Cinema #84: Turning Red Review

Hey There!

Hope life is treating you well! I finished Turning Red today and I want to tell you about it! If you aren’t in the know, Turning Red is an animated film, which is about a girl named Mei coming of age and dealing with a more unique set of growing pains then others. There is a possibility of Spoilers with this post, so read farther only if you’ve already seen the film.

I really really enjoyed this film. The nostalgia it reminded me of, along with the feeling you get when you are seen and heard was honestly wild. I felt like Mei was telling me a story, that I myself had experienced. I definitely had an entire fanfiction era, and I definitely had crushes on people who didn’t really make sense. Especially in the days of Nsync and Backstreet Boys.

Mei has just turned 13 and has some pretty interesting growing pains. She comes to the realization that a red panda curse runs in her family. When a girl comes of age, she turns into a red Panda whenever she experiences heavy emotions, but with a special ceremony she can keep it locked up forever.

With the panda appearing anytime she has heavy emotions, she can’t be in her own room, or go to school until she gets her emotions under control, thankfully she has some boss ass best friends that help her find her center. Maggie, Abby, and Priya. Priya was personally my favorite character, because I definitely wanted to be a vampire back in the day and the correlations were almost too much for me.

The girls favorite band, 4town (who for some reason contains 5 members) is coming to town, and the girls beg for tickets from their parents. After being rejected they decide to use her Panda to make enough money to go to the concert.

One of my favorite things about this film was the utter ( I know what you mean) feeling of nostalgia I received while watching it. Having strict parents, and being the oldest, having to do certain things in order to get the freedoms that other children had, man it hit me in the feels! I just hadn’t felt so seen before, even though there aren’t any characters in the film that look like me.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film and recommend it to everyone regardless of age, gender, or race. I love the direction animated films are taking within the last few years, representation is so important, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Have you seen Turning Red? Let’s talk about it!

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