thought she had more time, but the reality is having open frank conversations at a younger age can help children feel less alienated and more normal when they do enter puberty. As the film goes on the metaphor gets kind of lost, which isn’t a bad thing as the film focused more on the story, but it’s funny trying to look for allegories in the second half.
The voice acting was faultless, the songs were wayyyy catchier than they had any right to be (thanks Billie and FINNEAS), and it was overall just a really funny light watch that managed to also tackle some deeper themes. Who wouldn’t love a film where a pop group helps defeat a giant kaiju panda?!?
★★★★
