Review of Turning Red (2022) by Sg1-Robert — 12 Mar 2022

I love animated films and have absolutely no reservations about family films. Turning Red is now one of my favorite films from this area and now shares here purely with Zoomania and How to train your dragon.

It is clear that the film was made by women for women. With the focus on teenage girls and mothers dealing with the generational conflicts with their mother and their teenage children. The leadership of the production team consisted of four women, here and there a look more from the point of view of a man would certainly not have harmed the film, but it's OK.

More than that. In many negative reviews, the female point of view is punished with zero stars and implied with the reasoning that a girls-only movie should not come from Disney/Pixars or in 2022 sexual development should not be touched upon . But hey, at least in Europe sexual education is already much deeper in elementary school - Not to mention at 13 years old in high school. Maybe one or the other is still a bit prudish here. That being said, with all the predominantly male films, it's also OK to have another boost for films from the female point of view. And if you're a little open-minded and like animated films and/or family films in general, you'll enjoy this film as a male as well.

I also engage with the technology and creativity in movies/games and can see this film's own animation style. The director describes it as omarge to the 90's and 2000's animated series and comics and it often looks like that. It's definitely not a throwback, it's a comic book or cartoony animated film and that's totally OK too. You just have to get into it and not expect photorealism or smooth movements.

The film is about a Canadian girl with Chinese roots. Unlike Mulan, I can't see any consideration for Chinese politics here. It just happens to be a girl with immigrants from China and otherwise it would not work with the story. The film is definitely predominantly Western.

In the end, I'm left with a film whose ending could have been a bit stronger and where a look more from a male point of view certainly wouldn't have hurt. But neither of those two points really pulls the film down, at least not for me.

On the positive side are 91min with a crisply told story without dragging everything out unnecessarily, a successful and consistently persistent animation style, a musical score which carries you through the story from beginning to end, and a modern humor which takes the sometimes difficult seeming puberty and generational conflicts yet again simple and direct.