What to Know About Pixar's Turning Red Before Watching with Your Kids
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Pixar's Turning Red is creating a lot of chatter.
Directed by Domee Shi, who won an Oscar for Pixar's 2018 animated short Bao, the coming-of-age film follows a young Chinese-Canadian girl named Meilin "Mei" Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang) who transforms into a giant red panda when she feels strong emotions.
As Pixar's 25th feature film, the story is breaking new ground for the animation studio as it's the first Pixar film to be solely directed by a woman, according to The New York Times, and the second to feature an Asian lead following 2009's Up.
While the film offers great representation and features a heartwarming story, it has recently started some conversations surrounding what some consider its mature themes, including puberty and teenage rebellion, for its PG rating.
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"I think the red panda encompasses anything. I've talked to a lot of reporters and they've picked up their own message from the film," Chiang tells PEOPLE. "I think that's really interesting, that it's so universal that anyone can take anything from this film. Because it's all these different genres combined — coming-of-age, it's comedy. It's all that."
Before you watch the film with your kids, here's everything you need to know. Warning: some spoilers ahead.
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There's some light language
Throughout the film, the kids use words like "crap," "stupid," "heck," and "butt." At one point, Mei calls a boy at her school named Tyler a "jerkwad" and later tells her friends to "shut up" when they freak out over her turning into a red panda.
The main character rebels against her parents
When Mei turns into a red panda, her emotions are heightened, which in turn causes her to lash out at her parents on occasion, including talking back to her mom.
At one point in the movie, Mei pleads with her mother to let her attend a concert for her favorite band 4*Town (whose songs are written by Billie Eilish and FINNEAS), but her mother tells her she can't go. Instead of listening to her mom, Mei and her friends raise money to buy their own tickets and make a plan to secretly attend the concert behind their parents' backs.
Toward the end of the film, Mei confronts her mother at the concert and yells at her, saying, "I'm not your little Mei Mei anymore. I like boys. I like loud music. I like gyrating. I'm 13, deal with it!"
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There's some violence
When Mei turns into a red panda, a big blast of pink smoke envelopes her, which causes some disruption in various scenes. Since becoming a red panda can also make her emotions heightened, she loses her temper on several occasions. In one scene at school, she throws a dodgeball at Tyler's head when he makes fun of her, and during his birthday party, she attacks him for bossing her around.
There are some light sexual themes throughout
Mei and her friends have crushes on various boys, including members of a boyband called 4*Town. At one point, Mei fantasizes about one boy in particular, drawing pictures of her and him sharing an embrace in her notebook, which causes her to sweat and turn red.
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There are some scenes that could be scary for young kids
At the beginning of the film, Mei has a nightmare about the red panda legend which shows her family's temple turning bright red and the statues having glowing eyes. The dream also has several slightly jarring images of people as flowers and mermaids flapping out of water.
As Mei attempts to get rid of her red panda, her family holds a ritual, which shows her levitating and having glowing red eyes.
The film addresses puberty
When Mei turns into a red panda for the first time, her mother thinks she has gotten her period. At one point, her mother asks, "Did the red peony bloom?" and she attempts to have "the talk" with her daughter.
Turning Red is now streaming on Disney+.
