Turning Red (Pixar)

[Diddy]

Did anyone see this? I don’t know if it was just straight to streaming or what - probably thought they didn’t need to bother with a big distribution of the main characters are ethnic miniorities (hi Mulan).

Weirdly I’m listening to a Ghibli podcast interview with the creator but fuck knows what she took from Ghibli, I struggle to think of a film further away from it.

Maybe the Ghibli marathon has ruined American animated movies for me forever but this was about as subtle as 9/11.

I’m sort of used to animated characters being fairly shallow, defined by about two bullet points, one of which being the character flaw to be ironed out by the end - not so much primary colours of personality, more like neon colours. Everyone was so exaggerated, it was exhausting.

I had a similar experience with that movie last year, the Mitchells vs the world or whatever it was. I felt quite disappointed this is where Pixar are now

 

[Diddy]

I was reading an interesting review by an Asian-American critic who really didn’t get on with it, and while I’m as white as white can be, it said a lot of things that had been bugging me about this and Shang-Chi.

It’s not that Shang Chi was bad or anything, but it does feel like any Asian-themed American movies end up with the inevitable tropes of eastern mysticism and magic family curses, as well as the usual stereotypes about Asian women being either whores or dragon ladies

 

[Ellie]

I wouldn’t say it was an Asian family mysticism trope. It’s Teen Wolf but with a young girl.

I personally loved it.

 

[COB]

I haven't seen it, but I have enjoyed the various online reviews that have blown up into Discourse™. First there was the guy who claimed that the film about a Canadian-Chinese girl wasn't relatable (to him as a white American man) and also blatantly misunderstood the central metaphor of the film - I think it ended up with the site he works for reassigning the review to a different writer. THEN there was the YouTuber who said how unbelievable it was that a children's film set in 2002 didn't have any references to 9/11, which was roundly mocked:


And my favourite:

 

[Diddy]

Oh my well at least I mentioned 9/11

Tbh I didn’t really get why it was set in 2002 at all, that has no bearing on the story at all. Even the boyband felt more like they could’ve been in the present day.

Totally blew my mind that Billie Eyelash and his brother wrote the boy band songs. They didn’t do a bad job but whose idea was that? Billie was born in 2001 (same year as 9/11)

Was it all just because it was a fairly thinly veiled autobiographical movie?

 

[Christian]

Disney seem to enjoy punting all the latest Pixar stuff straight to Disney+. Not that I'm personally bothered, I find their output middling at best these days.

The Mitchells film was fun enough but I agree, introducing even the tiniest degree of subtlety and nuance really wouldn't go amiss.

 

[Phoenix]

Oh my well at least I mentioned 9/11

Tbh I didn’t really get why it was set in 2002 at all, that has no bearing on the story at all. Even the boyband felt more like they could’ve been in the present day.

Totally blew my mind that Billie Eyelash and his brother wrote the boy band songs. They didn’t do a bad job but whose idea was that? Billie was born in 2001 (same year as 9/11)

Was it all just because it was a fairly thinly veiled autobiographical movie?

Yes because unless you were alive during a time period you cannot possibly make art about it

I thought it was a cute movie, I’ve never been big on Pixar but it was lot less offensive/a lot more subtle than something like Inside Out

 

[Diddy]

Yes because unless you were alive during a time period you cannot possibly make art about it

I thought it was a cute movie, I’ve never been big on Pixar but it was lot less offensive/a lot more subtle than something like Inside Out

I didn’t really mean that like Billie & bro weren’t capable, I just thought it was a bit of a weird curveball for them to be asked, especially making songs that aren’t exactly what they’re known for.

James Bond, that made sense for me, this? not so much