Turning Red - Is It Good or Nah? (Pixar Review)
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- Опубліковано 12 бер 2022
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Schaff watches Turning Red, to mixed results.
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In addition to being mostly very courteous and respectful, this comment section is super illuminating; I knew some people would probably relate to the stuff with Mei's mother but I didn't think THIS MANY people would (I'm honestly sorry you had to deal with that growing up). This is kinda what I was talking about at the end of the video; I think hearing perspectives on the movie from people who see themselves in it and know it's realistic is way more interesting than hearing mine. I have no frame of reference for the sheer extent of Ming's helicopter parenting, whether it be from my own parents or from hearing about friends' parents, so I found it unrealistic. I never would've known how realistic it truly was until your comments enlightened me, so I appreciate that the movie depicts something incredibly identifiable to a lot of people. I wouldn't change my score based on this knowledge but it does enhance this aspect of the movie I previously took a lot more issue with.
As for the red panda = periods metaphor, yeah you're right, they probably weren't going for that. I'll unabashedly take the L for that misread.
I respect your opinion
Thanks for this! It's nice to see you engaging with it all and it solidifies my sneaking suspicion that you're a good dude (even if you had a questionable take on this). And your scores not an issue, 5/10 seems fair and hey, even if I didn't think so, it's not my place to "correct" your overall scoring.
James can you review this movie called "fireheart"
I feel like the metaphor might have been about periods and puberty. I think I read that somewhere but I haven’t checked so if someone would like to correct me, feel free to.
Wasn't ur fault, u just didn't experience the same type of parenting, it's great you saw insight after reading comments tho.
"woman who's a lunatic with absolutely no self awareness" is spot on description for so many asian mums in my experience. bro that convenience store scene hit TOO FUCKING CLOSE to home it was like a tangible sucker punch to the gut. and the way mei screamed and repressed it after broke me. this is legit our reality. the amount of asian parents that have an absurd lack of self awareness is painfully more common than u realise.
even so it was so fun seeing ur perspective and like understanding the significant differences of our cultures. give everyone in the comment section hugs.
Yeah, my dad totally would have acted that and he's white, so it was FULLY believable to me lol
@@missybarbour6885 oh same my dad legit went "of anyone hurt you or your sister I'd be put in prison for murder." Gotta love dads 😂
Yeah to say that was unrealistic while I was over here completely relating to it, seemed out of touch.
Omg me too, i am latina and I think this ilustrated to good how a overprotective parent - who doesnt listen to their children and thinks that knows better - behaves. I watch this with my family and every 5 min we were like “yeah this is Mami”
Not only Asian. I'm from Mexico and Mei's mother is a combination of both of my parents... 😖😑😒
I feel like a lot of people are also missing the fact that while this is about puberty, it’s also about not burying your emotions. The mom having such a big panda is literally showing her repressed rage all coming out in a negative way.
It’s still overly contrived and odd with certain scenes, but it does have its moments
@@6n100-ent true
The problem being that because the mother is such an asshole. I don't care that she has repressed feelings. If anything it should be the opposite, where she is made to feel small and weak. Rather than them having to try and talk her down like she's not the one in the wrong.
Didn't even go to jail in the end.
@@lProN00bl true it didn’t really make sense like I know that if I felt scared to show any emotion whatsoever it would make me feel weak and scared
That’s cool. 70 other movies have done it better 100 times better. Simple
"This woman is a lunatic with no self awareness"
Yes, that was the point, this is a lot more accurate than you would think
*_Karens have entered the chat_*
i swear every asian mother is the same, i'm indian and watching this movie made me lose my MINDDDDDDD it hit WAY too close to home
my european mom was far more strict than this one. she didn't even get mad when her daughter trashed the house. im also not understand how people think strict equals not loving. its the opposite.
Sure, but holy shit did they have to make her that fucking crazy?
@@ishroop5318 And Jewish mothers.
It genuinely never occurred to me that people wouldn't recognise the overbearing and protective nature that Mei's mother has. Like that is one of the elements that I felt was the most grounded and relatable to me. I never realised how people could just never see their parents or any parents being like that
I envy those people.
@@juststatedtheobvious9633 sadly, I do too
it’s typical asian parent
Yeah, I’ve never seen someone like that, but I found it really entertaining.
Yeah he's like "her moms actions were way too crazy no one does that" clearly you've. Never had an overbearing mom jfc
Like I can't be on a different floor of the house from my mom :// people are like that and it's kind of insane that there are people who genuinely haven't met people like this???
I think Turning Red was aggressively preteen-girl-y, which is a reason a lot of people didn’t really like it, but also why i really really liked it! Theres not a lot of media with characters out there like this… Mei felt like me as a thirteen year old, not airbrushed over to be more mature and rational and idealistic like so many other movies! Her personality is so genuine and her reactions to things are so raw and maybe objectively a bit stupid (just like a kid) its so great.
Agreed. Kinda wish this movie had been around when I was in the 12-15 age range. I can see myself really loving it/it being extremely relatable
I agree. I was a lot like her as a kid, too and had a mother who cared a lot but could be a bit overprotective sometimes and put pressure on me to succeed in school, while sometimes babying me, too. Her mother, Ming, wasn't unrealistic at all, and that may be one of the elements I like. It's ironic that she dealt with pressure from her own mother yet still ended up making the same mistakes with her own daughter out of fear of the thing that happened to her happening to Mei. I also like how she not a villain, either. She's a classic case of a helicopter parent thinking she is doing the right thing and what is best for her daughter even though she is only making things worse and more embarrassing for her child at the beginning of the movie. This movie did better what Brave tried to do but went south with. It had a conflict between the mother and daughter set up and solved it rather nicely at the end.
I can agree with this statement. The film had such an early 2000s feel to it that I loved. I mean, the fact they have Tomogachis, the group 4*town sounding almost exactly like N*Sync, it was really cool. I also liked the panda representing puberty and one’s true self since I resonate with it so well. Plus, it can be really damn funny.
Consider that Tween movies have been gone for a while, it's refreshing for Turning Red to come out.
Exactlyyyyyy!!! This is a movie _for_ preteen girls so that's the point! (side note: this is also why I loved the Awooga scene. Teen girls don't just coquettishly giggle at boys they like. Yes, we do go Awooga)
“Just because this one cool thing, that’s when people like her?” Yes. That’s how middle schoolers work.
Exactly
I don't think he knows how middle schoolers works, they are very simple. This one is a flop tbh he could have done more research instead of calling characters "too cartoonish" even though they are not. Just comes off ignorant to me.
LITERALLY!
Middle Schoolers are vicious
If you can do one cool thing, they will milk it till they’re bored with you or you refuse to do it anymore.
And after that, they know exactly how to rip out your soul.
In the words of John Mulaney,”13 year olds will insult you in an accurate way”
Still a boring movie
4:05 Fun fact: this scene was actually based off a real life experience the director had with her own mother where her mother was watching her through a school window in a big goofy hat and sunglasses, so maybe not as cartoonishly unrealistic of a scene as you may think
i remember my dad spying on me in 1st grade from the school window thank god my mom divorce him💀💀
@@111mazzystar i'm sorry, that sounds awful.
damnnnn
@@111mazzystar oh my god bro😭😭
The trick is that something being real does not mean it's realistic.
Dude, my mom wouldn't even let me turn on the air conditioner in our house because she was genuinely convinced I would do it wrong and it would "explode and kill" me. Some parents are lunatics. It's perfectly realistic. Lmao.
Honestly Schaff, my best friend is Asian and she says that her mother is EXACTLY as overbearing, overprotective and controlling as Mei’s mother. Not saying all Asian moms are like this, but there is a lot of truth within the character itself in her lack of tactfulness.
That said, even if this film isn’t a masterpiece, I still want more female directors behind the chair at Pixar. The fact it took them 27 years to do it without firing them (Brave) is insulting and I hope there will be more of them.
Even as someone who was... fine with Brave, at least I liked it... yeah Pixar not having a single female director for 25 films, 27 years, 2 changes in ownership, and a whole firing of a great director... it feels kinda shitty.
Meh, at least we got a decent director in the end. She seems to have had a lot of fun directing Turning Red. Hopefully she can work on another project.
ua-cam.com/video/BrH9f-IWwlo/v-deo.html
*Ходімо finally*
Brave is not the worst movie on earth but you can tell Brenda being fired from the project killed the film overall.
That’s all I’m saying. At least they did this woman a courtesy by actually letting her finish the movie.
And she’s awesome. I hope she’ll be back for more films down the line.
This film was garbage. Sandra Oh was the only good thing about this trash.
Agreed. A bit exaggerated, but that's what asian mom would do.
'theres no stakes' for a 13 year old girl, this IS stakes. They wrote her beautifully
Edit: to clarify, stakes is the double life, the 4Town concert (mostly) all of it. It's great
Exactly! I had never seen such a good representation of how important /everything/ feels when you are that age, even if looking back it might seem silly.
I sometimes have a hard time connecting to "we have to save the world" stories because... I've never had to save the world. But having to hide something from your mom? I've done that. I KNOW those stakes. Getting caught by my parents was the scariest thing I had to deal with at 13. I remember literally crying when I realized the midnight movie release my friends and I wanted to go to was actually during the week I was at summer camp, so the concert deadline made total sense too. This movie, for all its mystical animal transformations, had some of the realest stakes I've ever seen.
Trueeeee
I am a 13 year old girl (14 in a few months!) And although I would never admit it anywhere else this is exactly how it feels. I also loved when she first became a red panda she started yelling at her mom among other things. That's growing up
Fr
It’s safe to say this movie wasn’t made for you, Schaff. That’s why you’re not connecting with it. Asian Americans, tweens, people with helicopter moms, women. We see ourselves in this so much it’s deeply effective. Of course you can have your opinion but please know this is an incredible realistic take on a lot of things tween girls go through, right down to the “cringey drawings of the crush”
This is the dumbest movie I’ve ever seen
@@scalyboi8918 everyone's past was dumb
@@swarshakamra6826 this movie was even dumber
@@scalyboi8918 i bet you are a 13 yo boy.
@@AA-cf4es try again pal
ofc it doesn’t feel low stakes for you bc you’re not a 13 year old girl. it’s high stakes for mei because her and her mom’s relationships are her whole world. her mom approval matters so much to her, and her not accepting her or knowing that she’s not her “perfect little meimei” is so important to her. it’s high stakes to her and her friends
I mean I would still argue it’s a low stakes movie the same way Luca is. He just liked Luca way more
Yeah, I like Schaff, but come on, no murder attempt = no stake? I was feeling very anxious for Mei to get to see the concert. I was worried for her friendships with her besties to be ruined, or for the Panda to lose control. I wanted her to be free of the internalized trauma of her mother's abusive behaviors. These were engaging dramatic elements for me.
Or maybe because he’s a sociopath? Idk I’m a dude but embarrassment and strict parents that I clashed with, was a very common thing for me
@@dilluwengillpran8147 I shit myself when the mom went to the shop, the embarrassment 😔
It's a boring movie. Simple as that.
They said "stripper" "sexy" and "drugs" in this Pixar movie intended for children, so it's a good one in my book
Lol
The "stripper" part took me by surprise. This movie really earned the PG rating.
Didn't they also say "crap" like two times?
8 minutes with 150 likes, good job
This Movie is more raunchy than any normal Pixar movie, and I mean is it any suprise we literally had a guy getting turned to ribbons in Incredibles and Hopper gettimg eaten alive in Bugs Life
I love that people in schaff's comment section sometimes talk about their own opinions and why they liked the movie, it gives a different perspective into how not every movie review channel has a legion of mindless "yes" zombies
Also the fact that most people are being respectful (at least from what I've seen) which is really good.
Schaff's opinions tend to be less popular, or at least not align perfectly with my opinions. Though I enjoy watching his videos anyway because he makes great points and explains himself very well. Also, he's pretty funny.
Yes I agree with this comment
I don't want to read the comments on reviews where people think the movie's calarts.
This is the ideal comment section imo.
I like how from anyone else perspective Mei's mom is insane but to Asians she's the most realistic Mother in any kind of animated media I've ever seen.
Also the scene in which Mei's mom fights with the store clerk due to Mei's fantasies is wayyy more realistic than you think.
Tbh This movie was painful to get through due to its accuracy
It’s interesting how you mention that these are all ideas you’ve seen before, and that this movie doesn’t do anything "new" with the ideas. But, to many Asian immigrants, including myself, this movie is EXACTLY the NEW way we’ve wanted these kinds of stories told onscreen. Even though it doesn’t explore inter generational trauma with as much depth/nuance as Encanto, the writing is actually incredibly nuanced in the way Mei communicates about her own desires in veiled ways so as to protect her mum from truly knowing what those desires are. Even though the exploration of the topic isn’t super deep, the portrayal of the experiences gives us as an audience that depth we are looking for.
