No, I think you’re exactly right. “Family-friendly” movies in the Disney/Pixar world as of recent decades (beginning with, hmmm, Finding Nemo or thenabouts?) have IMHO tended to focus very anxiously on rehabilitation of a family support system under threat.
In the past, ISTM that “fairy-tale” stories were much more about a juvenile protagonist forced into autonomy by the complete collapse or removal of the family support system (e.g., wicked stepmother or uncle trying to kill you, parents sending you and your siblings away to avoid wartime dangers, etc.). Now the standard narrative is your family is crushing your dreams out of their misguided loving overprotectiveness but when you break loose to find yourself you will eventually redeem your dangerous mistakes and reunite your family in renewed understanding and love.
Reading it, that review is seemingly penned by the same type of guy who boasts “now that I have a daughter” when discussing his newfound sensitivity towards sexual assault… but actually written before the appearance of said daughter.
Even that is a longer standing theme. Ariel etc. …
The new emphasis is how initially these girls are caught up in living up to the matriarch’s expectation, their initial desire to be good enough, but feeling they never quite are. The growth line is the epiphany that sacrificing who they are in service of trying to live up to those expectations is a mistake. They are not running away. They are learning to stand up.
Well movies with minority ethnicities tend to bomb. I mean once someone tried to get traction for rom com about some big fat Greek wedding? How many Greeks are there? Who else would identify with that? What were they thinking?!
(Actually largely filmed in Toronto funny enough. And apparently there was some pressure to change the ethnic group. Resisted.)
I legit feel now that one review is going to permanently stain Turning Reds future discourse, similar to how now apparently you can’t talk about the original Wonder Woman movie and not talk about those Alamo Draft House “Women Only Screenings” that got sued.
I haven’t seen it yet so no comment on the content, but the first thing I thought when I saw a commercial for it is " the “star” of the film is based on possibly the cutest animal on the planet and they couldn’t come up with a better drawing than that?"
Nah, as someone who was literally the same age as Mei when this story is set, “dork” was just a catch-all insult. What I saw was a group of outcast girls (probably because they were all minorities) who clung together BECAUSE they were outcasts. I had a very similar situation in middle school/high school of being the brainy kid hanging out with a bunch of weirdos.
Our interpretations are different I guess. To me the gestalt, inclusive of two of them being in the same advanced math class, two others also being pushed into violin and tap, all being able to use mathlete practice as a cover story, paints a picture. Plus the other kids in the school were of diverse ethnicities, not all Caucasian. Other kids of many other complexions. They were not THE kids of color in the school.
I recognize this may represent what the show runner’s reality as a child in Toronto was, including that half the kids of the basketball team were Black but none of her close friends were. So I am not sure if it is problematic or not. But it does give me pause is all.
On another note - is located in Canada as opposed to a U.S. city, perhaps part of making it more appealing to the China market?
Mind you, I’m not saying (and I don’t think any complaints about the linked and similar reviews are saying) that nobody’s allowed to dislike or be uninterested in a coming-of-age animated film about an Asian girl in Toronto going through puberty.
I’m just saying that when a reviewer whines that the film is unwisely actively excluding him—and by extension, what he perceives as the “majority” of movie audiences—by allegedly making its “target audience” “very specific and very narrow”, then what’s revealed there is more a failure of the reviewer’s imagination than a failure of the moviemakers’ aims.
Well, you have a point there. On the other hand, there are indeed films where a controversy about sexism and/or racism during the film’s release does become a permanent part of the discourse about it. I’m not sure anybody ever mentions or thinks about the 2016 Ghostbusters remake without considering the dumpster-fire “now they’re remaking Ghostbusters with all women” controversy surrounding it, for example. I agree it would be nice if that doesn’t happen to Turning Red.
I think the only way it happens is if the aggrieved “oh I can’t talk about X without Y” crew continues to bring it up. Most people taking anything about Ghostbusters today are gamer-gate types whining about how they can’t talk about Ghostbusters.
You know, maybe the reason I refuse to ever watch any of the Cars movies is subconsciously that I just can’t relate to being a car. It just doesn’t apply to my childhood growing up as a stuffed cowboy toy.
Since the story and direction came from Domee Shi, who, as you noted grew up in Toronto, I don’t think we need to ascribe any particular motives as to why it is set there, or the particular year. Writers generally write what they know, and that is what she did. Maybe Disney/Pixar accepted her idea because it was not in the US, or maybe they just thought it would make a good film.
Oh I know that. But of course stories appeal or are modified by Disney and other companies based on marketing considerations. They are the ones who wanted to change My Big Fat Greek wedding to Italian for example.
The Chinese market is a big consideration currently. Did the story not being American per se being added value? I can see it being the case.