ANI-MOVIES, *Turning Red

Pixar's latest edition might have secretly a tribute to 90s anime, but Turning Red was directed by Domee Shi who also did the Oscar-winning short Bao has gone on record stating that this her first full-length project was in fact modeled after anime like Ranma 1/2. There is also a huge influence to the works of Studio Ghibli in the overall layout specifically with the character designs. The emphasis was more on growing into puberty with a supernatural fantasy twist.

Set in the distant past of 2002, Mei helps run her family's temple in Canada while maintaining the top student standards that her fussy mother Ming. Despite her seemingly maintaining her strong status, Mei is going through changes in more ways than one as she wakes up as a giant red panda, which by the way is not a bear. Ming explains that the women in their family were descended from a empress who was given the power to change into a monstrous panda to protect her people, a power that she Mei inherits based on her emotions. When Mei gets anxious or worked up, a plume of smoke literally morphs her into beast mode, while being calm and happy helps her change back with the benefit of not losing her clothes when she transforms back, even though she now has red hair. Mei gets moral support from her trio of friends, all of which pine after a boy band that they use Mei's new ability to raise money to see in concert by having Mei's panda form available for photoshoots with her schoolmates, even though they never explain where they got the initial money to pay for the panda-themed merchandise they sell. Ming, her mother Wu, along with all of her sisters all got through the panda curse by sealing it away in their own talisman, and Mei has until the next red moon to contain her condition. Unfortunately, this is the exact same night as the concert, and Mei is convinced that her panda curse is something that makes her life better giving her a newfound strength and maturity, so she ditches her family's ceremony to join her friends at the concert. This makes Ming mad to the point that her talisman breaks causing her to transform into a tremendous kaiju red panda that starts rampaging through down searching for her daughter. Mei and the rest of her family are able to subdue Ming by reverting back to their own panda forms. All the women gain back their humanity by getting new talismans, but Mei decides to keep her red panda powers to act as the mascot for her family's temple. You would think that the Canadian government would be knocking Mei's door down to join Alpha Flight, but the outside world seems to except a girl that can morph into panda as part of everyday life.

Turning Red is a refreshing view of the trials teenagers face with puberty in a better way than Ghibli's Only Yesterday did during its flashback scenes. Pixar's style goes through a major revision by making this an anime-themed feature, even though it focuses on a Chinese family and not Japanese. It might be one of the more "PG-rated" Pixar productions, but it handles the subjects of representation and family traditions in a brand new light.