Yeah his review is garbage
So it’s new because it’s about asians?… Yeah, besides your racial status, mate, it’s nothing new.
@@omfg8465 its a new perspective. i dont think you really took the time to understand what they wrote here. cultural perspectives on previously established ideas are very capable of being new and refreshing, especially considering how the family values of many cultures are vastly different than one another.
Even more hilarious is the fact that as a Colombian, I could relate to Mei and her character and family situation much better than with the Encanto girl. That movie just felt like cheap pandering with perhaps a few good things here and there, while Turning Red definitely felt like a real passion project. I don’t know, I really disagree with this review.
@@iliasbee It actually isn’t an original idea. The person who came up with the idea for this movie even rehashed the theme from the short she wrote for Pixar a few years earlier. I think whoever made this movie just ran out of creative juice. How do I know? The Kaiju battle at the end of the movie says everything it needs to. Let’s get some new, fun ideas next time Pixar!
as a certified asian child, i can say that the part where the mom showed people Mei's drawings really hits home. (since it happened to me as well)
edit: movies exaggerate stuff for comedic effect, but from personal life experience, i feel like the conflict between parent and child was actually toned down... a lot.
i saw that with Encanto as well, with abuelas apologie being accepted right, i mean, disney doesnt release movies longer than 90 minutes so its probably hard to go into depth about these things, but even then i think they talked about it really well
This movie unearthed repressed memories of cautiously exploring my budding attraction to people through drawing, and then having my parents drag it out into the open in a horrifying embarrassing display.
I have a feeling this movie is only going to be for people who grew up with mothers like this.
I have both japanese and peruvian family as well, so I can fully understand the abuelas and the mother of Mei mei
And both are clear and accurate as real life can get
Holy Shit Ultra Jason!? I honestly didn’t expect you to be in Schaffrillas Production’s comment section at all. Hello btw!
To be honest, the characters are not the problem or the reason why I don’t like it. It’s just the target theme and target audience that just doesn’t make it right.
honestly, i really appreciate how this movie is just.. unabashedly about weird teenage girls. i'm so sick of seeing girls in movies be shoved into one overused simplified trope after another: lovable tomboyish side-main character, kinda girly needs to be rescued at least a few times character, can kick your ass in high heels character (yes, i'm sick of that, too. nobody can kick ass in high heels). so the fact that this movie was unforgivingly, _unashamedly_ about just.. regular, weird teenage girls who go through puberty and go to boy bands and have _realistic_ parent issues was just.. so, so, so refreshing
edit: ok so since a few replies mentioned it let me clarify: obviously there are some people who can kick ass in heels, i exaggerated my wording. i was mostly referring to when directors tried to get women to do "girl power, but with heels!" scenes that ended up with serious accidents because it is _so_ hard sticking a landing with stilts, and it's usually dangerous either way
the main reason i didnt like the movie was also the main reason it was good; it was super awkward.
I may disagree your opinion, But I can see that.
I can kick ass in high heels. Used to wear 8'' stripper heels around because I was insecure about my height and got pretty good at incoporating my tomboy hobbies with those things. Just because you can't kick ass in high heels...
@S V I thought that too. But then I saw the movie was set in 2002 and I didn't think it was that bad. 2002 was when girls were crazy about boy bands. It would he way worse if it was present day
@@christopherkaiser8369 Yeah, because present day girls aren't totally obsessed with, say, K-POP boybands. Nooo, definitely not. That would be craaaaaazy.
“how cartoonishly overbearing she was” I wish I thought the same thing when comparing her to my own mother. The scene at the store was so similar to something my mom actually did. It was actually painful to watch 😳
When I heard you say the scene with Mei and her dad was contrived as hell, I literally turned my head up. I've had an extremely similar situation happen to me with my parents. I once had a huge argument with my mum about going to a sleepover with my friends. My dad silently listened while we were both going at it, and I went into my room and cried my eyes out. He later came in and apologised to me about my mum, saying he doesn't know why she's like that sometimes. A lot of Asian dad's don't really know how to handle situations like these and often stay out of it, since they don't want to seem like they're taking sides. But I'm sure a lot of them do observe and understand the amount of pain and struggle their kids go though, and even though they may be awkward and not used to showing emotion, they still do their best to talk to us.
I was watching this scene with my entire family and was holding back tears during a lot of scenes. Never in my life have I seen a film hit the nail on the head with these specific problems. Having a big American company like Pixar actually represent families like this is so important.
Honestly I think viewing that scene as contrived really shows how taken out of the movie Schaff was. Like I was too busy emotionally resonating with the movie to analyze whether it was a contrivance or not. Not that my brain is empty when I'm watching a movie, far from it, but I was more focused on how relatable the movie was as a child of an immigrant rather than "plot contrivances"
I'm not even Asian, I'm from Latin America and the way that Mei's mother was portrayed was extremely accurate to what moms act like with a female only/older child when they're at that age. My mom also spied on me, called my friends's mothers when something happened to me, or when I was upset with them, to fix stuff for me, she was very overprotective, to the point I started lying and hiding stuff from her and rebelling. I think the red panda is less about periods and puberty, and more about that rebellious phase you have to go through to stop being so dependent on your parents and break free from their expectations and that idealized image they may have of you. It was predictable but very enjoyable.
That scene in the bamboo forest made me ugly cry. Yes, Encanto definitely explored generational trauma better and it's an overall better movie, but, Turning Red just spoke to me more. Probably because I relate to the relationship Mei had with her mother. It's the same relationship I have with my mom. Maybe if you have gone through a similar experience with your parents this movie will speak to you more. Or maybe not. Everyone has a way of enjoying things and no one should dictate whether you should or shouldn't like a product, opinions are valid.
i completely agree with you! i think it touched on another aspect of generational trauma [if compared with encanto]. encanto really focused on the effects of trauma on a whole family but here, with turning red, it was way more focused on trauma passed down from mothers to daughters. the panda aspect really isn't about puberty or periods if you look closely enough: it's about growing into your own person and discovering your true personality [after being what others wanted you to be]. it was a beautiful film and just like you said, it rang truer to me than encanto [i am a woc and although i did relate to most of the stuff discussed in encanto, it just didn't hit as hard].
Omg yes sameee
Yeah I'll second this, I'm white as hell but shared a house with a really close friend who's mother, upon hearing id rent a room from my friend, moved home to "keep an eye on us", also should mention that my western European ancestry would have definitely had parallels to mei's aunts and grandmother, I've experienced cringe like this in my childhood
Latina here with overprotective parents, too! I'll never forget when my brother took my cousin and I to our first concert, and my mom and aunt just SHOWED UP AT THE CONCERT. What the hell?? We were probably about early teens at time, too. We literally ran away from them, and my brother got in huge trouble later for that.
The scene in the bamboo forest made me ugly cry too! It was the moment where Mei finds herself as someone distinct from the monolith of her family and also realizes that her mom is a distinct person too, flaws and all.
Whereas Mirabel and her relationship to her grandmother is stronger than ever at the end of Encanto, there is a new (healthy) distance between Ming and Mei at the end of Turning Red. Ming understands that she needs to give her daughter space. My mom did not give me this space until I was in my 20s LOL but it was nice to see that portrayed in the movie. Mei even admits to missing how things used to be a little, but embracing her new freedom, which makes for a bittersweet and realistic ending.
You touched on how the stakes of the movie didn’t feel that big, how the only thing at risk was having the mom find out what’s been happening. For an Asian American, it can be absolutely terrifying to let your parent know who you really are. It feels like your life is built in a lie as you balance how you are with your friends versus how you are with your parents. The main fear in not letting your parents know who you really are comes purely from not wanting to disappoint them. Turning Red shows this theme superbly as it always falls back on Mei behaving differently when she’s with her parents versus when she’s with her friends. Mei does say in the beginning that the biggest thing in her culture is to honor her parents. It sets up the main stakes right away. The parents are the ones that give you life, so you must never do anything to disappoint them. If you do, its like you are not grateful for everything they have done for you basically. Of course this is a cultural thing that is hard to see if you have no experience with. In that case, just imagine being a kid that is really really close with your parent, like how Mei was in the beginning. Her and her mom watched TV shows together, they had a cleaning routine together, and Mei would immediately show her mom her grades to receive praise and show her that she was doing well. Then suddenly, you could really really disappoint them. As a kid, that could be the end of the world!
Of course I speak with some of my own life experience, but I feel like any kid who had a really close relationship with their parent would be terrified of disappointing them. I feel like these stakes were fitting in a coming of age story.
As a pasty white boy ide be terrified of my parents finding me drawing some random person.
I definitely think this a very good point that you've made but still waiting for a Disney/Pixar movie about a queer kid in this situation though exploring sexualities is definitely more of a thing suited to teens and maybe not children. I just don't want the trash that is Steven universe be the only one that touches on this that I've watched .
Nice try. XD
I'm not an asian american but knowing how that feels is pretty hard since my family don't know how I am when I'm at school versus how I am at home and I had failing grades which my family knows and when they see I have failing grades they have an assumption of me and my friends and they aren't bad people either but they believe it have to do something with me as if I'm the problem itself like as if I'm a sexist or something bizarre and I heard what my mother said about me when I was failing and I know I just had a hard time learning english and history since those subjects I'm not really good at
Pixar: We're doing a "coming of age" story.
Schaffrillas: WHERE'S ME GOOD VS EVIL PLOT? WHY AREN'T THE STAKES HIGHER?
Me: (cries in the corner)
Oof shaff I'm sorry but that scene where the mom literally stalks her daughter at school just to give her pads is definitely not unrealistic, I'm a Filipino guy born and raised in the Philippines but something similar happened to me. More so on the lines of going out on party's in a hotel with my friends while my mom insisting she comes with but stays in another room, even on trips with my friends she insist on literally following along in her car, which you have no idea how embarrassing it is when one of your friends recognizes it's your mom driving. My entire highschool life I never got to sleep overnight in a friends house nor go out on late night parties, only got to do that when I finally hit college, even then there's a compromise. In short Ming is a pretty accurate representation on what an asian helicopter mom is like, so no she's not cartoonishly over the top. And trust me, for an asian kid, hiding things like these from your parents is PRETTY HIGH STAKES, the tongue lashing you'll get (you may also get the belt) will absolutely make you feel like shit. Although my mom only ever hit me with the belt one time (which I won't go into detail because that incident was definitely my fault) and more so played the role of the overbearing mother, it was my father who leaned more on physical and emotional abuse, getting low grades meant I had to study non-stop to the point where I was crying and vomiting out of exhaustion, if I made a mistake he'd hit me, sometimes with the metal buckle, a hanger, a broom and even a wooden baton. My mom tried her best to protect me from his physical abuse but, this was considered normal in our household back then because it was normal for his household when he was a kid. And as a grown up now I hold a lot of ill will towards my father, I barely talk to him and barely see him on a day to day basis, the funniest part is we live under the same roof. I love my mom though despite being extremely overbearing. So yeah you really shouldn't judge this movie based on something you've never experienced.
I don't need to know the context to know that it wasn't your fault you got the belt. Even if you were being an absolute shit, a parent shouldn't hit their child. Simple as that. Kinda messed up she managed to convince you you were at fault for how she acted. She's in control of her actions, not you.
the studying til you vomit is pretty extreme but going and partying at hotels and late night parties with your mom was pretty normal. My mom would most likely do the same thing and I'm not Asian.
@@highdefinition450ngl this kinda made me cry cuz my parents were very keen on beating me, so hearing this kinda hit home a bit
One of my teachers decided to talk about this movie in class, saying that they watched it with their niece but turned it off midway through because they were offended by the girls' actions. This really put a new light on the movie and made me appreciate it a lot more, because for me it's easy to lose sight of the fact that a lot of parents (or in this case, uncles) are very controlling. Do I think the movie is incredible? No. But it tells an important story, and so what if Encanto already did it? The more the merrier.
The movie does not only equate periods to turning into a red panda. That's its most surface level interpretation. When you add in the fact that her mom, aunts and grandmother also gave up their pandas at a young age, you realize it can't only symbolize periods. It symbolizes giving up what makes you different, what makes you *you*, to fit into a preexisting mold to make sure you don't stand out too much and not bother anyone.
Mhmm.
I recently revealed the genders of my two girlfriends. It got a lot of hate and now has 30 times more dislikes than likes. I am really sad that people can be so mean. Sorry for using your comment to talk about my problems, dear ver
Yeah I thought so too !! I never really understand when people equate the red panda as periods because that’s not what the movie is saying ?? At least I don’t think so?? To me it was about a side of herself that she hides and/or embraces depending on who she’s with and her journey to embrace that “weird” side of her :D I thought the movie was really fun !!
