Alerte rouge

Greetings again from the darkness. If only the transformation brought on by puberty were half as soft and cuddly as the giant Red Panda in this latest from Pixar, imagine the reduction in slammed doors and the increase in dinner table conversations between parents and young teenagers. Writer-director Domee Shi won an Oscar for her excellent animated short film BAO (2018), and has collaborated with co-writer Julia Cho for the director's first feature. It seems reasonable to assume that much of what we see on screen is taken from their own adolescent experiences, as well as those of countless others.

Meilin (voiced by Rosalie Chiang) is a 13-year-old 8th grader who fancies herself as a free-spirited teenager basking in her independence. However, the real story is that she's a straight-A student obediently following the highly structured life constructed by her mother. Mei's responsibilities include helping her mother clean the temple the family manages ... the oldest temple in Toronto. It not only serves the local Chinese community by paying homage to the Gods, but it also holds a sacred place for Mei's ancestors. Mei's mother keeps her so duty-bound, that she's unable to find time to karaoke with her friends.

One morning, after a particularly vivid and emotional dream, Mei is transformed into a giant Red Panda ... well she pops in and out of Panda state. Her mother Ming (Sandra Oh) quickly reacts assuming her daughter's "change" is the beginning of a menstrual cycle. But things change drastically when Ming finds out about the Red Panda. Her family has considered this a spell from the Gods, one that has followed the women for multiple generations. Mei discovers this when her grandmother and a slew of Aunts show up for the Red Moon ritual - the only way to rid Mei of the Red Panda.

Mei soon realizes her emotional outbursts are what cause the transformation. When she's overly excited or agitated, the Red Panda appears. It's mostly when she's calm and at ease around her friends that she's her 'normal' self. In fact, the friendships are the key to this story. Miriam (Ava Morse), Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), and Abby (Hyein Park) immediately rally to Mei's defense and accept these startling changes. They even find a way to use it to their advantage, focusing on an upcoming concert by 4-Town, a 5 member (yep) boy band that the girls are gaga about. The music for 4-Town is co-written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell, and is humorously in line with what we'd expect (and remember) from a 2002 boy band.

We watch as Mei struggles with the emotional rollercoaster that brings out the Red Panda. It's refreshing to see such a portrait of friendship, and also acknowledge that overbearing parents can cause stress, no matter how caring they might be. Mei learns that by letting go of the perfect kid syndrome and wallowing in her messy self, she can truly discover who she is as a young person. It's a Pixar movie, so we fully expect life lessons and psychology to play a role. And that's also part of the problem here. Being a Pixar film means you get compared to other Pixar films, and that's a crazy high standard. This one doesn't come close to the best work from the studio, although we welcome the rare look at female adolescence and friendship, as well as the impact a mother-daughter relationship can have on multiple generations.

Available exclusively on Disney+ beginning March 11, 2022.

'Turning Red' (2022)

Opening thoughts: Pixar is one of the finest animation studios to exist and one of the few studios today for anything to continually deliver. Sure they did become less consistent post-'Toy Story 3', but in the 90s and 2000s their work was of higher quality than Disney's generally and hit more than it missed. Pre-'Toy Story 3', the one slight disappointment was 'Cars', the others are very good to brilliant and even their lesser work is still watchable.

'Turning Red' appealed to me immediately when looking for things to watch when on a three week cruise last year where there was a lot of film and television watching in the evenings and on the at sea days. Really liked the concept, unique for Pixar, and the message. 'Turning Red' is not one of Pixar's best films and can understand why people had issues regarding its target audience (admittedly not as accessible as other films from the studio), but it is still very good with relatable themes handled with fun and emotion and one of the better films seen on the cruise.

Bad things: Some of the awkwardness is a little too overkill in the humour, especially between the four friends early on.

Also felt that the darker tone seen at the concert, where the mother in red panda form was reminiscent of something like 'Jurassic Park' or Godzilla, clashed a bit too much with the rest of the film.

