Turning Red (2022)
★★½ — Turning Red (2022)
Turning Red (2022) is a perfectly fine Pixar film. Pleasant, colourful, and well-intentioned, but ultimately forgettable. Set in early-2000s Toronto, it follows Mei, a bright, overachieving 13-year-old who suddenly transforms into a giant red panda whenever she gets emotional. A metaphor for puberty, cultural expectation, and the chaos of adolescence. The animation is vibrant, the setting refreshingly specific, and the voice cast (especially Rosalie Chiang as Mei) full of energetic charm. There are laughs, heart-to-hearts, and a few genuinely sweet moments about mother-daughter bonds. But for all its surface appeal, Turning Red never quite rises above “okay.” The story follows a familiar coming-of-age arc without adding much new: rebellion, embarrassment, self-acceptance, reconciliation. The emotional beats land softly, but rarely deeply. And while the film celebrates Chinese-Canadian culture with warmth and detail (from dumpling-making to boy band mania) it sometimes leans on broad comedy that undercuts its authenticity. The supporting friends are fun but thinly sketched, and the central conflict resolves with surprising ease. It’s also tonally uneven, swinging between zany slapstick and sincere family drama without always bridging the two. Compared to Pixar’s best (Inside Out, Coco), it feels lightweight, more like a TV special stretched to feature length than a cinematic revelation. Turning Red isn’t bad, it’s just not special. It’s cute, harmless, and occasionally funny, but lacks the emotional depth, narrative originality, or visual daring we’ve come to expect from Pixar. Watch it with your kids or for nostalgia, but don’t expect it to linger in your heart.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2022 | Watched: 2026-04-20
