Turning Red 4K 2022 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Toronto, 2002. Active and cheerful 13-year-old Meilin tries her best to be the first in everything in order to please her strict, overprotective mother. The girl's family lives at the temple and worships the Goddess Progenitor. One fine morning Meilin wakes up and sees a red panda instead of her usual reflection in the mirror-now when she is worried, angry, or experiencing other strong emotions, she turns into a big beast. Not only does this happen at the most inopportune moments, but attending a concert by Meilin's adored boy band, 4-Town, and her friends is threatened.

Review 4K Movie

This film was unexpectedly very realistic. A girl turns into a two-meter monster when she feels strong emotions and starts wrecking the town--viable? Yes, even very, of course, for a cartoon where everything is hypertrophied. The clumsy and even dangerous red panda is a metaphor for growing up, conveying the feelings children have as they go through it. You can't stop the changes, they happen unexpectedly and even frighteningly: everything just seems disgusting - you lived a hormone-free life, and suddenly you're a hairy stinker.

The plot is based on the relationship between the girl Mei and her slightly hyper-abusive mother. Although the problematic itself is not new, it is well presented--Chinese culture in Canada has a lot of humor, colorful friendly animation and good staging. Most importantly, the mother is also revealed as a hero with her problems. She is not made out to be the villain who was willing to ruin the child's life for her monsters, as she usually is. On the contrary, she tries precisely for the good of her daughter, just not taking into account the needs and desires of her child, preferring her own vision of the world, which in the end becomes a problem. Mei also makes a mistake, preferring to conform to her mother's requirements.

Special kudos to the film for the secondary message referring to puberty. In this film, it is a minor line that reveals the main conflict between mother and daughter. The main character is 13, and for most people accustomed to the thirTEEN image, this is an appropriate age for the protagonist, who is entering puberty. However, growing up, most girls and boys start much earlier - it happens from the age of 9 and even earlier. That's why the film's age rating falls into place (6+) - the right time to tell a child about sexual changes.

We can also highlight an important detail: the film is presented as intended for both female and male audience, but the bias is still towards the ladies. Taking into consideration that there is a male character of the main character's age in the film who could have made the movie more universal for everyone, some people will take it as a minus, but on the other hand, all the emotions of a child turning into a teenager are present here, they are just portrayed through a female character. And emotions, as we all know, are the same. No physical changes, except for turning into a panda, are shown in the film, only mentions of them.

For me, the main problem with the cartoon is the idea that everyone will accept you, that all people admit their mistakes and strive to make amends. I think it's very important to emphasize this in works like this - there are people who will understand and love you, and there are those who will probably never accept you, and you just have to try to get along in this complicated world.

The other downside (or not) is the main character's dad. This is a completely characterless character who just needs a father to be there. His presence seems like an attempt to cram in a character who has no role at all, but it also might not be considered a minus if one relies on realism (fathers rarely play a big role in such families), which is not very appropriate for the genre.

To summarize, I can say that the cartoon was impressive - it hit a nerve, you might say. The visual component is impressive - neat, beautiful and elaborated animation, although cartoonish. The characters are perfectly voiced, the soundtrack is also good. The idea is revealed. Recommended for viewing.