Not Pixar’s worst but far from their best, Turning Red is a stripped down and over-simplified tale; a film that can only be described as relatable due to the wide and uninspired net it casts.

As tough as it is to admit, Pixar seems to have gone astray over the past decade; their Midas touch that once turned everything to gold now an over-saturated curse, dull karats stretching as far as the eye can see as the Disney-owned studio release an average of one to two films a year. Quantity over quality. Ever since Toy Story 3 wrapped up the Andy trilogy with a satisfyingly acceptable bow, Pixar’s canon has felt hollow, churning out off-the-shelf sequels and prequels that are enjoyable but incomparable to their predecessors – Monsters University, Cars 3, Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 4 to name a few.

But there are a few ‘original’ gems. Coco and Inside Out may be new properties, yet they never compared to Pixar’s golden age, Soul the only real challenger to their legacy. Turning Red boasts a simple, personal, and relatable story; hopefully Pixar has found a way out of the rut and are ready to once again create compelling narratives that both entertain the young and challenge the old. A film that isn’t an endless list of ‘and then’ moments, isn’t hollow caricatures whose lives only revolve around the protagonist. The simple answer is that Turning Red is exactly what I have come to expect from Pixar of late; flat and unmemorable.

Overall, writer & director Domee Shi’s feature-length debut is consistent and coherent, already a step above Cars 2’s manic trance-like plot (I still don’t understand how a film about racing cars felt the need to include a James Bond-type bathroom brawl). Following young Chinese-Canadian teen Mei Lee (Rosalie Chiang), and her relationship with her stereotypically strict mum, Turning Red’s premise is easy to swallow: a metaphor for accepting oneself and womanhood, Mei turns into a giant red panda whenever her emotions run awry.

The analogy between Mei’s red panda transformations and menstruation is not only an obvious one but is even spelt out, Mei’s parents referencing the similarity multiple times. Nothing can be left unsaid, every message requiring an explanation to ensure that it is indeed hammered home – and once it is, it is either repeated till the credits roll or forgotten about. Very little changes or progresses, the few plot points that emphasise some form growth tend to feel one-note, rushed, or jammed in without a second thought of cohesion.

For example, Mei’s relationship with her mother, Ming (Sandra Oh), is that of the over-bearing parent and innocent child who wants to please. Mei, already struggling with self-acceptance, has to overcome her mother’s wishes and figure out who she wants to be which, obviously, comes at Ming’s chagrin. Mei stands up for herself and boasts individuality, Ming resisting the change with every fibre of her being but, instead of showing their relationship, we hear a lot about it. We see Mei’s drive for approval yet it is rarely felt – so many important and emotional moments watered down into easily digestible chunks just to switch quickly back into one of the many mindless pop-driven montages.

Where did it go wrong? On one hand, Turning Red is extremely relatable however it is its lack of depth that hurts it. For such an overprotective mother, Ming lacks the duality of a parent who is willing to accept their child – Gilmore Girls’ Mrs Kim fulfilling the same roll but better. Shi has spread her story too thin, attempting to tell a mystical metaphor alongside a down-to-earth teenage drama, yet Mei’s life is never expanded outside of the film’s gimmick, all of her school friends feeling inanimate as their sole purpose is to be walking stereotypes.

What is confusing is how impersonal the affair is. Mei’s journey (along with her friends’) lacks life as she walks and talks like a modernised episode of Hannah Montana: a theatrical display of unwitty comedy mixed with a barrage of over-stimulating edits that closely resemble the impatience found in TikTok users.

Am I just too old? Am I no longer part of Pixar’s audience? Probably, but when I re-watch Toy Story or Finding Nemo or The Incredibles I still enjoy them as an adult, discovering new aspects that cements these animated masterpieces as timeless classics. Shi’s own Pixar short film Bao still brings tears to my eyes and Turning Red is essentially the same story stretched to an hour and a half – all that extra time filled with surface-level relationships, trite tropes, and a red panda that gets in the way of a good film.