It’s a new month and there’s a new Disney-Pixar movie on Disney+ Hotstar for Indian (and international audiences) to lap up. This time around, we delve deep into the world of 13-year-old Meilin, who does everything she can to live up to her mother’s exceedingly high expectations of her. Of course, 13 years is such a fun age to be (said Achachan, sarcasm dripping from every syllable). I remember when I was 13 years old—high-pitched voice that would switch frequencies whenever it felt like, body hair sprouting in weird places (never on the face though sadly), all sorts of itches and rashes and zits and pimples and other colourful skin ailments that seem to descend on you all at once. And that’s just the outwardly physical stuff. My brain was an insane asylum all on its own; I was a zitty, pimply, weird-sounding ball of insecurity and underconfidence, always grappling with whether I could ever be cool like the cool kids, whether girls would like me, whether I wanted girls to like me. Just thinking about it is giving me palpitations!

In that sense, Meilin is more sorted than most. She is confident, she is kind, and she has three best friend-sister-warriors, Miriam, Abby and Priya, to help her navigate the perilous landscape of 8th grade. She is the quintessential good kid of her neighborhood, acing her tests, learning a musical instrument, helping her mother out at the family temple. However, with her own need to never disappoint her mother, she does end up bottling her own feelings and interests, be it her diehard fanhood of boy band 4Town, or the fact that she is slowly developing romantic interests of her own. When her mother finds a journal which Mei has filled up with her teenage fantasies of the 17 year old who mans the nearby convenience store, she flips out, drags Mei to said store and lambasts him, embarrassing Mei in the process. As a result, Mei turns into a giant red panda. Perfectly normal, right? Well, this is an animation film after all. What’s a good animation film without a little whimsy?

While there is a backstory to why Mei turns into a bear-shaped ball of fluffiness, I personally loved how it stands in as an allegory for everything girls go through when they hit adolescence. It’s an emotional rollercoaster to say the very least. Mei has to learn how to control her emotions and keep the panda in or learn how to live with this side of hers forever. And in one of the most profound moments in the film, we get this gem of a life lesson, “People have all kinds of sides to them, Mei, and some sides are messy.” In the long run, you don’t want to lock away a part of who you are.

The animation is top notch, the voice acting is brilliant, and while the themes that are at play might be a little mature for six to seven year olds, I still feel this is essential viewing for all children, just to remind them that growing up is never easy, but it can be easier if you give yourself a break from time to time and you surround yourself with loved ones. I absolutely loved how Mei’s girl gang always has her back and never gives up on her, even when she gives up on them. That, and the fact that they don’t push a love angle on Mei—I did think they would, but kudos to the writers for keeping it real! Someone online mentioned how between Inside Out, Encanto and Turning Red, there has been a definite shift in how the classic, larger-than-life villain character in animation films has been replaced by growing pains and everyday issues. And that’s not a bad thing at all.

As of 16 March, 2022, Turning Red is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.