I've heard the analogy of the panda being related to puberty in general as well
I wish I could give up my periods. 😒
Comparing Turning Red to Encanto is missing the mark. They are two separate films with completely different cultural backgrounds that don't even serve the same purpose. As an Asian being raised by an immigrant mother this movie did a remarkably good job making her believable; I think that a lot of people are lacking the cultural understanding behind a lot of aspects of this movie and I hope more people give it a chance.
I’ve seen other people say this and I completely agree: if you want to compare this movie with Encanto you should be comparing Mei with Isabela, not Mirabel. Mei is the golden child of the family, not an outcast.
I can see where people are coming from when they compare this to Encanto, but, as Schaffrillas said in the video, unlike the latter, this movie didn't really dig deep into the generational trauma aspect.
Yeah I wasn't a fan when he called the mom a lunatic and completely unrealistic. Mainly since she's so much like my immigrant parents lmao. I guess it's just a cultural thing so it's fine that he couldn't understand or relate.
He only compared the generational trauma part of encanto and turning red
Whatever. XD
During the end of the movie, I was crying in my mom's arms. She never pushed me hard but my dad did, which is why this this movie hit me right in the feels! Although it was a bit cringey at times, I loved the movie overall especially because young girls can digest it easily. I was EXACTLY like mei mei when I was 13.
Does a movie need high stakes to be good though? What even are high stakes? Because what aren't high stakes to you (such as seeing a boy band in concert) are the highest stakes to a teenage girl. You say this film was predictable, but for me, it was the biggest breath of fresh air in a while. I've never seen a female character be so unabashedly herself without it being the butt of a joke before. Mei and her friends are all so supportive of each other from the get-go, creating much more positive energy for most of the film. It's ok that you didn't like this movie, but that's because it wasn't made for you.
i see "It wasn't made for you" everwhere when someone says something they dislike in the movie bruh..
(English is not my First language)
Cool, but the average viewer isn't a teenage girl living twenty years in the past.
@@seigeengine The average viewer isn’t a living toy either, but that’s not why people resonate with the Toy Story movies, is it?
@@whenthemoon Cool, and why do you think little kids resonate with toy story?
@@seigeengine The same reasons that teens and adults resonate with Toy Story, and the same reasons people resonate with Turning Red. The themes, and how one can relate them to their life despite taking place in a different world. You don’t need to be a “teenage girl living twenty years in the past” to feel connected to themes of dealing with growing up, the struggles of having an overbearing parent, learning to balance your own needs and ambitions with what your parents want, and trying to find your place in the world.
Yeah, unfortunately the "unrealistic" nature of the mom doesn't hold up outside of your own experience. My mother was very controlling and invasive including to the point where she showed up at the apartment complex where i lived and attempted to use her knowledge of my ASD diagnosis to bypass privacy rules. And I'm not even Asian, I've heard this to be far more common among my Asian friends.
I just think it's a universal experience between mothers and their children, not necessarily tied down to a singular culture. A lot of moms are like Ming- they don't want their children to turn out "like that" even if the "like that" isn't actually bad. Eventually things will get to a head and the child will just be themselves regardless of what mom thinks.
@@EyesWillRule Normal, healthy moms aren't like this. It's exclusively a crazy person thing, though some cultures cater to it more than others.
Yeah Ratatouille is a masterpiece in his book. FERAL RATS THAT COOK. What 2020s hypocrisy.
Unfortunately, my mother was like this
@@abloogywoogywoo are you trying to shit on ratatouille? because i’ll fight you till one of us dies on this hill
I do feel like the “generational trauma” aspect of this is much more important than ppl are giving it credit for. Like I read the Panda as a kind of connection to their past and their heritage; as they immigrated to the west, they felt that they had to hide and get rid of their pandas (their culture) to adapt to their new life, but Mei breaks this tradition. Even though she should be the most “western” of them all-having lived her entire life in Canada with a mom who presumably did the same-she decides to embrace her history and grow closer to her culture in a way that her family before her doesn’t. It was a really interesting take on westernization and the refusal to assimilate imo
Yes exactly!! They literally call their gift an "inconvenience" to deal with despite it being the very thing that saved their ancestors.
yeah I read it as heritage + the women like Ming holding in their emotions all the time much more than a period metaphor especially considering how the periods is treated as a 'normal' thing in a way but I may be dense cause I didn't even think about periods when I first saw the marketing for this movie lmaoo
I'd also like to add that this movie sorta comments on how Western society will be selective on which parts of Asian culture it will accept or is aware of. This is probably why the movie has such a strong manga/anime art style: because North America is aware of it (or it's a surface level element of Asian culture that's commonly known by many or could be taken as some stereotypical association). There's almost a contradiction between the family hiding these more oddly specific elements of their culture and the movie making strong use of this art style
Another recent movie After Yang comments on this idea from a different angle
YES EXACTLY
I don't think this metaphor works. The beginning of the movie clearly shows how connected they are to their culture. Their job literally is upkeeping a Chinese temple in Toronto.
It's interesting hearing opinions from a drastically different upbringing. I watched this feeling incredibly and uncomfortably seen. My parents weren't.. as controlling or hands-on as the parents here. Even the aunts gave me flashbacks of how mine acted towards me when I was being pushed to meet rising expectations. They already have an image of you that's just as static as their principles and won't change unless something DRASTIC happens. Which sucks. Bc it's either they change their mindset and realize how they were wrong about you, or they see you have a massive breakdown and recognize that you (the adult in their lives) is the problem or they never change and say that YOU are the problem. The climax was silly, yes, but I feel like it helped make it easier to digest that way. This is how kids feel like their worlds are crumbling when a parent they looked up to just Invalidates what they love. Ofc a giant red panda kaiju battle won't happen but a fight between an overbearing parent who has good intentions but hurtful methods and their child who has done nothing but appease that parent can feel Just Like That. The stakes were in the future of that familial relationship. At this point, Mei's life revolved around her mom's approval. It wasn't until minutes prior that she blatantly disagreed and disobeyed. She has a rush of empowerment and clarity that her mom can't dictate her life and if mom can't listen to reason, then she'll listen to rebellion. And she does. She responds in kind and that helps Mei and the rest recognize Ming's feelings and vulnerabilities.
Yes, you could get some of the intention if looked at just the gender aspect but that's not the only thing. It exists alongside the Asian upbringing and its damaging cultural generations and family dynamics. It gave a good representation of 2002 and the teenagers with their hype for boy bands and how innocent it all is. It's just how it was lol I did enjoying the introspection of Schaff but oh boy. Turning Red was A Lot.
Thanks to whoever read through all that lol I had a lot of feelings while listening to the video.
I know other people have said this, but it is really wild that the mother was unrealistic to you because wow, I was cringing so damn hard because Mei’s experiences were painfully relatable. I had an extremely similar experience to the cashier drawing scene. My friend and I drew some Seggsy images, and my mum found them. She brought them over to said friend’s house with HANDWRITING SAMPLES to prove my friend had “forced” me to draw them and needed a strict talking to. It was so humiliating I straight up blocked it out of my memory until my mum brought it up when I was older as a “funny” story.
Just to point it out, the mother was at the school, she confronted that guy in the store, she blamed Mei's friends, all that, because she couldn't believe Mei had these thoughts herself, Ming thought she raised her that well that it was impossible for Mei to be this rebelious.
Ming had Mei in this kind of pedestal where no one could ever dare to touch her or bother her. And to be honest, many parents, mostly those with special talents and expect a lot from their kids (at least with my experience with latinos parents), many are just like that. If something bad happens, it's never their childrens fault, it's their "bad influences" fault.
Ah yes, the arbitrary and mysterious "bad influence" because their kid would _never_ make mistakes (embarrass the family) on their own 💀
@@errortryagainlater4240 I mean plenty of parents think that. It's something a lot of people have gone through, not just a cartoonish plot.
I’m more concerned about what else she drew tbh…
@@errortryagainlater4240 this is literally my mom
Bruh all of My friends parents hated me because they assumed I was the bad influence just because I'm shy
I definitely respect your opinion, bc not everyone needs to love this movie, but, as many others have commented, idk how I feel about comparing this movie to encanto. Yeah, they had two different purposes and stories they wanted to portray, but another important difference is that Mirabel was already kind of a mess up to her family, especially her abuela (sorry if that’s blunt, but idk how to put it nicer), whereas Ming still thinks Mei is her prefect little girl. Mirabel wants to prove to her family that she is a worthy member of the family and she loves just as much as the rest, while Mei wants to preserve how her mom sees her without the consequences of exposing the messiness of teenhood to her mom. Just what I think anyways
I think that's a perfect example; the two girls are actually working towards different goals so the focal point of the two movies is going to shift. For Encanto, generational trauma was root of the main conflict, for Turning Red its the interpersonal relationships between the women of the family.
I love both films and think they both succeed in what they’re trying to do
Despite me agreeing with what you said, I think Schaff was trying to compare Isabella, not Mirabel, to Mei. Both characters are considered perfect by a motherly figure, despite them actually be far from being the perfect child their mom/grandma thinks they are.
yeah this movie's way different than Encanto
you just encapsulated it. Nice
As an Asian Canadian girl, I adored this movie as a love letter to tween girls in the aughts, and especially for how it tackles Asian women and the suppression of emotion.
Like many people have pointed out, the panda is a metaphor for expressing feelings authentically rather than suppressing them. Women and Asian women, particularly, tend to suppress their feelings at the expense of their mental health, so I found it extremely powerful when Mei's grandmother and aunties smashed their coveted amulets to help Ming complete the panda ritual. They chose to panda-out; they chose to feel all that unbridled feeling they were told to suppress to help their family member, which subverts the opposing myth in many Asian households that to support your family, you have to swallow your feelings and appear to be perfect.
Even though everyone but Mei chooses to contain their panda, I think that's reflective of their generational gap. Her grandmother and mother's generation have been living separated from their pandas all this time, separating themselves from those intense emotions, and that's how they've grown comfortable living. Meanwhile Mei is young and gets to decide after reaching a common understanding with her mom, and showing that generational progress gives you the sense that there's even more hope for Mei's children if she has them. That they won't just have a choice, but that choice will be an even easier one.
And there has been transformation in the older generation. Ming's panda in a tamagotchi is (maybe unintentionally, but beautifully so) symbolic of her being more attentive to her own feelings, as it's something she can't neglect; she consistently feeds and takes care of it. Even the silliness of the grandmother's 4-town necklace makes her panda more accessible. It's not a sacred piece of antique looking jewelry that you have to be careful around, it's a tacky fangirl piece that you can handle with less worry. Speaking as part of the key demo (an Asian grly who grew up around Toronto) this movie is a fat chef's kiss, and the 4-town songs are absolute bangers.
Personally, when I first saw it I could feel the 13 year old in me hyperventilating from being seen here. I was actually so stunned afterward, I rewatched it the next day to try and pinpoint everything I related so strongly to. From being an immigrant family and puberty, to developing a new relationship with your parents as you age and generational trauma - I could relate and see myself everywhere I looked.
i found this movie to be an accurate potrayal of kids and how cringey they are. i kept describing this movie as “intentionally cringy” and i think thats honestly a very good summary of the energy this movie has. its kinda nostalgic and charming as a result. a movie doesnt have to be extremely impactful and revolutionary for it to be good.
I agree, it made me feel the same way I connected with the protagonist alot from when I was young
"A movie doesn't need to be impactful or revolutionary to be good"
This, lately if a movie doesn't change your life a lot of people call it lazy, boring or bad.
Personally I really liked the movie, nothing crazy but entertaining and funny
I personaly think this movie is fine but not anything special
I feel the same way, I think some people forget that what's "cringy" for adults can be fun and relateable for kids, which is clearly who this movie is for. And I don't think that's a bad thing either since not every movie has to be a universal experience.
That’s pretty much what I’m saying. We were all at that age when we were cringy little kids. Hell I used to run like a freaking ninja turtle all the time 😂.
No because the way the mom acted is exactly how mine did. Even if some people saw it as fake or cartoonish, it's a reality for many people with severely strict parents. It's cringey, traumatizing, and you feel alienated from other people, I think that's why maybe for me the red panda thing could've been a good analogy, but it kinda fell flat. Still enjoyed it tho!
I'm glad Schaffrillas did not have that experience and couldn't relate to it because I would never wish that kind of thing on anyone. My mom worked and I never got the full extent of her psycho overprotective mother-ness but I would imagine turning out even worse had she been a stay at home mom who had nothing better to do. Asian parents are just control freaks like that.
Same 😳
Why did it fall flat
@@jaroj1112 it didn't it's just an annoying term people use way to liberally
@@Soniman001this movie fell more flat than the seltzer I left open two days ago. The story and characters were not intetesting at all. And why does Disney have to keep forcing diversity at every single chance they get? I hope other people like the movie, I'm just not one.
