Fan Art Friday: Turning Red

Welcome to another Fan Art Friday! Today we celebrate Turning Red (2022), an animated fantasy-adventure-drama film that highlights themes as puberty, friendship, self-love, and acceptance.. It was produced by Pixar and directed by Domee Shi, a Chinese-Canadian animator, film director and screenwriter who also directed Bao. This is Pixar’s first feature film directed solely by a woman.

It stars Meilin "Mei" Lee, a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl who lives in Toronto and has a group of close friends., consisting of Miriam, Priya and Abby. They are all fans of the boy band 4*Town. At first, Mei is presented as a confident and independent girl who makes her own decisions. But then we realize that she lives under the rules of her strict and overprotective mother, Ming Lee, who constantly pressures her to be perfect, completely ignoring and discouraging her interests. Mei and Ming work to care for their Chinese family temple every day and tell visitors about their ancestors, specifically Sun Yee, a scholar who had a mystical connection with red pandas.

Mei's life changes dramatically one day when she wakes up to discover that she can transform into a giant red panda whenever she gets too excited, an ability that both she and her mother inherited from Sun Yee. Only the women of the Lee family can transform into red pandas. Throughout the film, Mei learns to control her emotions and her transformation thanks to the support of her friends; and unbeknownst to her mother, she uses this to earn money so they can go to a 4*Town concert together. At the same time, Mei prepares for the red moon ritual, where she will have to seal the spirit of her panda inside a talisman. She constantly debates who she should be: herself or the perfect daughter that her mother expects her to be.

This film stands out from others because it openly shows puberty as an important time of personal discovery, that it is normal to experience physical and emotional changes during adolescence, breaking with the taboos about menstruation. As a woman, I think it is great that Domee Shi tried to normalize the menstruation theme through a children's story, since it is a natural process that all girls go through when they reach puberty and that they will continue to experience throughout their adult life. So it is very important for them to be aware of this topic.

It also talks about generational and cultural differences between parents and children, the distancing of parents, the importance of friendship in difficult times, self-love and acceptance, the importance of learning to embrace and live with our imperfections (even with the strange and even dark sides of ourselves), breaking harmful family cycles, the fight for independence and the importance of growing and surpassing the expectations that our family has of us.

The number one rule in my family? Honor your parents. They're the supreme beings who gave you life who sweated and sacrificed so much to put a roof over your head, food on your plate, an epic amount of food. The least you can do in return is every single thing they ask. Course some people are like, Be careful. Honoring your parents sounds great, but if you take it too far, well, you might forget to honor yourself - Meilin Lee

It was wartime. The men were all gone. Sun Yee was desperate for a way to protect herself and her daughters. Then one night, during a red moon, the gods granted her wish. They gave her the ability to harness her emotions, to transform into a powerful mystical beast. She was able to fend off bandits, protect her village, and save her family from ruin. - Ming Lee

We love you Mei. Panda or no panda, no matter what. - Miriam

Sick. I've always wanted a tail. - Priya

People have all kinds of sides to them, Mei, and some sides are messy. The point isn't to push the bad stuff away. It's to... make room for it, live with it. - Jin Lee

We've all got an inner beast. We've all got a messy, loud, weird part of ourselves hidden away. And a lot of us never let it out. But I did. How about you? - Meilin Lee

Cover image: Turning Red by @Ry-Spirit