50 Thoughts I Had While Watching ‘Turning Red’

To be honest, I’m not sure what I first thought when I saw the title Turning Red. It sounded like an interesting movie (without reading the summary), but I also thought it was just another regular release as part of Pixar’s production cycle. Then again, my pre-thoughts are always weird without reading the summary. 

Speaking of the summary, let’s mention it before going any further.

What is Turning Red? Turning Red focuses on 13-year-old Meilin “Mei-Mei” Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), who is in the early stages of adolescence. Coming from a Chinese Canadian family, familism is strong, and Meilin is expected to make her parents and ancestors proud. Her mother, Ming Lee (Sandra Oh), tries to ensure Meilin makes all A’s and works at the family temple every day after school. Even so, Meilin attempts to explore her individuality and spend more time with her friends Miriam (Ava Morse), Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), and Abby (Hyein Park), which conflict with Ming’s interests.

Though one day while in class, Meilin randomly turns into a red panda, which serves as an allegory of bodily changes. She becomes a red panda whenever she shows strong emotions, and that discourages her from leaving the house at first. However, her three friends stand beside her and embrace Meilin’s right to explore life away from her family.

That’s the summary. Now what 50 thoughts occurred during an hour and 39 minutes of watch time? Why did I have 50 thoughts? Did I aim for 50 thoughts? No. There were no set amount of thoughts, but I think the whole list speaks for itself. Let it serve as Turning Red’s movie review.

TW: Contains spoilers. Read at your own risk if you plan on watching the movie.

