Disney Movie "Turning Red": Summary and Life Lessons.

I wanted to make a post to address some of the “issues” a parent has posted online for all to see. I’ll admit - when I first saw the post I was mortified & completely against letting my children watch this movie.

Turning Red is about a girl named Mei Lee. She is a 13-year-old girl who is torn between being her mother's obedient daughter and the chaos of her youth. As if that were not enough, when she gets too excited, she turns into a big red panda. Emotions of any kind can trigger her Panda.

One of the first accusations made against this movie was that it wasn’t a good choice for Christian parents that want to keep their children close to Jesus. I found this to be completely unfounded. We are a Christian family & share the values. We are raising children to know Christ in the 21st century which has more anti-religion rhetoric available to children than ever before - it’s everywhere. In the beginning of the movie, the family explains that they do not honor the gods, they choose to honor their ancestors.

My children know that there are many other religious beliefs & although this isn’t our belief we are not threatened or fearful that they will disown & walk away from Jesus because of the knowledge that other faiths & walks of life are chosen by other people.

Another claim is that Mei Mei claims she is her own person, basically an adult, and can do & say what she wants. NOT. ACCURATE.

Mei Mei is 13 & she’s not a little child anymore. When she insinuated she was an adult she added in that this was only in the eyes of the public transportation system in her city & held up a bus pass that proved she could now ride the bus without an adult present as she was 13 years old. She still loves & respects her parents. She works in their temple every single day after school- she rushes home to ensure not being late even after the pressure from her friends to ditch her responsibilities.

Mei & her friends are disrespectful to their parents and sneak out to go to a boy band concert, another far fetched exaggeration. Yes, the premise is true. They are 8th grade girls & they do complain about their parents. Mei, in particular, has an EXTREMELY OVERBEARING Mother. She gives Mei orders & does not listen or communicate with her daughter. This part was hard for me to see as good parenting. We have all learned that kids are smart & they need to be treated with a certain level of dignity & respect. Mei’s mother finds drawings of her crush & immediately goes into a frantic overreaction. She doesn’t ask questions or listen to anything, but instead she is in a manic state & drives to the location of Mei’s crush & accuses him of being a pervert. A boy Mei had never truly spoken to in her life.

Mei is distraught & can’t sleep well that night. She has nightmares about the incident. She is so overwhelmed that she wakes up & sees she is a giant, fluffy red panda. She panics! Her Mother immediately assumes she’s started her period, she doesn’t listen or look at Mei directly. She talks over her and throws pads & Ibuprofen her way. She completely disregards her daughter throughout the entire movie. The word narcissist comes to mind.

Mei eventually relaxes & transform back to herself, but now her hair is bright red instead of black. She wears a hat to conceal this from her mother & heads to school. Within a minute of the school bell ringing, Mei sees her mother outside the window with a school security officer following her wondering what she’s doing. The class gets curious & everyone sees & hears her yelling, “Mei, you forgot your pads!!!”

Mei. Is. MORTIFIED.

By this point in the movie I am disappointed in the reviews I had read earlier in the day. Mei is not an out of control, disrespectful 13 year old. But her Mother is a narcissistic, overbearing, hateful Mother & in my opinion THAT is what we need the warning post to be about.

I’m not going to give the entire movie in detail, but please watch & make your own judgements. I have daughters & I’ve made my fair share of mistakes with them. One thing I’ve always wanted to be is an amazing mother. I didn’t have that growing up-at all. I wanted to be that Mom my kids could come to for anything. As they got older, that part got harder. Sometimes they come to me for HARD things. Things I’M not ready to discuss or explain to my baby. I have to remind myself of how my child feels, I have to listen to them in that moment. I have to empathize with them & understand what they see and hear when I’m not around & then guide them. That’s my most important role. You’re children are going to grow up & they may go against your rules or disrespect your boundaries. The way you react is crucial to what happens next.

Mei’s mother embarrasses her so bad at the school that her panda is revealed. She runs thru the halls and town as a giant red panda, causing traffic accidents & major damage. When she arrives home, she hides in her room & sobs. It’s only at that moment that her parents let her in on the family secret - all the women have a panda inside them. It can be contained thru a ceremony & she will soon be able to move on from this nightmare experience.

Mei is stunned. She has never once been prepared for this & that’s another major problem. People, talk to your children. Prepare them for obstacles ahead. Remind them that things may get tough but their support system will be there the entire time.

Children THRIVE in this environment. They want to know what’s going to happen next to feel secure. Don’t keep secrets from them out of fear that they will grow up too fast. Growing up is inevitable. If you want to keep them, talk to them about it.

Mei does use her Panda for fun. Her peers think the panda is so cute & they all want photos & rides. It’s playful & fun. The post I read made this look perverse & it wasn’t. They use the kids excitement to their advantage & raise money for the concert they all want to attend with these photo op’s & rides. All the girls are crazy over 4-Town (comparable to BTS, Justin Bieber, *NSYNC, & The BackStreet Boys).

Their mothers are completely ignorant to their daughters & refuse to even look into the group 4-Town. They shut down their requests to attend without any question. Again, this is an excellent way to minimize & isolate your children from you.

In the end, MANY lessons are learned by the children & the mothers. Mei, most importantly, learns that her mother is deeply wounded from her own Panda experience as a child.

Mei’s friends do not encourage her to be a rebel. They remind her that panda or no panda, they love and support her. Even still, Mei fears her mothers love is conditional & at one point she throws her friends & her panda to the side out of sheer fear that she will lose her mothers approval forever.

This movie is a MUST SEE. I feel like the panic post that’s being shared about Turning Red could have been written by Mei’s mother. Please don’t rely on her assumptions. There is a lot to be taken away from this movie. If you want to have a good relationship with your teenage & adult children then you need to listen & communicate with them now. Don’t keep secrets out of fear, they can sense that fear and mistake it for disapproval & hate themselves for being your burden.

Don’t turn the movie off half way through & maybe you’d see that Mei & her mother come to an understanding after all of this unnecessary battling. Her mother allows her some space to grow up & Mei doesn’t feel like she has to deceive her mother anymore.

Good job, Disney. These are discussions we have always needed to have with our kids & each other.

Lead Image was From Google