I think the thing that really gets me is that even if your relationship with your parents wasn’t like this, that you didn’t know anyone growing up that DID have parents like Ming. All my friends had parents that have wildly different parenting styles, flaws and behaviours. While my mom is very similar to Ming, most of my friends had different struggles like abuse, neglect, absent parents, over controlling, ridiculous expectations. Even tho we didn’t all have the same experiences, that never invalidated the other person or minimized their struggles. It was never weird that my friend had a neglectful parent cause I had a helicopter parent even with them being different experiences. idk if I’m explaining it right, but I’m just genuinely confused how you didn’t know anyone who had a parent who was even kinda like this cause to me it feels super hella common
I thought the super cartoony character designs and especially the eyes really worked in the movies favor because right from the beginning we see Mei as the narrator and she’s a middle schooler obsessed with cute things; kinda like she’s telling us the story and getting some details overly embellished (kitten challenge being extremely hard is a good example I think)
The whole metaphor wasn't supposed to be for only periods, it was just to illustrate puberty and maturing in general
Tbf his point was that Mae, is the only recipient of the metaphor
as a Korean, I also saw it as a metaphor for how Asian kids are taught not to show strong negative emotions towards their parents otherwise they're seen as being weak and disrespectful.
@@UncleHyena No? It was made for young teens (mostly girls) going through those changes.
@@Google_remote he means within the movie. Guys dw, I’m not one of those exhausting people Schaff is talking about. I’m literally saying that within the context of the movie, only Mae (to an extent) has the panda issue, her other girl peers are Scot free. I’m not necessarily agreeing with this but this is what Schaff thinks let’s down the metaphor. Jee gosh willie
OBVIOUSLY, it’s aimed towards pre-teen girls and I love how unapologetic it is with the humour and style. I’m just trying to point out what Schaff meant
Still tho, "Turning Red" had to have been intentional
I’d like to point out, that there ARE mums who act like the mum in the movie, IVE MET THEM. Yes it may be exaggerated but I’ve had a lot of friends with mums who did something similar to the store clerk scene.
But yeah, I like it but that may have been because I am a girl whose gone through this and the panda metaphor kinda worked for me. It may have been difficult because they’re also trying to portray a culture through but idk I liked it and related to it.
My mom is one of those mothers lol
I do think the panda metaphor could have been more fleshed out but I still related to it, I mean sometimes being on my period makes me feel like a big monster 😭 I wonder if the ritual could have been a metaphor for contraceptives like the implant or an iud, like in my case getting on the implant took away my period almost like sealing the panda
Mum lol
When watching that movie I found myself having a hard time understanding the characters until the mom did that or the any other things she did throughout the movie. My mother is exactly like that when I watch Tangled I’m always reminded of her because of the fake mother. When watching it the second hand embarrassment was to much because my mother has done things like that. When the mother started blaming Mei’s friends, I felt that. This movie attacked me on a personal level even though I am not Asian (my mom is Jewish tho if that gives you any idea). I don’t think most of this movie is good but parts of it had really great ideas and themes
My dad once physically threatened my friend's older brother just because he was the one in charge when I broke my arm at her house, so YEAH I could see him going unhinged on a store clerk like this lol
I really appreciate this review! I like that Schaff couched everything in the fact that it's his opinion, and to listen to the people who this movie represents. So, as an asian American weirdo with a cringe 8th grade Kpop phase, here are my 2 cents.
1. Mothers definitely have acted that crazy. My friend's moms have literally pulled the 'looking into your classroom from the window' and gone off on teachers for no reason.
2. As for why the kids only like her as a panda at 3:10, isn't that just normal teen popularity? Also, I think it would further muddy the message for other people to get to know her; the key is that she learns/teachers her mother self acceptance.
3. I'm realllllllllllly sick of Asian rep having to martial arts epics set in 300 BC. Like with Mulan, raya, hell even avatar, there's so little English media that represents the asian experience in a realistic way. That kinda ties into the stakes comment-I feel like if it were something more serious like Encanto, where the family magic would die, I'd kind of tune out. But opening up to my family?! YEESH that's seriously mortifying. It just felt so much like my life that her embarrassment was 100% mine, so it makes sense that it was hard to get into.
The discourse on this movie sucks because a lot of the justifiable tonal issues are inextricably linked to the relatability to (and therefore validity of) the Asian American experience. But like Schaff said, there are other similar films that seem to uniformly grip everyone, so it's just a matter of opinion. Reminder to not be rude at people who disagree!!
I feel like mei's mom waving the box of pads in front of the entire class is one of the most relatable kinds of embarrassing moments. Like when I was at Disney world and told my mom I needed a pad, she then told my stepdad who screamed for the entire park to hear "does anyone have a pad/tampon?" It was the most embarrassing moments in my life and I know excatly how mei felt when the box was being waved in front of the class.
Even if she did buzz in, being handed a box of pads in front of everyone would still be equally as embarrassing and feel the excat same way.
The movie isn’t about periods, it touches on it but it’s about puberty and growing into your true self/finding yourself.
He missed the mark with that one
Yep. i bet people think it's about periods because of the one (1) misunderstanding joke where the mom thinks mei's talking about getting her period
Honestly I don’t really love this review, it feels like he misses the point of the movie and would rather just compare it to a billion other movies than seeing it as it’s own thing
I agree! Finally someone noticed
yeah i dont know how he didnt catch that it was more for the storm of emotions you get as a teen. and how the family had a history of just reprising(family trauma alert and the need to keep up appearances) it instead of learning to embrace it. like even the dad says we have our messy sides and we need to learn to live with it. i feel like a lot of people just went wit well its red and shes a girl so it muust mean period. its a little more nuanced than that
I don't understand why a movie needs stakes for a coming of age movie. This was a movie about Mei finding herself, trying to set boundaries with her mother (and extended family) and the movie showcased how many immigrant families put their child on a pedestal for success. I cried most of the movie because Mei was able to embrace herself and had friends who supported her along the way, it is something that I, and potentially many other women, have lost as we've become older. It connected with me more than Encanto ever could because of its relevance in my own life.
Movies don't need high stakes to be good. But a movie being relatable doesn't mean it has no flaws. Personally encanto was a lot more relatable to me and I liked the subtlety compared to turning red.
I think it had very relatable stakes. My parents catching me doing something they wouldn't approve of was the SCARIEST thing I had to worry about at 13 lol
Her friends are so nice 🥺, and the fact they end up being friends with the bully. While I’m latina, I have to admit I liked more how Turning Red addressed this topic, just my opinion.
I 100% agree here
Agreed. I think Encanto was a good movie, but I think trying to compare it to Turning Red is a large stretch, and I think it's a shame people are doing it so much just because they touch on some of the same subject matter and released close to each other.
Turning Red isn't supposed to be as deep or dark as Encanto, because it's supposed to be a more of a light-hearted, slice of life coming of age story about a teenage girl figuring herself out.
Encanto *did* have Mirabel figuring herself out, but the movie was darker and it's entire focus was the idea of generational trauma and the effect it can have on a family, and the idea of toxic perfectionism. They *brush* on similar themes, but I think it's like comparing apples to oranges.
Encanto is really good, but I definitely agree that Turning Red resonated with me a lot more since it reminded me so much of my own experiences as a teenager.
In My Opinion, Turning Red is secretly a cinematic masterpiece. A lot of people were upset about Turning Red probably because they thought it was going to be the next Cuties, until it was not. Many of them, including me, liked Turning Red because it was one of the best first-time director movies I have seen, and Domee Shi achieved the impossible task of making a family-friendly version of Cuties. Instead of wearing revealing clothes to a dance contest, Turning Red's cuties wear decent unrevealing clothes to a boy band concert. Instead of doing sexually provocative dances to be more popular at school, Mei, Abby, Miriam and Priya record silly wholesome dance videos and sell red panda merchandise to be more popular at school. Instead of giving up what she had with her new friends after learning how wrong she was to disobey her mom, Mei found a happier medium where she could fix her mother's broken heart and still do fun things with her friends who are too innocent for hyper-sexualization. Turning Red might not be great for a Pixar film, but I know it is great for a first-time creator's film. March 9, 2023, 1:36pm
i really really related to Mei, i cried a lot. i think the whole theme with big expectations from your parents, wanting to make everyone proud, even at your own expense, is something i really resonate with.
i also saw the giant red panda as an analogy of sorts for being queer, which i also relate to. the way she hides it, fights it, and HATES that side of her at first, and then slowly comes to accept and even love it, it really hit home for me.
i really enjoyed this movie.
i also loved that it touched on generational trauma, from a different culture's perspective. i don't care that it's soon after Encanto because it nEEDs to be talked about more anyways, and this way ASIAN kids can feel seen too. 💕
Also i like that it shows EXACTLYYYY what it feels like to be a 13 year old GIRL 😂
i like to see a movie of kids bEING kids, and enjoying it. i hate how media makes it seem like you gotta be so mature and cool at 13.
I normally agree with your reviews, but this one just didn't hit, like... How can the panda not "have anything to do with Mei's personality" when the whole point of the movie is "embracing the panda" because that's who she really is, now that she is changing? At least that's how the movie sounded like to me. It was less of a metaphor for a period and more of a metaphor for how we have hidden, "crazy" sides to us that we don't have to be ashamed of. The people who love us will love us regardless.
I guess Turning Red meant "being pissed off". Which makes more sense
What is even more annoying is how Mei specifically monologs about what the panda is all about and asks the audience whether or not they will hide aspects of themselves. Mei literally spells it out at the end, but people are getting way too caught up in the idea of it just being about a girl getting her period...which Mei doesn't even actually get! Her mom asks and she says no, but she runs with the period assumption of her mom's because she doesn't want her mom knowing about turning into a literal animal since she didn't know about the panda lineage at that point. It was probably around the corner with the emotional storms rising, but it was about becoming a woman(an adult) in more ways than the only one people seem to care about with girls.
Yeah and even mei’s friends talk about how her embracing her panda makes her more happy and free than she ever has been (before she wouldn’t have dared to go out without her moms permission for example) and that why she decides to embrace it bc she is discovering herself and wants to accept her panda and not hiding it like her family
!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree that the movie is a metaphor for a girl starting her period (puberty in general) but if that's truly the creators intentions then the scene of her taking people into the bathroom to show them her "panda" for money is insane.
i think the "only liking mei because shes a panda" is very relatable. im an artist, and people only ever liked me for that in middle/highschool. i was found weird because of me being autistic and people only wanted to be around me because i could draw well. it reminded me a lot of finding myself (for different reasons) but i found myself crying a lot through this movie just because of how much i related to it. definitely a movie of perspective
Right! I also drew, and people would ask me to draw things and then never talk to me again. I was considered “smart,” when I just worked really hard through my ADHD, and people were nice to my face in group projects, but others would share that the group members told them the project would be easy because I’d do everything for them (yeah, bc I didn’t want to fail on their subpar work). Once I was eating lunch with people I thought I was becoming friends with, and I jokingly stole a fry from someone’s tray like everyone else was, and they all gave me a death glare and asked what I was doing. They only liked me when I was quiet and provided them with something, so I immediately got up and left them, embarrassed as hell for thinking they’d be my friends. People definitely can like you for only one thing without actually becoming friends with you. Preteens and teens are kinda notorious for it in my experience.
Absolutely agree! And the way after high school friends quickly disappeared because we were no longer in school together and could benefit from each other. For sure only liking people "because they're a panda" is a real and relatable thing.
Yeah in that aspect other people liking her panda but her mother hating it as well as Mei thinking she shouldn't really do this also makes sense because many parents think doing art may not make a good career. Honestly, as someone whose hobby was drawing, I could definitely see the conflict that way. Liking art is who I am but there are times you wished you would be better at something else
Man same... they always want you to draw them too lol. But really kids that age ARE shallow so idk what he meant exactly. That's just kinda how it is being a preteen.
I’ve experienced that Aswell! It made me quit drawing for awhile because people only wanted to hang with me to draw them something so i stopped. I was around 10 maybe and people would find me weird for that.
I'm not Asian or Canadian and I grew up on a different continent yet I still found this movie very relatable and touching. I feel like the central conflict of the story, the mother-daughter relationship, is covered far better than in most movies, including Encanto, and to me this makes up for the storytelling flaws.