1. At first glance, I thought the animation style was quite stereotypical due to being reminiscent of racist caricatures (sorry). However, after doing a little bit of background research, the animation style comes from director Domee Shi incorporating Pixar’s new animation style with anime characteristics. It is quite reminiscent of Luca (I love that movie by the way), but that’s because Pixar was starting to change their animation style anyway.
2. Those family photos are so cute but also LOL-worthy, because what’s wrong with laughing at random moments? I also recognized that the photos spanned from 1994-2002. Incredibly clever idea if you ask me.
3. “Honoring your parents sounds great, but if you take it too far, well, you might forget to honor yourself.” MOOD. Felt that.
4. Meilin really trying so hard to be hip. Girl, you’re still a minor. Pipe down and stop trying to grow up so fast.
5. What are Meilin and her friends up to on the ground? Why are they thirsting over boys? Lol, do they not have anything better to do than look at an ordinary boy in the store?
6. Okay, I get that Mei-Mei wants to be the golden child of her family. It’s rad that she works at a temple while juggling scholarly responsibilities, but she should spend time with her friends more often. Then again, her parents have high expectations for her.
7. Oof I knew it. Ming is a tiger parent who expects her daughter to be an A+ student at all times and have a very prestigious career one day.
8. Ming just said they live in Toronto. I thought that the movie took place in Canada just because her bookbag had a Canadian flag button.
9. Ahh, the cooking visuals. The ingredient-by-ingredient cooking visuals… love! A GIF alone is not enough to show how immaculate that scene is.
10. Why does Meilin draw better than me? I wouldn’t have drawn a boy as good as she did. Shoot, I need to take some art classes. I am fine at sketching, but I wish I could make such pristine art. 
11. Ming being nosy and looking at Mei-Mei’s diary… the worst of toxic perfectionism and tiger parenting is still to come. Oh lord.
12. Ming really set her daughter up for embarrassment. SMH. What kind of parent allows that to happen? The kids laughed at Meilin’s drawings and still kept laughing after Ming’s seriousness. No, my friend, parents are not always right.
13. Growing pains. Poor Mei-Mei. Her mama set her up for failure even though her mama thought she did something.
14. Those growing pains turned her into a red panda. Wow. I’m as shook as she is.
15. Oof the mention of feminine hygiene. Honestly, I love the allegory of red pandas to puberty, especially as it relates to body changes.
16. I’m already worried for Mei-Mei as her school day begins. Turning into a red panda in front of everybody would make the kids cruel.
17. Why is Ming stalking Meilin just because she forgot her menstrual pads? This is part of what I mean by tiger parenting. It’s shameful that Ming thinks she’s protecting her kid when she’s really just embarrassing her without care. Not a flex at all.
18. I feel secondhand embarrassment. Imagine turning into an animal when you least expect it. The ancestral story Ming gives about turning into a red panda confirms the correlation with puberty.
19. “I thought I had more time.” I think this is a thought many parents have had while raising their daughters. My mother didn’t tell me about my hormonal changes until I was 10, and I didn’t know about puberty beforehand.
20. Ugh, I would hate to be a red panda every time I show intense emotions. I’m sure a month is going to feel like eons for Mei-Mei. I wouldn’t want to be an outcast for even a day.
21. On the bright side, it’s nice that her three friends Priya, Miriam, and Abby stand by her. The way they started singing to cheer her up is super sweet and an awe-worthy moment.
22. How amazing is it that Meilin manages to calm herself so easily? God, I wish it were that simple. Though I can’t believe (or maybe I can believe) she lied to her parents about thinking of them while calming down. Her friends make her calm down, not her tiger parents.
23. Mei-Mei’s grandma saw her on the news in Florida? Mamma mia.
24. Mei-Mei and her friends aren’t even trying with dodgeball. Well, she didn’t get defensive until Tyler laughed at her. Although, why are they discussing a concert in the bathroom? Lol, I can’t.
25. And right when they were talking about raising money for the concert, three girls randomly fawned over red panda Meilin. And then after several other girls did the same, there came their money making strategy. It was as simple as that!
26. Omg, they have old fashioned phones. Based on the intro, it looks like the movie is set in 2002. They had those super basic phones back then. Now we have sophisticated phones that were virtually nonexistent 20 years ago.  Does anyone else remember when BlackBerry phones were all the rage? Sheesh, technology advances so fast…
27. Those kids are fawning over Meilin as a red panda now, but they’ll stop caring once she loses her transformation ability. They’ll stop flaunting red panda merch too, as it is just one of many fads they’ll take part of in their lifetime.
28. Oh I love how Mei-Mei’s friends put her in check when she wanted to hustle, hustle, hustle with the keychain making. I know her parents have ingrained that behavior into her, but really, she should take breaks more often.
29. Ming need to stop following her daughter everywhere. Parents naturally worry, but there’s a fine line between healthy worry and obsessive worry, no? She falls into the latter and it’s easy to see her as quite unlikable.
30. SCREAMING at none of the kids doing the Cha Cha Slide without Meilin as a red panda. Oh well, is she missing anything? She probably didn’t want to go to Tyler’s birthday party anyway, though she’s probably annoyed at her grandma, aunts, and cousin Lily for randomly showing up.
31. And just as she’s about to leave the house an hour late, her grandmother has to lecture her on how she’ll stay a red panda forever if Mei-Mei maintains her schtick. *sigh* 
32. And after Mei-Mei arrives to Tyler’s house as a fake red panda, the kids are unimpressed. Of course. Didn’t I tell you they’ll stop caring after she loses her ability? She hasn’t lost it yet, but peeps, this is the prelude.
33. Okay, I’m laughing at how the kids turned up after she turned into a red panda. They weren’t interested in dancing or doing anything a few minutes ago. Now they’re cheering, screaming, dancing, and riding on top of red panda Mei-Mei. This is the only time they’ll cherish her.
34. Meilin and her gang celebrate their job well done. Meanwhile, Ming is worried about her daughter’s falling grades and divergence from family expectations. I’m happy that Meilin is having fun outside of work, but her Bs and Cs are a “yikes” considering that she’s normally an A+ student.
35. Thanks to Abby mixing up the dates and location of 4*Town’s concert, it turns out that their concert date conflicts with Mei-Mei’s red moon ritual. And then on top of that, trouble starts after Mei-Mei becomes a red panda and attacks Tyler. Of course, her mother shows up like the overanalytical parent she is.
36. The disappointment Meilin feels about betraying her friends. It’s soul-crushing. And the fact her mother keeps calling the 4*Town boys a bunch of delinquents shows that she has implicit biases that need to be checked.
37. Oh right. 4 is considered an unlucky number in East Asia. No wonder why the band name doesn’t read well to Ming and the rest of the family. Shoutout to Grandma Wu for mentioning that, because I did not think about that until she mentioned it.
38. Watching Meilin’s dad be vulnerable is powerful. Ming and Grandma Wu fought over him, because there are always expectations on ideal partners. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and Ming gets her parenting style from her mother.
39. The red moon ritual looks like a sacrifice. It’s interesting to see, and I wonder what will happen after this. Will this have the desired effect or what?
40. Looks like Mei-Mei is struggling to let go of the red panda spirit. And right at the last second, she decides to let it become a permanent part of her. Her family can’t deal, but my oh my does it spark a conversation about the cons of helicopter parenting.
41. The cool thing is that she feels more liberated with her red panda power. This part would make for a great analysis about breaking tradition and deciding to make something that’s deemed negative into a positive.
42. Okay, but 4*Town is seriously reminiscent of The Backstreet Boys. Perhaps they were the inspiration for the fictional boy band (they were indeed one of the inspirations), but the white suits are a giveaway. Also, it’s weird that they’re named 4*Town despite having 5 members. Shouldn’t it be 5*Town instead?
43. Of course Ming has to ruin the fun for her daughter. The tiger parenting doesn’t stop after Ming becomes a red panda. When will she realize that trying to ingrain tradition onto Meilin has backfired?
44. The brawl between Meilin and Ming has caused Grandma Wu and the rest of the family to turn into red pandas too. Although when you least expect it, Meilin’s friends and 4*Town pitch in to save Ming. That’s so sweet.
45. But then, Ming becomes young again. Wow, she looks so different with red hair. Mei-Mei and young Ming encountering each other is so powerful, because they’ve both struggled with toxic perfectionism. It’s been instilled for generations, and a breaking point comes at one time or another.
46. Ming vanishes and now Meilin’s on her own. Well, until one of her ancestors appeared. And now it seems like she’s become a legend in her own right, flying to the moon. Ugh, that part seriously tugged on my heartstrings.
47. “Panda Apocalypse 2002” hahahaha the year the story takes place is confirmed. Doing the math, Meilin Lee was born in 1989. That means she’d be 33 years old in 2022. Imagine how adult Meilin would look and act.
48. “Mom and I just call it growing pains” I said that at the beginning of the movie. You know you’re a talented analyst when your early perceptions match up with a piece of work.
49. Wow, the temple is doing more business than ever with Mei-Mei as a red panda. Even Tyler has become friends with her and her gang. Seems like deciding to keep the red panda spirit was a smart move after all.
50. Ming really tried to find an excuse to keep her daughter inside the temple. But hey, eventually she was like, “whatever” and allowed Mei-Mei to karaoke with her friends. And then they could have dinner in the temple afterwards. Karaoke and dinner night? Yes please!
51. Bonus thought: Priya was the most relatable character in the whole movie. Most of the time, she kept a straight face and tuned into things her own way. Classic.

