My Review of Turning Red · 2:56am Apr 22nd, 2022
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, everyone! This is Mr. J back with another movie review for tonight! Tonight’s review is going to be covering a new 3D animated film recently released from Pixar entitled: Turning Red. In light of the controversy behind this movie, I do want to make myself as clear and concise as possible. I don’t personally see this as a masterpiece or a flawless film. Far from that, as a matter of fact. However, I honestly think it’s a great film that conveyed a profound message about staying true to one’s self and never being ashamed of who you truly want to be. After I saw this the first time, I thought it was pretty good but not that great; however, after seeing it the second time, I enjoyed it more than I previously did.
This film is about a 13-year-old teenager who hangs out with her friends her age. She is a bright, highly-regarded girl in her family, but she is also someone who secretly likes all the things that her mother despises. Suddenly, she turns into a giant red panda after experiencing emotional distress not too long ago. Seeing herself in a shocking new predicament, she must find a way to be rid of this hereditary ability before it turns ugly for her. She later notices how much joy it unexpectedly brought to her friends and others whenever she was a red panda.
First off, the premise for the movie was very interesting to me. It’s basically a fantasy type of story that tells us how a young person—boy or girl—goes through puberty but grows up as a red panda instead. As hilarious as that sounds, I think the filmmakers and writers did a pretty good job making this movie both emotionally well-written and comedically entertaining at the same time.
The animation is over-the-top and silly, yes, but that’s something I liked about it. All the meme faces and laughable facial expressions were some of the most memorable standouts of its animation style. The animators took a lot of time and effort to make them as visually stunning and as cartoonishly wacky as possible, and I love it as such. The meme faces look so smooth, so fluid, and not as forced and cringeworthy as were the horrible facial expressions of the ponies from MLP: FIM season 9.
The voice acting is tremendous too. I sincerely enjoyed the vocal performances of Rosalie Chiang as Meilin Lee, Sandra Oh as Ming Lee, Wai Ching Ho as Wu, and especially James Hong as Mr. Gao. I didn’t expect him to be in this movie, but hearing his voice as Po’s dad from the Kung Fu Panda Trilogy just brought a smile on my face.
The lesson this film brings us is pretty simple yet very profound which I somewhat already highlighted at the beginning. Parents and children should always be understanding of each other, and children must learn how to be their own selves and how they can bring others happiness with their gifts and talents. If you hide what you truly are for the sake of winning someone’s approval or for the sake of maintaining your positive image, you’re gonna end up miserable for a long time. I know this because I’ve experienced it...long ago.
I can actually relate to Mei to some degree even though I’m not a girl. Opening up to your parents about how you truly feel can be very frightening because you fear that they will reject you or that they may not understand what you’re going through. If they are loving, supportive parents or guardians, OPEN up to them and let them know how you feel. That’s why these type of relationships are so important. They are there to help you, care for you, and be there with you in every step of the way no matter what. If they don’t respect you for who you are or don’t appreciate you for what you do, well...that’s on them and that’s their problem. You just do you and follow what you want to become.
Yeah, I got a little personal there. But anyway, for those of you who think it’s teaching children to rebel against parents or be disobedient to parents, please watch this movie in full context. I just can’t stand over-sensitive idiots who are blind to see what children go though in reality. Aside from that, I highly recommend this movie. Sure, it has some cringey moments like that wacky, rushed, over-the-top prologue, but it’s still fairly great. I give it a 9/10!
Peace!
I´m serious when I say that this is the funniest Pixar movie I´ve watched on a long time. I couldn´t stop laughing!
I really appreciate this movie. As a woman, it´s great seeing the willingness to talk about periods with so much naturalness and no shame in a kids´ movie. Talking about periods is something that some women still struggle with It´s also great to see such a sweet and wholesome friendship between girls this age and acting like teenagers without any shame. Teenagehood is very difficult and stable friendships are more important than ever during this time.
I also love how recently kids´ movies talk about intergenerational trauma. Sometimes parents can make mistakes but that´s because they are struggling too. By breaking the circle both children and parents can heal. But I also think this depends on the parent too, as you well said, that´s on them.
Encanto also touches this topic, have you seen it? If not, I very much recomend it.
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I’m not in a mood to check out Encanto right now. I might see it soon.
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That´s ok!
5652587
I finally got the chance to see it twice. It was pretty amazing to watch.
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Glad you liked it! If you´d like to, would you review it? I´d love to see your thoughts
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I will review it in August.
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Ok!