Pixar’s ‘Turning Red’ Explores The Mother-Daughter Dynamic and the Pressure To Be Perfect
Pixar’s new film features Meilin Lee, a 13-year old from Toronto who faces the pressure to be perfect for her mom, but also be her authentic self; all while unexpectedly turning into a giant red panda.
Meilin the protagonist in ‘Turning Red’ / Pixar Animation Studios
Besides the super cute animation and lively spirit of the films protagonist Meilin Lee, Turning Red explores deep and emotional topics that can pull at the heartstrings of young kids to even older adults. Meilin is a young teenager living in Toronto, Canada who’s goals are to attend a boy band concert and be with the cute register guy form the convenience store. Her and her three friends are the epitome of young teenage girl relationships as they swoon over the boy bands members and worship their fan posters on the walls religiously. However, Meilin isn’t like the rest of the kids at her school, and has no such thing as an ordinary family life.
Meilin and her family own a temple right next to her house where they give tours and share their culture and ancestry to locals or tourists in the area. One of Meilin’s main responsibilities is to upkeep the temple and most importantly, help out her mother. Meilin’s mother is your typical strict parent. Obsessed with grades, after school math clubs, and absolutely NO boys. Under any circumstance.
She sees Meilin as her ‘MeiMei’ and does everything in her power to protect and spy on her. She’s the type of mom who watches every action of her daughter like a hawk. Since her and Melin work together in the temple, they’ve grown close over time and have built and tight knit relationship. Although Meilin’s mom enjoys this, Meilin feels trapped and unable to enjoy a typical, teenage life.
She yearns to go to party’s, concerts, and have a boyfriend; all things Meilin’s mom strictly prohibits. The film explores the relationship between a strict mother and free-spirited and rebel teenage daughter; a trope very common in the real world. They argue and fight, and the more Meilin resists her mother, the more she comes down on her with consequences that strain their relationship. On top of these normal problems a young girl faces, Meilin doesn’t know an even bigger problem is coming for her.
One morning, she wakes up as a giant red panda. This, of course, causes her to enter into a panic which leads to her mother chasing after her in the city. She later learns this is something that would happen to her eventually, just like it did to her mother, aunts, and grandmother before her. This realization is startling as all Meilin wants is to be a perfectly normal and cool teenage girl. Thankfully, there is a solution to her problem which involves a ritual meant to contain the power of her panda inside in object to prevent her from turning into one each time she senses a strong emotion.
Despite Meilin and her mother’s desire to rid the panda from their lives, over the course of the movie Meilin begins to like the idea of her panda. After lying to her mom about going to math practice, she instead turns into her panda for the amusement of her friends to earn money to go to her concert. Although the topic of the panda had brought Meilin and her mother slightly closer together, she still felt the need to lie to her and go behind her back as a typical teenager does. Their relationship during the movie is shown as one that involved little trust and neither of them were willing to openly share their feeling to each other. Meilin was constantly rebelling from her mother and they were distant since they couldn’t relate to each other or communicate their feelings well.
Towards the end of the movie, Meilin has the realization that she wants to keep her panda instead of going through with the ritual to keep it locked away; something her mother also highly disapproves of. This leads to them having a big argument where Meilin runs away to attend the concert despite the planned ritual. This drives her mother mad, as she turns into her own panda and chases after her. The entire chaotic yet entertain sequence showcases an extremely common obstacle experienced by mothers and their daughters. Often times, daughters feel misunderstood and like what they care about is disregarded by their parents. This is evident through Meilin’s attempt to try to get her mother to understand her, but when she refuses to, Meilin has no choice but to run in the opposite direction. After researching the stories of the filmmakers behing this movie, it’s clear their own personal experiences with their parents influenced a lot of what the movie is about.
The films director Domee Shi, also grew up with immigrant parents and a strict mother that had a hard time understanding Domee’s desires and interests. I always find it heartwarming when a filmmaker or storyteller crafts an original story based upon their own experiences as it makes the story that much more authentic and heartfelt. This movie in particular speaks on motherhood and daughterhood on so many levels which intertwining the creative and entertaining imagery of a typical Pixar film.
While Meilin and her mom find themselves in a heated fight at the end of the film, the conclusion of the story is nothing short of emotional and like the film in its entirety, relatable. When the fight comes to a close, Meilin’s mother finally agrees with Meilin’s decision to keep her panda and she’s willing to forgo the ritual that is supposed to contain the panda. This understanding between Meilin and her mother happens when Meilin begins to see why her mother is as protective as she is, and Meilin’s mother understanding her daughter’s desire to be free and live her life. This mutual understanding between the two of them helps Meilin’s mother see through her own childhood trauma as realize she’s inflicted a lot of what her own mother did to her on Meilin. This breakage of generational trauma is an incredibly deep message that is sure to resonate with big audiences who can understand both Meilin and her mother’s point of view.
The filmmakers manage to craft a film that is not only fun and entertaining for all audiences, but weaves in a message that is so deeply rooted in mother-daughter relationships. The end of the film highlights how often parents inflict everything they were taught as a child on their own children, but fail to understand that might not be the best way to approach things. Meilin represents the kids who grew up feeling trapped under the care of their parents and felt they couldn’t fully express themselves or their interests out of fear of getting in trouble or failing to upkeep family beliefs and traditions. However, this movie portrays the importance of letting kids be themselves and that it is possible despite the reservations some parents have just like Meilin’s mom. The pressure Meilin felt to be a perfect daughter all the time and not feel comfortable to express her true self and interests is a challenge all kids face at some point or another in their childhood. The bravery Meilin has to demonstrate to her mom what she truly cares about and wants in her life is truly inspirational and a good way of showing Meilin’s self initiative and ability to fight for what she wants. While they both fight and argue, the turmoil of their relationship proves very realistic to how many parents struggle to relate and connect with their teenage kids. This representation of familial relationships is something not commonly seen in the media, so this movie is a great addition to Pixar’s films as it reveals a side of storytelling they haven’t touched on much.
All in all, Turning Red is a fantastic film that highlights important messages and themes surrounding mother-daughter relationships and Meilin’s pressure to be a specific type of daughter. This film is likely to resonate with audiences with a wide age range and especially with those who grew up with similar feelings to Meilin or who feel themselves represented in the challenges faced by her mother.