PixMix Episode 29: Turning Red

In this episode of PixMix, Arun and Patricia discuss about the 2022 Pixar film Turning Red directed by Domee Shi, making her the first solo female director since Brenda Chapman's co-directed Brave back in 2012. The film takes place in 2002 where a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl named Meilin Lee who is going through the struggles of trying to please her strict mother Ming, yet trying to being herself with her friends Miriam, Priya, and Abby, especially with their favorite boy band 4Town. One morning, she wakes up and finds herself transformed into a giant red panda whenever she has strong emotions. Meilin must make the decision on whether to take her family's advice and remove the red panda or her friends' advice and embrace it.   When the film was released on Disney+, it made $2.5 million dollars on its opening weekend and became the #1 premiere film globally receiving positive reviews from critics calling it "ambitious", "unique", and "risk taking" with its metaphors of puberty. However, similar to Domee Shi's short Bao, it became controversial with animation critics, Disney and Pixar fans, and Christian parents calling it "inappropriate", teaching kids to disobey their parents, limited with its universal appeal, "Cal-Arts" art style, and feeling “out of place" compared to other Pixar films. What did Arun and Patricia think of the film? Listen and find out.