Directed by Domee Shi
Written by Domee Shi and Julia Cho
Starring Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan
Rated PG for thematic material, suggestive content and language
Runtime: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Streaming on Disney+ March 11

by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring

It’s unfortunate that so many of Disney’s touted ‘diverse’ offerings have gone directly to Disney+, especially the last two Pixar features, Luca and Soul. Even more anger-inducing is Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s refusal to throw any weight toward denoucning Florida’s obscenely terrible “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Disney employs about 75,000 people in Florida, and the lack of resolve to stand against something that would harm those employees and their families is despicable. According to the Human Rights Campaign, so far this year there are “more than 266 anti-LGBTQ+ bills under consideration in state legislatures across the country.” And of those, 125 directly target transgender people. Republicans are targeting vulnerable populations as a way to shore up their base ahead of this fall’s elections, because they think that their base feels more strongly about this than those who would rather protect the rights of these groups. The fact that Disney is soft-pedaling their response to this kind of evil undermines whatever kind of ‘diverse’ content they may produce, as they are more afraid of losing money from bigots than they have the will to do the right thing. 

None of this is Domee Shi’s fault, of course, but given the timing of the release of Turning Red, it felt important to acknowledge the ways Disney is making headlines this week. Shi’s first feature film comes after her excellent short Bao, which also tells a coming of age story from a Chinese-Canadian perspective. Both stories feel deeply rooted in the Chinese-Western experience, not compromising perspective and trusting that the emotions within are universal. 

Turning Red centers on Mei (Rosalie Chiang), a 13 year old girl who discovers that—thanks to an ancestor—she turns into a gigantic red panda when she experiences intense emotions. While her friends Miriam (Ava Morse), Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), and Abby (Hyein Park) think that this makes Mei even cooler, her mother (Sandra Oh) wants her to follow family tradition and suppress the beast. While the previews gave the impression that this would be a story about how to keep one’s emotions in check as a sign of maturity, I was pleasantly surprised that the message is almost the opposite. 

Like many high performing youngsters, Mei excels at school and is a good kid, having internalized her parents’ expectations for her. While she has some social anxieties, as she is a middle schooler, most of her stress comes from following her parents’ wishes. Domee Shi and co writer Julia Cho do a great job of giving us a deep sense of who Mei is both in and out of view of her family. She is able to code switch with ease, allowing her mother’s critiques of Western culture to slide off her back even when it’s stuff that Mei and her friends enjoy. By keeping distance between her family and friends, she is able to maintain these two worlds. And it isn’t the red panda that forces these worlds to collide. Instead it’s 4*Town, a boy band. Mei and her friends want to go to the concert, but her mom doesn’t approve of these teen boys and their ‘gyrations.’ This forces Mei to figure out how to reconcile being part of a Chinese family, but feeling connected to the wider culture of the country she calls home. 

All of this is deftly portrayed with equal amounts of humor and heart. Turning Red never feels like it is punching down at its characters, but is told from a perspective that can look back and laugh at what feels like a teenage apocalypse. This extends not only to both the cultures and traditions that are central to the story, but also the other half of its central metaphor: menstruation. I’m not sure how many other PG films tackle the subject other than My Girl, but the directness of the approach here is admirable. This is something that happens to roughly half of the world’s people and yet most of what I knew about it as a young teen was from television commercials with blue liquids. It is about time we all grew up a little and made it more visible. 

Turning Red is a heartwarming comedy filled with relatable characters. In dialing into a specific experience, it gives the story a unique and fresh feeling even while treading what would otherwise be familiar territory. While Inside Out was one view of the emotions of a young female teen, Domee Shi creates a world full of feeling using a completely different approach, and this easily stands among the studio’s best work to date.