Good things: However, there is so much to praise. The animation, as per usual, is stunning. Absolutely loved the vivid colours and the very rich attention to detail in the character animation. The character animation on the panda and the background art and visual effects at the end standing out. The music really enhances the story's wild energy, and "Nobody Like You" sticks in the memory for a long time.

Did also really enjoy the writing on the whole. The humour is sharp, hip and witty, of course there are awkward spots but that was hardly uncommon in adolescence (a lot of it actually at my school) and how adolescent children acted and still do. The cool geekiness of the four main characters took me back, being somewhat a geek myself and it stood out in both a good and bad way, and adolescence and the mature themes are depicted entertainingly and with heart. The atmosphere didn't feel out of date and was affectionately handled, some may have issues with some of the characters' negative actions, but the film isn't encouraging anybody to do them, just showing that they do happen, and in a realistic way.

Loved the story's wild energy and often infectious wackiness. Also how inventively the culture of the family was shown, in a way that was intriguing and expansive. Having never seen a family backstory like this before, so it felt fresh and original. The mother and daughter relationship was beautifully realised and realistic, both points of view understandable and not hard to relate to.

A great job is done with the emotional side of the film, especially in the truly heart-wrenchingly powerful climax. And with the message, one that was brave to tackle and also one that is universal and relatable. Luckily delivered in those ways here and not heavy handedly. The friendships and outcome warm the heart. The characters are strongly written and the voice acting is top notch, particularly Sandra Oh.

Closing thoughts: Overall, not one of Pixar's best and not for all but very good and hardly a waste of the studio's most unique concept.

8/10.

The idea, the metaphor is not bad, coming of age or rather turning red (and honor your parents but stay yourself). Pixar production and graphics as good as ever. What is missing in the latest productions, in my opinion, is the genius of Pixar. They seem closer and closer to a typical Disney production, beautiful and musical but not brilliant.

This decline, I fear, may be due to an excess of production wanted by the Disney company, and I understand it but, there is a big difference between a tailor's shop and an industrial distribution of clothing.

Although I am an adult (and perhaps for this reason), I loved Pixar because in the past its target has never been solely that of children, they have included adults. Outstanding Pixar movies like "Wall-e", "Up", "Inside / Out", "Coco", "Finding Nemo" and Dory, also "Soul", even more than the still wonderful "The Incredibles", "Toy Story", "Ratatouille" , "Cars" etc. They bring with them messages, often moving, that do not concern only our children but also adults. Indeed, some messages are not immediately understandable by a very child / adolescent audience but they leave the fun to them anyway. In fact liked these movies as much as my son did.

This latest movie as well as "Brave", to a lesser extent also "Luca", show a slight flattening to Disney standards which I'm not saying are bad but they lack that typical modern tell and sneaky, Pixar genius.

It's 2002 Toronto. Meilin is a 13 year-old Chinese-Canadian girl on the verge of adulthood. Her family cares for their temple honorable their ancestor who turned into a red panda to defend her family. One morning, she wakes up to find herself transformed into a red panda.

This is a coming-of-age story from Pixar. It's fun. I love the characters. There is a realism in these characters. They feel very authentic. Aside from the supernatural, this is really a story of a girl trying to find her way through puberty and dealing with her mother-daughter relationship. There are no big name actors other than Sandra Oh which does give this a feeling of non-Hollywood. The Toronto locations are also part of that. This has plenty of fun while dealing with some real tween issues.

There's a reason this movie is a PG and not a U! Everyone having a little turn because a 13 year old girl is given some maxi pads and has crushes on boys - it's not woke, it's reality.

And if you have a problem with characters wearing turbans/hijabs, then I really think you need to look deep inside yourself!

This movie doesn't feel like a Disney/Pixar because it's cringey and has anime elements - but it's still fun, and my 10 and 8 year old boys had no problem at all with seeing sanitary protection because guess what, they see it in our bathroom every day!