One of the things I really appreciate is how the movie shows the good side of Mei's and her mom's bond, it felt really fresh in comparison to other animated movies with a similar conflict. Imagine if Little Mermaid started with Ariel happily singing at her father's event, or if Nemo actually respected his father, or if Mirabel actually had any good memories about her grandma or her sisters to begin with. Most movies start with such a conflict already very much present and ready to erupt, but in Turning Red it's developing right in front of our eyes and that's what adds more weight to it. I also disagree about stakes not being high. Mei and her mom play central role in each other's lives so the disintegration of their relationship is a very serious issue for both of them and I'm kinda happy it remains the central theme of the movie instead of some external threat. I also don't agree with some people who say it's a movie that appeals to kids primarily - as an adult I could relate equally both to Mei AND her mom and that was really confusing but also illuminating.
Also I feel like a lot of the movie's cringiness comes from the fact that it simply depicts preteen girls so accurately. We're so used to seeing movie teenagers saving the world Harry Potter style that actually seeing 13 year olds acting like 13 year olds and having age-appropriate reactions, problems and hobbies is quite startling, because well, they are indeed that cringey and awkward.
Honestly i really liked the movie, maybe the panda part didn't really resonate for me but i did hear someone mention how it was nice to see mei accept her panda and how oftenly women are bashed for being 'overly emotional'. The rest of the movie i loved because of the fact that it's just some tween girls doing tween girl stuff that i could relate to like going crazy over some boy band and having their cringey moments, i feel like that's something a lot of movies don't really have, it's always tweens acting like adults. I feel like this movie just shows a very fun wholesome side of being a tween.
I especially loved just how loud and openly cringey they were, it's nice you know? Especially when you grow up all shy and introverted and feeling like you should be embarrassed for feeling your feelings, this movie sorta tells you to feel those feelings, fuck what others think, if you wanna fangirl over your favorite band then do that happily, maybe not everyone gets it but it makes you happy and that mentality is something that's nice to be reminded of no matter how old you are
Comparing this movie to Encanto based on the quality of discussing generational trauma feels a bit... odd? There are worlds of difference between the Colombian experience of struggling to vindicate your ancestors' sacrifices and the Asian diaspora experience of attempting to conform to a highly restrictive family legacy dating back thousands of years. They really are different things.
exactly
THANK YOU! This is amoung a host of comments in the review that bugged me (at least tonally) and you've really hit the nail on the head.
Yeah, comparing the two in that way would be like saying all love stories are the same :/
I find it kind of weird how he makes jokes about being a pasty white boy and instead of actually doing something with that realization he speaks on stuff he obviously has no clue about :/
Yess thank you that was exactly what i was thinking! :)
Honestly, I’m so glad Mei revealed she was the Red Panda to the school so early in the movie. She didn’t have to deal with the whole “hide the monster from the people” trope for the whole movie (except from her family of course). Plus watching her make money off of the Panda was much more entertaining and fun.
@Sentiental ehhhh, if they explored that more I’m almost certain they would of made Mei the unlikable popular girl stereotype for 20% of the movie and that wouldn’t be fun to watch
i personally really loved and related to this movie( ive already watched it 3 times). Most of the time "low stake" stories are dismissed as boring by critics, but they are SO important to a whole lot of people. I come from a traditional Hispanic household and this movie hit closer to home than Encanto for me personally. I feel like comparing the two are apples and oranges, Encanto is a movie about generational trauma and how Mirabel breaks the cycle. Turning Red is about a young girl accepting herself for the person she is instead of just being what her parents want her to be. They are both such important stories to tell. i nearly cried when Meilin was sitting in the car with her overprotective mother after she embarrassed her at the daisy mart. i can relate so much and it feels crazy to watch this adorable character you love, have to go through that. it makes me happy for the generation of young kids who have movies that I WISH would have existed when i was their age.
If I'm being honest, when these two movies came out I watched both with my mom. My mom's Colombian and I really wanted to watch Encanto because it was showing Colombian culture. After watching Encanto though we both found it lack luster... some of he songs were great others were a miss, we both felt like it was missing something but we didn't know what. When we watched Turning Red though, we both loved it so so much. I've never felt a movie portray what it's like being a 13 year old girl so well that I felt really emotionally moved by it and my mom did too. We related to both Mei and her mother in different ways and it honestly felt really really heartwarming to see this beautiful story told. To me Turning Red is a great movie and left me more satisfied with it's ending than Encanto did. Encanto is still a good movie, it just didn't compare to Turning Red for me and my mom
Mother character isn't that cartoonish. I grew up with an overprotective Slavic mother who was EXACTLY like that, if not worse. It's a pretty accurate portrale if you know ppl like that
Shows what he knows about moms😂
@@jonathansoriano3568 shows that his parents werent so strict
@@PolskiHetman or crazy. He didn't account for crazy.
I remember from ages 10 to 13 I would get home from school to find everything in my room out of place so I would know she was looking through my stuff, bitch just ask. I wasn't allowed to go out with friends until I was 14 and even then it had to be a group of 4. So whille watching idt she was cartoonish at all.
My latino mom was like her, she would snoop through my stuff, I had to beg to do basic stuff like sleep over at someone’s house, and the scene that hit so close to home was when mei pretends that she doesn’t know what 4 town is
Bc I do/did that all the time
Personally, I think the movie actually handled the helicopter parent trope in an interesting way. For one thing, she had a practical reason to be overbearing. She was being overbearing because she wanted to watch out for the signs of Mei's panda coming out so she could better prepare for it. Also, Mei isn't a rebellious kid who wants to break away from her parents like Ariel. She's always bent over backwards to be a perfect daughter. She gets perfect grades in school, she never misbehaves, and she works at her mother's temple. Something I found clever is that when Mei starts to misbehave, Ming doesn't blame her or punish her because she believes her daughter is pure and perfect and wouldn't actually do that. When Mei draws dirty pictures of the convenience store guy, she assumes that guy did something to her and confronts him with her drawings instead of getting angry at Mei. When Mei starts profiting off of her panda and lying to her mom, she assumes it's all because of Mei's friends who are a bad influence on her. In both of these scenes, she doesn't get mad at Mei at all because she sees Mei the way Mei wants her to see her: her perfect kid who wouldn't do that. And I think what set Ming and Mei's relationship apart from Ariel and Triton's relationship or Nemo and Merlin's relationship is the fact that their relationship isn't strained at the beginning of the movie. Mei feels a lot of pressure to be perfect for her mother, but they clearly have a close, very sweet relationship at least before the whole notebook thing. Look at the way the watch soap operas together while making dinner or work at the temple together. The thing that causes conflict is Mei growing up and changing, which fits with the theme of the movie. That's my two cents. I thought the movie had some tone issues and story issues too, but I thought Mei and Ming's relationship was heartwarming and a really refreshing take on the overprotective parent trope.
You hit the nail on the head with this take, that's a perfect summary of this movie's core themes
But her mother is literally showed a lunatic that deserves to be in an asylum. It’s an interesting idea to show how overcontrolling parents don’t always lead to antagonization of their children, but that is not how you show it
As someone who had a helicopter parent I 100% agree with you
Man I feel those ending scenes where all the lies are revealed to Ming has so much more weight now.
@@MisterIncog Uh... She didn't do anything that would be deemed "mental asylum" kind of crazy. My mom used to go in schools ALOTTT, was she crazy? No. She made sure i was eating and i had my things. Mei's mom made sure she had pads lmao. Shouldn't have acted sneaky though. Usually staff don't mind if you walk in with permission. Not sure if it was the same in Canada though.
I pretty much died from secondhand embarrassment at the part where the mom shows the drawing to the guy at the convenience store... And I'm a 21 year old man. That scene is just unbridled pain.
As a female minor, I hated this movie and had to stop watching it around the halfway point.
This movie was a targeted attack for me, an Asian-American girl. Mei said stuff that made me jokingly look at my mother while we watched it together, but then Mei said stuff that made it absolutely impossible for me to look at my mother because WOW she hit the nail on the head. The stress of being the only Asian-American (and I will use "American" to mean "North American" here) daughter is apparently a more widely known experience than I thought. I mean, I knew that there had to be somebody else out there who felt it, but to see it in a movie just made me feel so validated.
Thanks for the parenthetical. Everyone using "American" for "USA citizen" bugs me.
@@NicolaLarosa Everyone using "American" for "USA citizen" shouldnt bug you. We aren't gonna say United States of Americanese or something. Also people are prolly never gonna stop anyway so may as well get over it
I like the term “Canmerican”
@@Iemonic Just seems like people forget Canada exists in North America, and South America is swiftly forgotten.
@@MammalianCreature mexico is also in North America. And if yall Canadians have such a problem with EVERYTHING Americans do then stay out of our spaces
As a filipino, I never felt Ming's lack of self-awareness to be unrealistic, in fact it was the complete opposite. I really saw myself as Mei Mei during the convenient store scene and even her entire background of her upbringing where she would try to do everything to please her mom. The lack of self-awareness of Ming and how she chose to be overbearing to Mei Mei was honestly very tame compared to what I've experienced with my mom growing up. Heck even the scene with the dad consoling Mei Mei hit close to home that I started crying because I completely understand and experienced the exact way the dad consoled her, by just being with me and trying to cheer me up. When I was watching this with my non-asian friends, they commented how spineless the dad felt, so I had to but in and say that the way the father acted was a very common thing in an asian household when the mother is as overbearing as Ming. So for me, I believed it really hit the nail on the head with its portrayal of the family and the conflict that Mei Mei went through.
And after watching this video I do find it interesting to hear from your perspective and I really appreciate the message you have about not letting people of that culture get drowned out by others because this movie is something that I believe should be appreciated as much as Encanto.
Yeah, I agree. I also have a filipino mom and have a white dad, and this is exactly how it goes. My mom was always the loud, brash, overbearing one and afterwards my dad would come to console me, so that hit so close to home, and the part where mei and her mom were in the bamboo forest and they had a heart to heart really hit me, since my mom rarely talks about it, but sometimes mentions that her mom wanted her to be ‘perfect’ as well, and idk it just resonated with me.
@@collinevanrossen4403 i have a filipino mum and white dad too. I swear we all live the same life here haha
very well said
Filipino mom white dad, we all share similar experiences and I find comfort in that
I’m full Mexican, but this movie really hit a nerve. That’s how many ethnic moms act with their children, and many white people just don’t get it.
For them the stakes weren’t big enough, the pressure of being perfect and honoring your ancestors was dumb, but we get it, and I feel like Asian people get it a lot more.
I really wish people stopped comparing it with Encanto, and love it just as much, appreciated for the amazing movie and storyline.
Bc they’re similar, but they deal with it accordingly to their culture.
For me the mom's attitude wasn't too far away from reality. Having an overbearing and protective mom can sometime end up in these kind of situations and I know that not every mom acts like this but mine did things I didn't want her to do because it would out me and embarrass me but she did it anyways and many times it ended with everyone thinking she was insane and me wanting to bury myself forever. It can also be something that mothers from different cultures are more or less likely to act this way, but I'm latina and gosh my mom was like this and I have seen even worse than mine, but it doesn't mean they're bad, maybe just don't know how to act properly and rationally by respecting other people's boundaries in certain situations involving their children and even seem like they've lost their mind just because they're so desperate of getting to their objective they don't think too much about anything else.
I think this may be the best movie I've seen in AGES. I sobbed for the entire last half an hour. It was.. so good.
I wish I could tell you that Mei's mom was unrealistic, but Ming is a spot on portrayal of my grandmother, who's even more paranoid than her. My granny would walk right into my school demanding to see me. Would watch me during sports practice because "your instructor could be a child predator" and then continue to feed me apple slices so I couldn't practice and warn me of strangers in such a way that I became a shut in with trust issues for yeard and even after theraphy, I still have problems adjusting to new environments because I think "Some random person can literally kill me right now for no reason". After all these years I still feel like it's my fault that she disowned my uncle because he let me have dinner at my classmate's (his stephdaughter) house. "We have food at home, if you want to beg for scraps at someone's else's place then you're dead to me" is one of her 'favorite' lines.
I’m sorry you experienced that
@@jeniferjoseph9200 it's okay, now that I'm older I see things from a different perspective and my granny deals with her own demons. I feel upset but honestly I just hope that others can break generational trauma and toxic family bonds easier now that it gets more and more adressed nowadays.
Wtf
@@Macalicious it's crazy how you went through that I guess I kinda went through similar examples of this but not as crazy as you my mom would always come up with some excuse for something as by not letting me go to a simple field trip to Orlando but she would let go to a fucking prison Field trip to not letting me walk home even though our house is very close to my school because she thinks the worst gonna happen even though there's literally no serious crimes near my area to basically other things so while my situation is not as crazy as yours I can kinda relate in a way also sorry that this is a late reply
Damn
the stakes WERE high. to mei, her family/mom and her boy band concert is everything to a 13 year old girl. they’re her whole world
Tbh, this movie had way better stakes than Encanto, Encanto's stakes are "Oh no, if we don't fix the candle, everyone in the family will have to live as a powerless normal human, just like... the main character.... or everyone else in the village for the matter......., geez how will they ever recover?" Also nobody else cared, like at all, that they lost their powers, they didn't even need them back
@@alessandroconti380 if u think that’s what the stakes were, then u missed the point of the movie
@@awsomedude23456 Then what are? illuminate me
@@alessandroconti380 The stakes weren’t just that they’d lose their powers, their entire fucking house would crumble to the ground and they’d have to find a new home.
