Pixar’s newest release, Turning Red, has divided the audience into those who loved the story and felt completely represented, and those who claim that the story is too specific and hard to connect with. Although the first group has been a wide majority (which makes sense), it’s still interesting to see how the second group actually reflects a lot of the issues we still have as a society, especially when it comes to gender.
But first things first. Turning Red tells the story of a Chinese-Canadian teenager who all of a sudden wakes up turned into a giant red panda. Mei Mei, like any teenager, loves hanging out with her friends, is obsessed with the boy band of the moment and like many at that age is willing to do anything to go see them. Yet, that’s her social life, since at home she’s pressured to excel at everything and, most importantly, to always honor her family as her culture dictates, which is translated into having to do anything her mom says.
Puberty and the psychological implications of growing up
We could say that the core of the story is the reflection on the physiological and psychological changes that come with adolescence, mainly those that come with womanhood, the changing of our body, menstruation, and more general ones like first romantic interests and the constant need of approval from our peers. It deals with that physical discomfort and how it affects our psyche; how we feel it’s something that’s only happening to us, and thus we keep it for ourselves.
Generational trauma and loving who we are
Another line that the movie explores is the pressure installed by our families and society in the modern world. Though the movie it’s set in the early 2000s, is clear that it delves with that modernity concept that we all have to excel in everything to be considered successful. That message, naturally, comes is first installed in our brains through our families, and in many countries, it’s also a cultural trait. As it happened with Disney’s Encanto, the movie, at the end of the day, deals with generational trauma and how it is transmitted from generation to generation until someone breaks the mold. Mei Mei is constantly trying to please her strict mom, just as the latter, Ming, does with her grandmother.
But at some point, Mei Mei’s inner fight between what she’s supposed to be with wanting to be accepted for who she is leads her to appreciate and love herself, and that’s a universal theme we could and should all be able to connect.
How do those who don’t connect with the movie reflect our flawed society?
Let’s start by saying that this isn’t a matter of judging those who didn’t like the movie; but there are themes in movies that even if we think the movie isn’t that great, we are still able to connect with and empathize. So, as mentioned, some of the negative comments didn’t really have to do with flaws in the animation or a weak story, what they claim is that Pixar is famous for delivering universal stories we all can empathize with even if they deal with a very particular festivity of one country or toys (or cars, or fish, or monsters, or basically anything). This is a fallacy.
Isn’t adolescence, the awkwardness that comes with growing up, the physical and psychological changes, not being understood by our family, the need for approval, our teen love for mainstream things, or the love for our friends, universal enough? Don’t we all of us go through it? Oh no but it’s too specific because it’s centered on a Chinese-Canadian girl, her culture, and her flawed relationship with her mom and the women of her family. Well, Coco was centered on a Mexican boy, his culture, and his flawed relationship with his family (mainly the women of his family), and we all loved it.
The thing is that most of these comments come from men, mostly white men, and it all seems that the movie challenges them because it’s focalized from the perspective of a racialized woman. The movie then results uncomfortable because it deals openly with subjects that we are socially used to not speaking about in public, like menstruation. The movie deals with that in a very metaphoric but also quite literal way and that makes heteropatriarchal circles shiver. But it goes beyond that.
They go and say that the director made the movie focusing on her very specific experiences and her very specific culture, which she doesn’t, but let’s buy that one. Why do we love and praise when directors like Cuarón in Roma, or Kenneth Branagh recently in Belfast, portray very specific and personal stories, but when a woman does so it’s “too specific and hard to connect with”? Why the movies produced by men (mainly white men) are more welcomed and seen as creative and brave proposals when they go out of the norm, but women are criticized when they do so? But, more importantly, why are women questioned when they don’t do movies that revolve around hegemonic masculinity?!
Pixar’s bet with Turning Red is relevant and important because its target audience is children and teenagers. If they’re able to see stories like this they will learn to be empathic at a very early age; to communicate those worries and changes we experience, and more importantly to be brave to say this is who I am and who I want to be; to love and accept themselves.
Not only that, Turning Red’s focus on Mei Mei is a loving, not a condescending one. It shows her as a girl with the ability and maturity to decide for herself who she want to be and to fight for that. This is a movie that portrays teenagers just as they are, as people full of dreams who don’t care about being too extra when they love something. The movie doesn’t fall into the cliché of the stray teen like many movies and series (Euphoria) do. What better and more universal message would you want?
