Anger is good, that’s for sure. But now, could we all calm down, please? De-escalation is the order of the day; whoever wants to see Wüteriche can still go to the cinema. But why the biggest of all freaks, freaks and out-of-the-skin drivers there has to be green from head to toe is only understood by Marvel geeks, who tell you something about chloroplasts in the Hulk’s skin and that these are the enraged Make superheroes even stronger. As a hobby color psychologist, on the other hand, you ask yourself: Doesn’t red stand for feelings like anger, anger or danger?
At least the film magicians at Pixar seem to have internalized that: their constantly escalating superhero family Incredible is in red suits, their impetuous Scottish princess Merida wears a fiery red mane of curls – and of course the hothead named Wut is immediately recognizable in “Inside Out” by his color. Now another Pixar hero sees red: In “Red”, the animation studio’s 25th feature film, the focus is on a 13-year-old girl who becomes a red panda.
It’s whenever she gets angry, has her emotions out of control, or gets too excited – which happens about every twenty seconds at this age. So you get to see a lot of panda action. Mei Lee is actually the model daughter of a model family, her parents come from China and live with their only daughter in Toronto, Canada. They prefer not to tell her that there is a strange panda curse hanging over the family: Mei Lee is brought up according to Chinese standards, she is never allowed to contradict her parents, sweeps the family temple every day and is said to be the best at school, always and everywhere.
This brings back memories of “Tiger Mom” Amy Chua, who shocked Western mothers a few years ago with a parenting guide that used pressure, drill, and disciplinary measures to raise little ones. Despite this, Mei Lee doesn’t come across as a victim of education, more like a girl who has gone through puberty. It only becomes too much for Mei Lee when her mother embarrasses her in front of a boy and causes the embarrassment of the year at school: While the woman is waving a pack of pads for her daughter’s first period in front of the whole class, Mama transforms with a pop into a giant red panda. And back with another pop.
Which is remarkable for at least two reasons: Is the topic of menstruation actually dealt with in a family film? And why a panda of all things, which is not necessarily considered a particularly active or even aggressive animal? Mei Lee’s bear version has little in common with the red pandas (also called red pandas or pandas) that live in southwest China and the Himalayas, but the film isn’t a nature documentary, but an animated adventure complete with plush merchandising.
Generation change at Pixar: The studio is becoming more international, younger, more diverse
The fact that this company still has heart, brains and humor is due to its creator: “Turning Red” is the feature film debut of Chinese-born and Toronto-raised screenwriter and director Domee Shi, who has worked for Pixar as a storyboard artist since 2011 and for Pixar in 2019 her short film “Bao” won an Oscar. For Pixar, the generation change continues, which became apparent last year with Enrico Casarosa’s debut film “Luca”: While Pixar veterans such as John Lasseter or Lee Unkrich (sometimes not entirely voluntarily) left the company, the studio is now more international and younger , diverse.
You can see that in this film, which was originally supposed to be released in cinemas but is now starting on the Disney+ streaming service due to the pandemic. It was made by women and focuses on female characters; he packs pedagogy with pop and mixes Far Eastern mysticism with western pragmatism. “Turning Red” not only tells a coming-of-age story of departure and change, but also refers to Asian monster movies, “Sailor Moon”, manga and manhuas. And since Domee Shi was 13 years old like her teenage heroine in 2002 (the time of the film’s action), one can assume that her own childhood experiences were incorporated into her screenplay.
For example, the enthusiasm for boy bands: Mei Lee and her three best friends have a crush on a fictional band called 4*Town (which strangely has five members). “It will be our first step towards being a woman,” say the four girls, referring to the concert of their favorite band, which they want to go to against their mothers’ wishes. This doesn’t really go well with the re-transformation ceremony planned by Mei Lee’s family, and even less with the ideas of a tiger mom (and an all the more strict tiger grandmother).
At the latest when the whole thing is resolved, you realize that some twists seem too tried and some elements don’t quite fit together. This film debut can’t keep up with the narrative sophistication and elegance of Pixar masterpieces like “The Incredibles”, “Inside Out” or “Up”, it wants too much at once for that. With Mei Lee, however, it has an enchanting heroine, who at some point even becomes a fighter for feminist rights to self-determination: “My Panda, my choice!”
Turning Red, USA 2022 – Directed and written by Domee Shi. With the original voices of: Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, 99 minutes. Disney+, streaming start March 11, 2022.