Puberty is not an easy time for anyone but Meilin, the heroine ofRed alert by Domee Shi, really pushes the envelope. As soon as her emotions take over her, the teenager turns into a giant panda in this animated comedy from Pixar studios and available from Friday on Disney +. She will exploit her new appearance with great ingenuity, but will she be able to control the animal?
The director of the short film Baodiscovered at the Annecy Festival and presented before The Incredibles 2 in 2018, dives back into her early years as a Chinese Canadian for her first feature film. Domee Shi describes the panic of a teenager caught between an intrusive mother and her desire to exist by and for herself. “The red panda is all the impulses that overwhelm you when you are 13 years old, she confides to 20 minutes. We turn scarlet and we don’t know what to do with our cumbersome body. Everyone is a sleeping panda at that age! “We really want to hug the adorable creature in his arms, but we must recognize that it takes up a lot of space.
Tame your panda (or not)
“I looked like Meilin when I was 13: a kid who felt compelled to hide her fantasy from her mother and was very different when she was with her friends,” recalls Domee Shi. The heroine’s friends, very well sketched, are inspired by those of the director. His mom too. “Meilin learned to tame her inner panda, to settle down as she grew older,” laughs Domee Shi, whose mother is, she says, “happy that I resisted her to become a filmmaker instead of embracing a career that she would have deemed more respectable. Each generation proves to be freer than the previous one.
His female characters are as joyful as the “boy band” on which young girls fall in love to the point of being ready to do anything to go see him in concert. Domee Shi really has a mad talent that just hides a little hint of angst. “Despite everything, I have not yet shown Red alert to my mother, she admits and I’m a little apprehensive about her reaction. If the latter is as authoritarian as that of the film, we understand her concern, but if she is as loving as this strong woman, the filmmaker has nothing to fear as the film is vibrant with tenderness for her mother.