Pixar somehow made a decent movie out of thisWhen I first saw the trailer for Turning Red, I was very doubtful that I was going to like this movie. It's about a teenage girl who turns into a giant red panda every time she gets emotional. There are only a few ways this scenario can be taken. After watching the movie, I do think Pixar went in the best way possible. Does that mean I enjoyed the movie? Not exactly.
There were some major problems with this movie. Most of them stem from the conflict. I don't know how they thought this movie would be a good idea. Pixar usually dominates the "family" genre because their movies are also enjoyable for adults. I don't think Turning Red hits every demographic nearly as well as Pixar's other movies. It seemed like one of those Sparkshorts, but as a full length movie. My biggest problem with this movie was only a couple lines long. The fact that they said that the more Meilin turns into a panda, the harder it will be to separate it from her. This is followed by a very long period of Meilin messing around as a panda. I'm assuming that part of the movie was supposed to be fun and show that Meilin is better off with her panda. I would have enjoyed that section of the movie if they just took that line out. I understand that they needed to have it to have something that would make Meilin hesitate to turn into a panda, but it took away my ability to enjoy the movie because I was worrying about her. The ending made me really mad because the old ladies were able to unleash their pandas, transform, and then immediately do the ritual again and get rid of them. Was that statement not even true then? Meilin's decision to keep her panda was an interesting one. The panda is supposed to be a manifestation of her strong emotions, so whenever she has a strong emotion, she transforms. This only plays a factor in a couple parts of the movie, because she "masters her emotions" pretty early on. I think the significance of the symbol is weakened when Meilin can just changed back and forth on a dime. I'm having trouble putting a finger on what exactly this movie is about. It's definitely a coming-of-age story, but it kind of jumps around between themes. I had some trouble writing this blog. Turning Red is by no means a bad movie. There are just lots of things that could have been better. Every time I try to argue against it, I think I end up leaning more towards liking it. Pixar knows what they are doing. I'd say this is probably a bottom 5 Pixar movie, but not a bottom 3. 7/10
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AuthorHigh school student who definitely knows what he's talking about. Archives
April 2022
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