@@elderfiend6295 additionally, the powers are literally the representation of how Abuela healed from her trauma and the last thing her husband ever gave to her, his ultimate sacrifice. And the powers are essential parts of the people that have them. Sure it makes them 'above average,' but they didn't do anything to deserve to have those taken away from them.
but more so, THE POWERS ARE NOT WHAT'S IMPORTANT. it's about the family's bond breaking and possibly becoming irreparable as a result of the years of abuse and toxic mindsets.
Encanto had more nuance? It felt to me like this one was subtle while Elcanto message had subtelty of a sledgehammer. And i love encanto.
To be fair, subtlety doesn't equal nuance. A message or theme can be subtle or overt, and they can both be good as long as they have nuance.
"When a movie is so rooted in a certain cultural context..." There. Right there. That's where you show exactly how much you missed the point, and why we need more movies that don't centre boys, especially read-as-white boys as the protagonists. I'm a pasty white, Australian born Euromutt about to turn 50, and this is the *first* movie I've seen in my life that connects with how it *feels* to be a girl going through puberty. And I suspect that is why you don't connect with the movie - you've never been asked to put yourself into the emotional space of a pubescent girl, and you have no reason to. The fact that the characters are Asian and Canadian has some relevance to the story, but you don't need to be rooted in that culture to understand the experience and the emotions - any more than you need to be a fish to understand the central concern of Finding Nemo.
This. White men are so used to everything being specifically about and for them, anything that doesnt is automatically bad because it isnt relatable to THEM. And if anyone else says they dont like something because they cant relate to white male protags, we get called too sensitive and whiny. This whole review is just very telling in a bad way about how a lot of white men see media as a whole. Its for THEM. They dont want anyone else having a starring role in THEIR industry.
I could kiss you on the mouth for this comment. NO ONE mentioned this, you're the only one that pointed out possible reasons on why this reviewer didn't feel "connected" to this movie
THANK YOU. I'm tired of people being like "I couldn't connect to it" BC IT WASN'T MEANT FOR YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE, IT'S NOT FOR MEN, IT'S FOR WOMEN WHO A LOT OF US HAVE BEEN THOSE TWEENS AND HAD TO "HIDE" OURSELVES TO BE COMPLIANT TO SOCIETY AS A WHOLE FFS. I'M TIRED OF WOMEN HAVING TO PUT THEMSELVES IN MEN'S SHOES IN EVERY PIECE OF MEDIA AND THE ONE TIME YOU ASK THEM TO DO THE SAME THEY JUST SAY IT'S "UNREALISTIC AND BAD". This topic makes my blood boil.
I do just want to point out that the director did say in a few interviews how the scenes where Mei is embarrassed by her mother were pulled from her own childhood experiences, including the one where she spies on her outside the school, so I didn’t see the scenes as unbelievable or overdramatized, but just how some cultures instill certain values on their children in different ways depending on their heritage, or just their inherit lack of understanding children today and how they act towards each other
This means the scene where her mother showed her crush the drawings she made of him is real... That is ABSOLUTELY mortifying. But it seems like the director was eventually able to break from her tiger parent, because she's directing an animated film. Doing animation is something even western parents think is a worthless career; so I'm glad she got to do what she loves.
Wait did he says it was overdramatized? This is absolutely ridiculous lmao
@@guacamollie2460 He said it was preposterous so it still stands
@@guacamollie2460 he then contrasted it to another movie which he says has “realistic” family conflict
My mom being from a very different culture from the country I live in, she would do super embarrassing stuff too. She *has* told super embarrassing periods-related stories to my friends, and she definitely would tell the person I love that I have a crush on them, even to this day. I get that for people from center-europe or north America, this amount of cringey behavior from parents is just unfathomable, but in some cultures, parents just do act like that
"How did Mei's mom not find this stuff if she's so overbearing?" Maybe because Mei lived with that her entire life and knew the things her own mother looks for. That's why she invented the Mathleets and she probably never really checked under her bed which is why she hid the stuff there.
Mei’s mom is overbearing and controlling, but she also has a lot of trust in her daughter. That may sound contradictory, but let me explain. She think that she’s raised Mei SO well that she’s this perfect angel who wants all the same things she wants. She couldn’t imagine her daughter hiding things, or lying unless someone else making her or something. She’s always done what she’s told and has had good grades. She’s more of a “protective” overbearing.
kids of helicopter parents become VERY good at lying and hiding... i should know, i was doing the exact same stuff...
I don’t understand the ending, like how Mei keeps her panda powers and doesn’t get hunted down by the government and stuffed into a lab
i wish it can be clear that the panda isn't a metaphor for periods its a metaphor for your emotions and growing up
Turning into a red panda wasn’t meant to be a metaphor for periods, the period stuff was just a classic “misunderstanding” joke. It’s actually supposed to be a metaphor for letting your emotions get the best of you, which is why Mei is always more aggressive/excited when she’s the panda.
My issue with it is that it didn’t properly develop this metaphorical idea. The idea of “letting your emotions out” is incredibly complex, and requires a lot of thought. There are good AND bad things about it, but the movie didn’t explore those ideas enough so it left the film seeming almost theme-less.
fr i always took the panda as a metaphor for anxiety that comes with puberty, not just periods
I don't really agree, I feel like the movie made sure to show how the "Panda" affected Mei's life in both negative and positive ways, while still maintaining the theme that the Panda IS her, and that she can't really just negate and hide those feelings.
@kinan "butter"
The panda doesn't represent only her menstruation, is also the change in her personality. The rage and independence most teenagers have without knowing why. Her family members managed to hide that personality change, but May is embracing it
Her peers like her more in her "rebel" personality, but she has to find a middle ground
This right here. I'm not a girl but I was still able to relate with Mei. I remember those teenage years where I was emotional and my thoughts were all over the place.
@@joevictor53 same, puberty made me confused and angry. So glad it's over.
"FURRY = BAD" NOW, GET A LIFE!
Yeah, something really weird just snaps in your mind as a teen.
I noticed how a lot of people didn’t realize Mei’s sensitivity came from her panda! The panda is all kinds of puberty stages like body hair, body odour, lower metabolism, and mood swings! But everyone only fixated on the period part 😅
All else aside....is no one gonna talk about that Ghibli tier food scene with the dad?!
3:06 nah im sure theres TOO MANY middle schoolers out there like that
This movie made me cry because this is EXACTLY how my mom was, but she never apologized, overly controlling trauma, and strict and hovering all the time, not feeling good enough, it hit hard. I absolutely loved this movie. I always tried to appease my mom, I always put myself last and put my mom first and it destroyed me as a person. I missed out on so many parties, friends hanging out, because of her. Its conflicting when you're young because she doesnt respect you or your privacy or give you room to grow, but then she feeds you a nice dinner or offers to help and youre like "maybe I did mess up disobeying my mom" and the internal conflict of Mei felt real to me
I dont think predictability is a bad thing, not everything has to be groundbreaking. This is one of my favorite movies because it resonates with me so much.
I wasn't allowed to cry because I was watching with my mother, a proud self-proclaimed tiger mom, and she was agreeing with everything Ming was doing and condemning Mei. She kept looking at me several times during the film as if she was trying to warn me about doing anything rebellious like Mei. At 17 years old, I've never raised my voice or answered back at my mom. Pretty sure I cried myself to sleep that night lol.
Damn, f in the chat
Also your mom sounds like the helicopter parent
You see, you described the reason why I think the movie is bad. You described real feelings that are so much deeper than what is shown in the film. And movie just playfully skips over them to happy ending. Nobody was thoroughly written, the problem isn’t developed in any way, it is just shown, for a bit. Felt like a cheap attempt to relate on something that is deep without being in any measure deep. It seems it worked judging by people’s reaction
@@MisterIncog exactly
Pixar: Here's a conflict.
Us: This is an undeveloped conflict.
Pixar: ...
Us: Are you going to develop it any?
Pixar: Alright I got to go
Us: Where are you going?
Pixar: See you next year.
Us: What the fu-
i know how you feel. my parents believe that family is the most important thing. when mei had that conversation with her mother about how thinking about the people she loved most helped her calm down, but those people were her friends, not her family. my brain was like “loving friends more than family is morally wrong” but that couldn’t be more false. love has no bounds. sometimes you can’t help who you love. sometimes i think that something is wrong with me, why i don’t feel very close to my family or love my parents as much as i should.
even tho the target audience is very young, this movie hits hard, but that’s always a good thing
This movie made me feel like a prepubescent girl all over again. I really do cherish those feelings and experiences, and Im so happy it reminded me of how cool it was
This movie singlehandedly healed my inner pre teen and her struggles with being her own person but also hating how that seems to take her away from her parents. It felt so real in how it emotionally handled that. And the way that the mother STILL doesn't accept her panda (being herself unashamed) because of how deep rooted her fear of disappointing her mother is, but how she still encouraged Mei to become HER own self, felt so accurate to reality. One of the hardest parts of growing older is seeing our parents as PEOPLE, with unhealed trauma that affect us. We cannot completely villianize or worship them anymore because we know they were just trying their best. Our mothers can be better to us than their mothers were to them, but that doesn't mean that THEY change with us, as much as we may want them to. It felt much more realistic to me than Nemos dynamic, as an extremely people pleasing child who's grown into an adult and just now finding a sense of self and still struggling to find that balance with keeping my family close, and that's what made this movie so powerful to me
I think it's really unfair to compare Turning Red to Encanto. Yes, this movie did have a small generational trauma thing going on, but that wasn't the main point. Two very different movies with very different messages.
in my opinion, encanto's story is something many people can emphasize with, whereas turning red's story is something that a smaller but significant viewerbase can *relate* to
@@Termsofseve and in many other people's opinion, turning red's story is far more relatable than encanto's. different strokes for different folks. i don't like how people automatically compare the two and immediately diminish turning red's story because it largely centers around an asian girl going through puberty and coming of age. like... half the population goes through that. yall really going to ignore that fact?
people literally see "generational trauma" and leap to conclusions, it's so tacky. it's even worse when it's people being absolutely ignorant and equating the cultures from both movies because they're foreign/not white and have female main characters. their stories could not be MORE DIFFERENT. it's insulting to be comparing them side by side when they're completely different stories with different lessons, characters, cultures and themes.
I dunno. I saw it and it just kinda looked...dull. Not in color palette or anything, but it's like the 3d equivalent of the bean face trend in Cartoon Network as of late.
Cute movie. Definitely not made for my demographic, but I can get the appeal.
@@snkybrki Yea agree i though the was straight up bad but i do see the appeal.
I think that the lack of "stakes" compared to Encanto is intentional; the tension of the story comes from the fact that only the family feels there is a problem both with the panda and with showing sides of yourself that aren't "appropriate." Having the other kids (as well as Mei's dad) be accepting of the panda shows that the generational trauma in this specific scenario is based on mostly unfounded fears, yet it continues to be perpetuated until Mei speaks out against it. It ties into the idea that sharing negative or excessive emotions isn't something to be ashamed of.
I always thought the stakes in this movie was the risk of diassponting your parents or losing the love of your family
@@harmunni I agree, particularly around the point of the story when she has the talk with the grandmother. As soon as she found out that keeping the panda might mean losing her mother, the stakes really shift for her. Again, no offense against Shay but like the movie spells this stuff out.
Encanto was criticised by people that it was also too low stakes. But those type of films work the best
Yeah, sure, “unfounded”.
Every single generation caused major destruction before they were able to banish it. The moral just doesn’t stick. He wasn’t right about the stakes. The stakes were very high. It just isn’t given enough emphasis to seem like there are high stakes. Not to mention that they sacrificed any hope the moral they were intending to deliver had when they increased the stakes of either getting full control of the panda or banishing it.
There have been seems where Mei literally hits herself from speaking out to her mom. Where her mom would get upset and angry with her for stuff like being mad for discovering about her terrible transformation when she rightfully should be especially when she was never told about it. It's not unfounded fears it's a pattern that you can even see still happens with Mei's mom and grandmother. She's a teenager regardless of her having excessive emotion this is what happens when you keep it in. It becomes excessive, and messy. The movie is about growth, self discovery and being open about yourself which is why her friends are what bring Mei back to her human form because they accept her regardless of her feelings and looks. It literally gives the idea of being true to yourself and others is nothing to be ashamed of.
yeah... the whole "red panda = periods metaphor" thing was a misread a lot of people made.
