Turning Red is a coming-of-age story about 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian Mei Lee who transforms into a giant red panda when overcome with emotion. Although the film is suitable for children as young as 6 years old, many (American) parents are concerned that their children are exposed to ‘uncomfortable’ subjects while watching the film. For example, Mei’s mother (Sandra Oh) runs into the bathroom with a stack of sanitary towels when her daughter refuses to come out after she is transformed into the panda for the first time, a clear metaphor for the just-erupted puberty and not done according to some parents.
Both on Twitter and on the review website Rotten Tomatoes, where Turning Red has an almost perfect score of 95 percent, a discussion broke out. Critical parents, for example, called the film “very concerning” because it “touches up topics that are inappropriate and sensitive to many of its very young audience.” Someone even wrote, “Let children be children and let parents deal with growing up.”
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Director Domee Shi previously spoke to the media about the film, saying that the inspiration came from her own experiences growing up in the early 2000s. “I was my mother’s sweet little girl, and then – boom – puberty hit, and I was bigger, hairier and hungry all the time,” Domee said. “I was a hormonal mess and I was fighting every other day with my mother. Making this film was my chance to go back to that time and understand and dig up what happened there.”
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Producer Lindsey Collins previously gave a similar answer. “Everyone on the crew encouraged us to have these conversations about periods and other moments in the lives of young girls,” she told the website. Polygon† “The hope is that people will feel a little bit of embarrassment as well as laugh and see it as something completely normal.”
Turning Red is now streaming on Disney+, where the hit Charm is visible. The film with songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda focuses on Latin culture.
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