Closing thoughts: The interesting thing about Turning Red is that it faced controversy for its references to feminine hygiene. I have mixed feelings about that. I understand not wanting to explain puberty to kids too early. I also understand not wanting kids to think about love & relationships too early. Though on the flipside, isn’t it okay to have an animated movie dedicated to exploring adolescence? This is Disney Pixar we’re speaking about, but I don’t see the problem with them taking a slightly more mature route. It might be a hard pill to swallow given the childhood gems they’ve created, such as Cars, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. Still, their odds of making a movie as risqué as Sausage Party are virtually zero at this time.

For what it’s worth, Turning Red uniquely allegorizes red pandas with adolescence. It also makes for a valuable discussion about breaking traditional family roles. Why does Meilin accept the red panda spirit despite what her family told her? How do the Lee family dynamics mirror real life? What aspects of individualism and collectivism does Meilin embrace? How is the generational gap at play here? One could write a multi-page report for a class answering those questions. And a great one at that. 

Although the characterization relies on a few stereotypical tropes, it is very creative, well casted (Sandra Oh deserves more voice-acting gigs), and well executed. Thus, I recommend Turning Red. And bonus points for the movie being set in Canada rather than the U.S. While the U.S. contains the world’s highest immigrant population by far, the experiences of Chinese Canadians and other Asian Canadians are not spotlighted enough. There are some famous ones as we speak, including Sandra Oh and the movie’s director, Domee Shi.