Review: Pixar's "TURNING RED" is Universal and Unique

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 8 of 2024 (No. 1952) by Leroy Douresseaux

Turning Red (2022)

Running time:  100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)

MPA –  PG for thematic material, suggestive content and language

DIRECTOR:  Domee Shi

WRITERS:  Domee Shi and Julie Cho; from a story by Domee Shi, Julie Cho, and Sarah Streicher

PRODUCER:  Lindsey Collins

CINEMATOGRAPHERS:  Mahyar Abousaeedi and Jonathan Pytko

EDITORS:  Nicholas C. Smith with Steve Bloom

COMPOSER: Ludwig Goransson

SONGS: Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell

Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/FANTASY/COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring:  (voices) Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Hyein Park, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Orion Lee, Wai Ching Ho, Tristan Allerick Chen, Jordan Fisher, Finneas O'Connell, and James Hong

Turning Red is a 2022 animated fantasy and comedy-drama film directed by Domee Shi and produced by Pixar Animation Studios.  It is Pixar's 25th full-length animated feature film, and it is the first to be solely directed by a woman.  Turning Red focuses on a teen girl who is dealing with her demanding mother and the changes of adolescence when she suddenly discovers that becoming really excited causes her to turn into a giant red panda.

Turning Red opens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2002.  It introduces a Chinese-Canadian girl, 13-year-old Meilin “Mei” Lee (Rosalie Chiang).  She lives with her parents, mother Ming (Sandra Oh) and father Jin (Orion Lee).  Mei is a dutiful daughter to her mother who calls her “Mei-Mei,” and she helps take care of the family's temple, “the Lee Family Temple,” one of the the oldest temples in Toronto.  The temple honors the Lee family ancestors instead of gods, and it is dedicated to Mei's maternal ancestor Sun Yee.

Mei is also dedicated to a trio of girl friends:  Miriam (Ava Morse), Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), and Abby (Hyein Park), and all three of them are dedicated fans of the boy band, “4*Town.”  Life is busy, but it's about to get complicated.  The morning after a night of humiliation, Mei wakes up to discover that she has been transformed into a giant red panda.  This is a condition that happens when Mei is overly excited, but it can be cured.  But what does Mei really want?

In the early days of the Disney+ streaming service and in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Walt Disney Company released three Pixar feature films as direct-to-streaming releases:  Soul (2020), Luca (2021), and Turning Red, declining wide theatrical releases for the films.  These were and still are three of Pixar's greatest films, but they are finally getting belated theatrical releases in early 2024.  [Soul in January 2024; Turning Red in February 2024; and Luca in March 2024.]

Turning Red is an incredible coming-of-age story, and like Pixar's Oscar-winning Brave (2012), it is a story of transformations and of mother-daughter relationships and all the love and support and trials and tribulations that come with it.  Its beautiful, terracotta-like colors amplify the film's sense of magic and magical realism.  The variety of faces, body types, skin colors, hair styles, and clothes and costumes are a testament of how culturally expansive Pixar's films set in the human world are.  Everything about Turning Red invites the entire world of moviegoers to come along on this timeless, universal tale of a child coming into her own and learning to love herself as she is becoming and to love her parents for what they were, are, and can be.

Domee Shi and her co-writers, Julie Cho and Sarah Streicher, have created a character, a world, and a scenario of which I believe I can be a part.  I am an old-ass Black man, a million miles away from a 13-year-old Canadian girl of Chinese descent, but Turning Red makes me understand that what the girl experiences are in some ways similar to what I've experienced.  In a way, I am jealous of Turning Red and of Meilin Lee because I could never embrace the messy strangeness in me to the extent that she does.  I definitely did not want my freak flag fluttering in the wind too much.

There is so much to like in this film.  As usual, the animation is up to Pixar's astronomical standards, and Ludwig Goransson's score infuses itself into the film so much that it seems as if the animation is performing a concert.  Speaking of music, I'm embarrassed to admit that I like 4*Town, the band, and its three songs performed in the movie, which are written by the sister-brother team of Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell.  And I couldn't love the movie if I wasn't crazy about actress Rosalie Chiang's multi-layered and energetic voice performance as Mei.  Chiang makes Mei feel like a real girl, genuine child in the throes of change and transformation.

