Horrible. Skip this. Watch “Brave” instead. The usual “coming of age” mother daughter relationship theme, already boring, but they also did a horrible job on top of it.
(1) Confusing message of the movie
- Basically, Mei wants to go to a $200 concert with her friends. The mother says absolutely not. The point of the movie is.. mother learns to not control her daughter too much -
How deep and meaningful that is.
Merida in Brave wasn’t fighting over a stupid concert. She was protesting against sexist society where women are to act a certain way, even being told how to laugh etc. And marriage.
But Merida’s actions also have consequences, almost turning her mother into a bear forever tearing the family apart.
Being brave is not about being reckless, but taking responsibility for the messes you created, admitting you were wrong, fighting for one’s own future against traditions and double standards. They both had lessons to learn. To listen to each other, understand the other’s point of view. Improving communication!!
And here we are Turning Red is about a teenager who relies on friends too much and thinks they are better than family, sexualizes boys, and wants to go to a concert without parents permission. All the mother in Turning Red did was being a normal parent, and things Mei did were indeed concerning for any mothers. And it was the mother who has to learn something from this ?
If it was about gender, actual tiger mother, or being a Chinese/Asian, then I would have loved it. When it comes to races, it’s either white or black to a lot of people. Wasted the opportunity to create an amazing movie about Asian culture.
(2) This is definitely not for kids, if you are not ready to explain them what period and puberty are. Nothing meaningful for anyone over 17.
(3) The panda doesn’t even look cute. At least make the visuals stunning if you don’t want to put much thought into the plot.
Conclusion, this is low budget version of Brave.