The joke is that the mother thought Mei was getting her first period, when in actuality she had become a red panda. it's not a metaphor, it's a misunderstanding because both are red.
and "everyone doesn't like her" where? we saw 3 maybe 4 characters tops, 1 being the teacher saying she was "bright but annoying", the goth chick says she's "a total weirdo" (the joke is the weird goth girl is calling her weird) and then the possibly closeted gay, bully who antagonizes her the whole movie calls her "a total dork nark" if anything most kids didn't know her.
you were just flat out wrong about helicopter parents as I had friends with parents just like mei's mom, it's more common than ya think, not just an Asian thing either as he was a white Christian boy.
and "predictable and formulaic story" is one of my biggest pet peeves in the reviewing community.
yeah it's predictable, but what about what's happening in those scenes? is it still fun? do the emotional moments hit?
is the confrontation any less impactful just because you knew it would happen? not to mention MOST movies
are formulaic. very rarely do I fall for twists in movies because I know these formulas.
you wanna talk cartoonish and predictable? how about encanto? in We don't talk about bruno, people literally blame and shun him for the weather, male pattern baldness, weight gain, the death of a gold fish, or how cartoonishly disrespectful the grandmother is? and you're telling me not one out of the 4 characters noticed when the grandmother was talking that the cracks were forming? and it's all fixed with some sob story and a sorry? after the grandmother was about to shun Mirabelle the same way she shunned Bruno?, sorry but having a tragic backstory doesn't make it okay, I've lived with people who give a sob story, say sorry and continue to be a dick. and how Bruno shows up and everyone just, instantly pushes away years of hatred in a literal second?! but that's a spoiler huh? however you didn't seem to care about spoilers in this video? huh, interesting.
Encanto didn't do anything for me personally, but then again I was an only child who didn't have many expectations because I was already seen as a lost cause because I had undiagnosed ADHD. but no one talks about how they cant relate to a Spanish girl with a giant family
only when it's an Asian girl from Toronto did people bring that up.
but Turning Red? wanting the approval of my parents? going through puberty and dealing with the mental and physical changes that go along with that? drawing self insert ship art? being obsessed with a boyband? having a close but small friend group? not being able to control my emotions? that I can fully relate to.
like, did every adult who reviews this movie just forget what puberty was like? because people saying "can't relate because im not an Asian girl" just really confuse me.
So given the way you've interpreted the red panda, what do you make of Mei using her new-found panda-based popularity to make money and the movie ending with "my panda my choice, mom"?
Just curious.
@@Sphnxfr "what do you make of Mei using her new-found panda-based popularity to make money" - a nice twist, normally it's the "i have to hide it" plotline.
it was nice seeing that change. and honestly, get that Monopoly money girl!
"and the movie ending with "my panda my choice, mom"? -eh a quick and the movie ending with "my panda my choice, mom"? - cute play on the "you're not going out dressed like that! cliché
"and it's all fixed with a sob story and a sorry"
And Turning Red isn't? Seriously though, turning red has a worse conclusion than Encanto, I've actually lived with a tiger mom and they don't change their ways after one heated confrontation.
@@chiangkai-shrek1575 With turning red Mei gets to the source of the issue in the bamboo scene, even then her mother tries to get mai to leave through the portal with her, and there's a clear timeskip,
showed by the repairing of the stadium, Tyler now being a part of the main 4 friend group, and Mei's mother trying to make small steps in accepting Mei's friends by inviting them for dinner. we even got glimpses into why Mei's mother is the way she is earlier in the film.
Encanto on the other hand, there's no timeskip, no small steps there's just a complete 180 of the grandmother's character, she goes from "you need to stop! it's your fault", "Bruno didn't care about this family" to "everything's fine yes banished son you're back home! it's all good! MUSICAL NUMBER TIME!"
like I get it, for a happy resolution you need the characters to change a lot fast, but The grandmother in Encanto's instant change is far too abrupt. it's instant, Bruno was banished for so long but it's just ... fine now?!
@@cobaltblu4196I think encanto was quite rushed as well, but at least Abuela apologised for her mistakes.
Alsi, abuela never really hated Bruno. She didn't banish him, Bruno just left because he knew that people would see his vision in a bad light.
In Turning Red, Mei finds her mom crying in the forest and takes a walk with her to the portal and then Mei's grandma just hugs Mei's mom and suddenly, everything's okay?
Also, Mei never really makes up with her mom in the panda realm either, she decides to keep her panda powers and we cut to a year later where it's a happily ever-after????? This makes even less sense than Encanto, because at least the family reconciles through "All of You", here there's no context whatsoever
It pisses me off of peoples main comment about people being negative about this film is “it just wasn’t made for you” that is one of the weakest arguments I have ever heard.
There are many points I would like to put out there, perhaps not as an Asian-Daughter but as a Mexican-Daughter who greatly related to this movie:
1) High stakes don’t always mean death. The stakes here are more personal, more emotional. The stakes for Mei are between her individuality and the relationship with her mother. That’s why in the climax when she finds her mother’s soul as a teenager and one decides to suppress her panda and the other doesn’t they verbalize the fear they have of growing apart. And perhaps many have never had to experience it that way but for me one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make is follow my own path despite what my parents’ expectations of me were. Just like Mei I was terrified of losing my relationship with both my parents, and maybe mostly with my mother.
2) The red panda and period situation was a joke, because it is an obvious one. But it’s not the entirety of what the monster means. The way I interpreted it is that the monster is the unpredictability that many immigrant parents fear in their kids. The “falling out of line” and not being who they expect us to be. Which is why Mei keeps her panda, perhaps being the only woman in generations to do so in her family. Coming back to immigrant families, we value our relationships with our parents so very much. And many of us choose to keep that “monster” hidden as long as it means keeping that relationship with our families “happy”.
3)The red panda being a female only situation makes a lot of sense. In my experience, when it comes to immigrant families we tend to put a lot more pressure on our girls to meet expectations and become the women we want them to be. Whether we are the oldest or not, immigrant daughters carry the expectations of their families on their shoulders. Making us the ones who have to, in most cases, suppress our red pandas for the sake of our families.
4) In the most respectful way possible, relatability doesn’t always equate a good movie. Especially when we come from places of privilege. Sometimes movies will show us perspectives that we have never lived ourselves or considered, and in doing so we might think the movie ain’t good. In my opinion this movie isn’t a 10/10 but it is definitely up there. The stakes are realistic (within the fantasy aspects of it) and so are the relationships between mother and daughter. The comedy makes sense when you think about the protagonist and her friends being tweens. And I absolutely love the stylistic choices in the animation.
I watched this movie with my parents. And at the end of it we couldn’t stop joking about how funny it would be to meet my grandma’s red panda. And how my mom’s panda and mine are now in good terms. Funny how sometimes the family trauma, once healed, allows for conversations like those.
Honestly, as someone who basically isnt an immigrant (even most recent ancestors have me a 5th generation. Ive lose virtually all connection to our country of origin), your points are still relatable. My mum has major expectations over me, be they religious, how i present, my sexuality, etc, and i dont meet most of them. I still have yet to come out of the closet over the fact that im trans, because i believe she wants me to be this big man, a concept i personally despise. I cant even imagine how bad these must be for an afab person
You said it all perfectly! Exactly what I was thinking!!
@@Mia-bo2dk Much love to you dear, and thank you for sharing your perspective which is every bit as valuable. 💖
@@sofiamartinez3742 much love to you too. It means a lot to get support over these times, especially now that my mum is mandating i go to a building for a belief i dont even share
"FURRY = BAD" NOW, GET A LIFE!
I don't think the mom was unrealistically overbearing speaking as someone who's mom would come to my classroom and have a fight with the school guard to bring me my lunch. I personally loved the movie, it felt so authentic to the way I grew up and my relationship with my mom. Boy bands, friends, cringe and goofiness, thinking the world would end if you disappointed your mom, a lot of the movie felt like I was looking back at 13 y.o me and it made me so emotional even if people who can't relate to the experience think it's predictable.
I had a strict, religious mother, and honestly, despite being cartoony, mei’s mom was just like her. This is the kind of stuff she would do to me.
I think you missed some points that you seem to have realized by now. I didn’t read the comment section yet but I will first say: being the red panda had multiple metaphors that sprung from each other. At first it could be that she likes red pandas because of her family, it could be that it was her period, but it was indeed different from her friends because they didn’t come from the same family.
In her family her mom was very controlling. It was realistic and relatable for many many people who grew up with intense religions or overly traditionally minded parents who instill shame in their children, even if unintentional, though they can also be intentional. Also, I thought your point about normalizing menstruation had already been done once before…then that isn’t normalizing. Having a period is not always a poetic thing. Sometimes it would be a wild emotional rollercoaster, I mean most of the time it is otherwise there wouldn’t be this terrible negative stereotype and gaslight technique of the overly sensitive young girl or woman in general.
I think it is great that you recognized where you might have missed the message. I hope you get the chance to watch it again and watch it with these stories in mind, it could do a lot to help you learn and grow as well-as a person and a film reviewer. Anyhow, I mostly enjoyed your review. I will be subscribing and watching more of your stuff.
Ps. I just finished watching the video and really appreciated how your issues were specifically tonal and you just not picking up on the nuances. This is a great movie for pasty white boys to learn from (I am a reddish white American married to a Filipina living here in the Philippines. It makes us more aware and awareness breeds intelligence which can breed empathy and love.
For everyone calling out Schaff for being biased and not understanding the movie due to how he was raised... yes. This movie really can only be understood by people who have had this kind of childhood. The tiger mom, repressing your emotions, and overall being a girl with a strict family. So I don't blame him at all for not understanding the movie, and thus feeling like the movie wasn't for him. Because, no offense, but this movie wasn't made for you, it was made for people with those expierences that get pushed to the side and not talked about. Thanks again for your perspective on it!
The "it was not made for you based on your situation" argument is so weak.
@@ElKaelo516 I mean I guess but its true in several situations.
As a 13 year old, this movie is very heartwarming for me. I believe that the “cringe” stuff is meant in there for realism of what teenagers are like. I personally liked it and I give it a 7/10
Yeah and the fact the mom unintentionally acts like a Karen and is Final Boss material in the finale
I agree, I’d also give it a 7/10
I'd also give it a 7/10. It's not the best Pixar film, personally, but I thought it was pretty good.
Yeah, 7/10 is fair. Pixar can do way better
Idk why but this comment made me realize that people born in 2008-09 are teenagers now and that makes me feel like a dinosaur for some reason
My mom hated this movie, which was kinda sad for me. She said that it was implying that friends are more important than family. I was kind of shocked she saw it that way and didn’t know what to say. I get where she’s coming from, but I think she’s stuck in the viewpoint of the mom in the movie.
Alternatively, I really related to it! I totally feel overwhelmed with expectations for being a certain way. The point of the movie is that at times, it feels easier to be yourself around friends than your family because you’re scared of loosing your family or separating yourself from them. That’s why Mei is so scared of turning to her mon and begins avoiding her.
Maybe my mom just saw herself as the mom, and was unable to relate to the kids like I did.
You have a tiger mom. Stay strong.
YES exactly! i'm honestly relieved my mom didn't watch the film with me because I have a feeling she would've hated it too.
@@fa1ruz sometimes it definitely feels that way. I know that like the mom in Turning Red, she does really worry for me and wants the best, and she does love me. She’s not as severe as Mei’s mom, but I do feel really self conscious. I often can’t talk about my interests without her making some kind of comment on how they are a waste of my time. She doesn’t get that I actually do a lot of work and stress about it becoming self reliant, and just have interests outside of that as well.
Although since I’ve moved out at started going to college, it’s gotten a lot better (I don’t think I realized how stifled I felt before that). We’ve communicated a lot better and understand each-other a lot more.
We talked about the movie a bit more, as she just worries about family/guardian figures being seen as villains rather than the complex people they are. That really is true! It can be easy for a child to see the end scene (I won’t spoil it) as a hero-villain fight. This can lead to children becoming resentful towards their parents with any opposition.
But it’s important to see the other side as well. Without this kind of representation, children might not realize that their parents or family aren’t perfect. Every person is complicated. It is easy for people to get stuck in their own concerns and feelings that they often forget those around them. That’s not necessarily a “villain”, but rather a person who needs to talk it out to build understanding, just as my mom and I did.
