Turning Red

I went back and forth on the stars, and I may change it yet again to 4 1/2. This is a really, really good movie, and a large part of it is breaking Pixar’s “character gets lost and must return home” mold. Instead, we get a touching story about mothers and daughters, and growing up, and living up to expectations, and the challenges of adolescence and finding your own identity, and that awkward period in the teenage years when you feel torn between your family and friends. It sounds like a LOT of concepts, and it is. But the thing is, all these concepts intertwine, because that’s how adolescence works. Main character Mei feels like a real 13 year old girl; that short window between childlike exuberance and whimsy, and the hormonal, boy-crazy teenage years. The “curse” of the red panda seems like a stand-in for menstruation at first, but really, it’s a proxy for expectations and personal identity. Pixar has done a fantastic job bringing her and her friends to live, feeling like a real group of kids. They also very carefully and strategically don’t make Mei’s mom the antagonist; while she stands in opposition to Mei’s growth and development in the usual parental ways, she’s not evil or bad. She grew up under a microscope; she knows no other way. And she isn’t ready for Mei to leave childhood yet and over-correcting because of it, which only serves to make Mei rebel more (in a thoroughly Disney way). The way these threads intertwine and come to a head at a boy band concert is a wonderful story for kids and adults. This may the most overt that Pixar has aimed at a younger audience since … The Good Dinosaur? Cars 2? … but unlike those, this doesn’t patronize or become a toy commercial. This assumes kids will understand the feelings and concepts expressed and doesn’t dumb them down, or making concessions for the adults. If this movie has any flaw, and this is purely my taste, it’s the animation. It’s a little jerky and frenetic and overly silly. I mean, a girl who has the curse of turning into a one-ton red panda is silly, but the animation can sometimes be a little too much. Some more elegance and restraint would’ve been nice. That is literally my only nitpick with this movie. Otherwise, it’s a charming, sweet movie, and Pixar’s best in a while. Maybe since Toy Story 3? Maybe.