Turing red is a 2022 Pixar film starring Rosalie Chiang, a Chinese Canadian actress who played a young girl named Mei Lee. This movie is directed and written by Domee Shi who is also a Chinese American actress. Shi also directed the Pixar short animation Bao. This film is rated PG and runs about 1 hour and 40 minutes on Disney Plus.

Turing Red is Pixar’s newest 2022 animated film based around growing up and facing all the challenges that life has to offer. This movie explores the life of the main character Mei Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), an Asian Canadian girl who is faced with many life challenges and obstacles–from having a crazy mom (voiced by Sandra Oh), to her family from China coming to visit. These challenges don’t cloud
her perspective; she has a great life, her parents trust her and she has a great group of friends. Things decide to take a turn as something her family feared came true. With all these crazy predictions throughout this movie it is a journey to find one’s true self and be confident in who you are.

Viewers may feel like this film is just another one of those “silly kid animations.” To some that might be true. To others, if they decide to look down deep, they can see that this movie has a much deeper meaning. Mei Lee is growing up. There is nothing she can do about it because that is just the way that life is. She decides to just go with the flow. Of course just like any other teen there are going to be problems with the parents and family. Many teens might be able to relate to family issues of feeling controlled or not being able to do what they want.

Turing Red incorporates music from popular artists. Two of the most popular musical artists in the movie would have to be Finneas and Jordan Fisher who voice some of the pop stars in the movie. With incorporating pop music into the soundtrack the film cast did a good job of holding some of the viewers attention. Finneas won best original song for writing and performing the title track in No Time to Die at the 2022 Oscars Awards. Jordan Fisher also sang a reprise of “Your welcome” in the Disney Film Moana.

Turing Red is all about coming of age and the challenges that come with it. This movie shows viewers that struggling is hard and not knowing what decisions are okay. Things will work out in the end. This movie is very powerful; even if it is a children’s movie there is still something that everyone can learn from it.

If viewers take a deeper look into the meaning behind the film, instead of just paying attention to the surface-level plot, then they will surely be as touched and captivated as many other viewers were.