Of course she’s not perfect, but she’s doing better, and I love her so much for that
same. I watched this movie with my mom and younger siblings, and at one scene my mom said something like "poor mom, Mei lied to her". it really shows that she sympathized with the mom, and kinda missing the point the show was getting at :v
@@nimaizal yeah! Like yes, Mei lied and that was bad, but the important part was that she felt she couldn’t tell the truth to her mom
Having grown with both mom and dad being teachers at the same school I was for 7 FREAKING YEARS (11yo to 17yo) and them (especially my mom) being super overprotective and always knowing what I did at class, the mom aspect of the movie really hit home for me. My mom would burst into class yelling at my classmates for something as mundane as me losing my hat. I always felt that immense pressure of being the son of 2 teachers and having to behave perfectly, get good grades and still feel like I was never good enough, so I think they really nailed that part of the relationship with the mom character. I do think the generational trauma was done much better in Encanto, but I think the main message was to learn to let your emotions out and love yourself for you trully are, instead of just keep it down. Still, I don't think this as good as the best Pixar movies or Encanto for that matter, but I would recommend it and I think it's a very funny movie with a distinct design and art style. Also, I laughed in every scene her friend Prya (hope I didn't butcher the name) was in, her blank, stonecold monotone reaction to everything was so funny, it reminds me a lot of Rosa from B99
“It seems kinda shallow that people just like that one thing about her and hang out with her cause of that and not her personality”
my friend you have clearly not met the people in my high school
I find absurd so many people tried to argue "no child acts like that,no child would do that" when it's a complete lie. I remember being 13 and doing extremely cringe stuff,Mei's drawings in her notebook? Yup that was me,obsessing over characters for the first time.
It was a fun charming movie,I appreciate this refreshing direction Pixar is going in,and I appreciate that it seems instead of twist villains,now we're getting antagonists. Abuela and Ming are two characters I love to discuss about,since despite their actions still causing harm,their intentions where never evil,and they grow from realizing and admitting their mistakes.
This also makes me realize both Latino and Asian families are very alike and have more in common than I ever thought,I wonder why that is.
Latina (peruvian) here, I agree 100%
A lot of this stuff just comes from POC families coming from a background of being an outsider and having to be more cautious because of it
I think a lot of people who come from collectivist cultures can relate.
Also that is just selective memory. Holy smokes I was cringe like MeiMei as a preteen/teen. Everyone out here acting like they never drew/wrote/read fanfiction at that age lol
Add Arab families to the mix, and from what I’ve heard, Indian families too. Honestly at this point I think that Western/European families are the outlier, the rest are like this. Since most of us English speakers live in European countries (+the US and Canada) we see stuff from the lens of that population. We think what is normal here is normal everywhere, and everything else is an outlier, when that isn’t true.
i was way cringier than mei at her age. this movie actually toned it down lmao
I gotta agree with some of these comments. My mom was EXACTLY like her. I don’t know if this is just me, my friends also related to this too. Immigrant families have different beliefs about raising children. It may seem extreme to others but this is just how we were raised. When Mei’s mother went to that cashier guy, I got flashbacks and felt her embarrassment. The ending conversation with Mei and her mom actually made me cry. I really love that I can finally relate myself so much through these characters. I hope others agree with me too.
THATS WHAT I WAS SAYING even if I am not so a Chinese girl but an algerian one I related just a lot about mei and her mother I just really loved this movie for this and almost everything actually
omg i had flashbacks too
Absolutely. The "if I'm not good enough for her, then I'm not good enough for anyone" broke me completely. The other part that destroyed me was when Mei's dad finds that video of her goofing around with her friends in panda-form and was so supportive, a stark contrast to her mother, and it was so devastating because it was something I wish I got growing up...
It's not just immigrant families. My friends mother is just as bad and a big reason for that is because she raised her daughter alone in a dangerous city so she really went overboard.
What about sitting out side your classroom watching you, just in case she needed pads. That’s crazy, if your mother was like that I feel bad for you because that’s traumatic imo.
imho i don't think turning red is for everyone (same as any movie tbh) but personally i don't know if any animated movie has resonated w/ me as much as this one. the whole dynamic of being the only child and a girl, growing up in a culture different from that of your parents (my family is not asian but parents from my part of the world are also quite strict & conservative), trying to find yourself and become your own person but also not knowing how to handle it, being afraid of jeopardizing your close relationship w/ your mom because she doesn't fully know how to handle the fact that you're growing up either...i experienced all of this too and so parts of the ending did make me laugh but i cried a lot too at the forest scene w/ mei mei and the younger version of her mother.
I may be biased, but I totally love this movie. It reminds me of my growing up, especially in the moment where Mei meets her mother in the spirit world and she says something about not living up to her mothers ideals (not sure how exactly it was in english), so I relate to the movie and its message of not having to live up to your parents ideals (the same reason I loved Encanto lol) and also it was kinda funny to me and also I loved how they had such diffrent characters - Meis friend group is made up of a white girl, an Indian girl, Korean and her. Overall, I'm super in love with how this movie is so relatable to people like me and also is not afraid to show pads and other period stuff, since its seen as gross or sometimes even immoral to talk about that
The "classmates liking Mei for being a panda, NOT for her personality" is this movie's equivalent to 13 year olds being friends with the rich kid because they have tasty snacks. It's understandable and it fits the theme. Also, as an asian AND an only child like Mei, that mother was NOT cartoonish LMAO. I remember my mom constantly going to school to check up on me like a stalker, being over-protective and blaming other kids for stuff that was probably my fault. The movie was great because it was actual good representation. But I understand the low rate because that's just how the west, and probably even other places, view great representation, boring or sometimes "unrealistic" (based on their standards.
Ok, this has to be the most I've disagreed with one of shafrillas's videos
I actually interpreted that as her classmates liking her real self, her weird, extroverted wild side that she fought to hide from her more traditional mother. Like, if we look at it through the subjective lense of metaphor, the panda is not as much the personification of periods but of maturation, the developing of your true self, to become your own person and not an extension of your parents.
Just because it happened to you doesn’t mean it’s a regular thing, am I supposed to believe every Asian mom is like that irl, sounds kinda racist.
Yeah in this video he misunderstood most of it. He doesn't know what's realistic because he hasn't been in any of the situations. Seeing Mei fight with her mom and while her mom is this giant and Mei is so little feels so close to home.
Can you like a comment more than once? Seriously, you NAILED IT! Western audiences DON'T get that and typically rely more on fetishy/fantastical and false "representation". This was a phenomenal film, especially coming from someone with a mother like this who isn't Asian-American. My sister and I definitely had a lot to say and take away from it in the best possible way!
This movie really didn’t deserve all that hate it got from Twitter, imo I doubted this movie at first but after watching it I actually enjoyed it. It was a little bizarre lol but we were all at that cringy age before. Overall solid 8/10 film
If Twitter hates a movie it means it’s good
What ever deserves the hate it gets from Twitter
Any sane person should not be on Twitter anyway.
This movie was very mid. Generic “hip” pop culture kids written by boomers and a lazy story that’s basically a more domesticated kung fu panda
Well, first off it’s Twitter of course they’re going to hate it. Second of all, I think this is one of the only Pixar movies that genuinely made me cry because of the mother since she reminds me of my mother and the issues I have to deal with. Thirdly although it’s not the best, it’s still pretty enjoyable to watch.
I feel like, instead of Mei's mom being just unrealistic or unrelatable, for me the characterization of her failed because there never felt to be a sufficient explanation for her to be the way she is. I've never had a mother like Mei's mom, but at the same time, I've never had a dad like Marlin or a grandma like Abuela, but they worked better for me: Marlin's whole family got murdered by a shark, and Nemo, the only one left to him, has a bad fin and can't swim properly because of that event too. Abuela's hot husband sacrificed himself for the magic of the candle and to protect the family/community, and Abuela can't forsake his sacrifice and the responsibility. These explanations are more or less sufficient in letting me know the sources of their flaws, why they act the way they do, whereas Mei's mom is just...??? Her mother was strict too...I guess??? And that to me, and I assume to Schaffrillas too, and to a lot of the other people without very similar personal experiences, is not convincing enough for us to fully understand/believe the stakes and conflicts of the story and characters.
A lot of the comments seems to make a point to Schaffrillas along the lines of "just because you're not an Asian 13 year old girl and can't relate doesn't make it a legitimate flaw", but I argue that it is a genuine flaw, especially for studios like Pixar - their whole aim is to tell stories that are universal and fundamental to human nature. I was never a French rat who wanted to cook, but Ratatouille still executed their plot and characters in a way where anyone can understand why characters act the way they do and make the choices that they make. Invalidating the criticisms for Turning Red because the person making those critiques have not had personal experience similar to the ones in the story is almost like getting annoyed at someone who doesn't laugh at an inside joke that they don't know about. While the joke may be funny for some, the fact is that it is just something very specific to a certain group, and not something that is fundamentally funny or well told.
Well, Mei's mom portrayal is realistic in that there isn't necessarily a reason behind thé behavior of a person. Given that they're asians, it's probably that she reproduces the way she was raised. It could be that she's just projecting her anxiety on her daughter. There's not always a need for a big, traumatic event for someone to act in an extreme way. Sometimes, just the way you're raised or your anxieties are enough. Heck, I'm white and french, but I related a lot with this movie. I think that it helped that I'm a female, and I agree that males may not empathize to the plot or characters, especially if they didn't grew up in the same cultural background, because this movie talks about a lot of things that only teenage girls get to experience. (Hope my english wasn't too bad though)
@@captainchieuse2445 Your English is good. I still disagree with your opinion, though.
While sometimes "just because" can work as a character motivation, a lot of times this type of characterizarion flattens characters and makes them "just because" antagonists. This robs a story of a layer of depth when all of the actions taken by the antagonist are due to being the designated "bad guy." The best characters have motivations that are clear and understanding the reasons behind these actions makes for a satisfying viewing experience.
I’m gonna say something that my mother always tells me whenever I have an argument with her: ‘When you have kids, you’ll understand’.
Ming acts like this because she wants the best for her kid. It’s as simple as that.
Yes, she’s overbearing, controlling and completely irrational. But when you start thinking ‘if it’s for my child, I’ll do anything’ then her actions start making sense.
When Mei keeps her panda and escapes to the concert, Ming’s mother tells her ‘look at what you’ve done, this is your fault.’
It’s clear that Ming has a detached relationship with her own mother. It can be implied that her mother was exactly like her, even worse. When she was young, she fought back against her mother and hurt her. The guilt of this eats her up inside. So she chooses repress what she wants and who she is, just to make her mother happy. She expects the same from her child, and thus the cycle continues. ‘Cue generational trauma’
Parents think they know what their child needs, a lot of times they think they know better than the child themselves.
Is it okay? Absolutely not. In fact it can be very toxic and unhealthy, but the reality is that’s how a lot of mothers think.
They will snoop around your stuff and read your messages from your friends to make sure you’re not doing anything bad. They will be suspicious of your friends and be hesitant to let you go outside and have fun. They will straight up disapprove of potentials partners you bring because ‘you can do so much better’ and they will shit on your dreams because they believe financial stability is what will really make you (and your future kids) happy.
It’s very complicated for kids of these parents to explain this to other people, because deep down we know that their overbearing nature comes from a good place. The fact that they’re worried means that they care. They want us to be happy in life, and they believe they know what’s best for us. That’s just the way it is for a lot of families.
I agree with everything you wrote (including Abuela's husband being hot) ty comrade.
a commenter named Arianddu commented this, and i think that they captured what i want to say better that i could:
"When a movie is so rooted in a certain cultural context..." There. Right there. That's where you show exactly how much you missed the point, and why we need more movies that don't centre boys, especially read-as-white boys as the protagonists. I'm a pasty white, Australian born Euromutt about to turn 50, and this is the first movie I've seen in my life that connects with how it feels to be a girl going through puberty. And I suspect that is why you don't connect with the movie - you've never been asked to put yourself into the emotional space of a pubescent girl, and you have no reason to. The fact that the characters are Asian and Canadian has some relevance to the story, but you don't need to be rooted in that culture to understand the experience and the emotions - any more than you need to be a fish to understand the central concern of Finding Nemo."
that was their comment :)
it's not- i feel as if a lot of the male white reviewers are so blindsided by the fact that it's a slice-of-lifey movie about a prepubescent asian girl in the west, perhaps because it's such a realistic setting, that they don't look beyond the tropes of prepubescent-girl-movies- it's straight to "periods!!" and not "the struggle between being oneself and being part of a whole", the struggle of wanting something for yourself that's different than what your parents want for you. i don't think that white men were conditioned to relate to immigrant/asians/girls the same way that i was conditioned to relate to them.
i guess it's harder for some audiences to see why mei's mom is the way she is without having a mom like mei's mom. i can't quite tell how good the movie was at "explaining ming" because i already understood her immediately, perhaps because i've lived with someone like mei's mom for most of my life. i already understand why she is the way she is, why she does what she does.
as someone who personally likes the movie, this video really helped me understand the contrary perspective more, so thanks for that!