Some have said that Turning Red's setting and its lead character, Mei, make the film not timeless and universal like Pixar's other films.  They can go screw themselves.  Turning Red is universal like other Pixar films and also unlike other Pixar films.  Turning Red is Pixar high art and Disney magic, and it is a truly great film that I plan on watching again and again.

10 of 10

Sunday, February 11, 2024

NOTES:

2023 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins)

2023 BAFTA Film Awards:  1 nominee: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins)

2023 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nominee:  “Best Motion Picture – Animated”

2023 Image Awards (NAACP):  1 nominee: “Outstanding Animated Motion Picture”

The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is Action Movie T&A - Tedious and Amazing

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 45 of 2022 (No. 1857) by Leroy Douresseaux

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Running time: 139 minutes

MPA – R for some violence, sexual material and language

WRITERS/DIRECTORS:  Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
PRODUCERS:  Daniel Kwan, Mike Larocca , Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Daniel Scheinert, and Jonathan Wang
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Larkin Seiple (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Paul Rogers
COMPOSER:  Son Lux

SCI-FI/COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring:  Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong, Tallie Medel, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Randy Newman (voice)

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a 2022 science fiction and comedy-drama film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.  The film focuses on an aging Chinese-American woman who discovers that she must save the universe by exploring all the other universes and connecting with the lives she could have, but never lived.

Everything Everywhere All at Once introduces Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese-American wife and mother.  Evelyn and her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), own a struggling laundromat.  Tensions are high because the laundromat is being audited by the IRS and because they are dealing with an intense, by-the-book, IRS inspector named Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis).  Waymond is trying to give Evelyn divorce papers, and her demanding and elderly father, Gong Gong (James Hong), has just recently arrived from Hong Kong.  Finally, Evelyn and Waymond's daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), has been trying to get her mother to accept her girlfriend, Becky (Tallie Medel).

During the meeting with Inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre, Waymond's personality suddenly changes.  According to this new “personality,” known as “Alpha Waymond” (Ke Huy Quan), he is a version of Waymond from another universe, and he has taken over her Waymond's body.  Alpha Waymond says that he is from “Alphaverse,” one of many parallel universes (the “multiverse”).  He explains that “verse jumping” technology allows people to access the skills, memories, and bodies of their parallel universe counterparts.  He says that Evelyn must learn “verse jumping” because only she can save the multiverse from the threat of “Jobu Tupaki.”  The problem is that the Evelyn of this universe has never been good at much of anything.

Writer-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as “Daniels”) are quite inventive and imaginative.  Everything Everywhere All at Once is filled with crazy ideas and crazier universes and the craziest characters.  Still, I find the mechanics of this film's concept of a multiverse and how one traverses it to be not that interesting.  Every time, Alpha Waymond started talking, I found myself bored and considered stopping the film.

Luckily, the Daniels created engaging and lovable characters for Everything Everywhere All at Once, and they are played by a very skilled cast.  First, I am always happy to see the legendary Chinese-American actor, James Hong, who plays “Gong Gong.” and in this film, he has an opportunity to show the breath of his abilities.  Secondly, I am a huge fan of Jamie Lee Curtis (A Fish Called Wanda), and she gives an electric performance as the tough-talking IRS inspector, Deirdre, but she also makes a poignant turn as the “hot dog wiener fingers” universe version of Deirdre.  Ke Huy Quan plays several versions of Waymond so well that you might believe he is the lead character.  Stephanie Hsu is crazy, sexy, cool, dangerous, and even world-weary in her multiple turns in this film.

But Michelle Yeoh (Memories of a Geisha, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) is the goddess here.  Apparently, the lead role in this film was originally written for Jackie Chan, who would have been magnificent in such a role in his younger days.  Circumstances, however, allowed Michelle Yeoh to show that she has the acting chops and the physicality to take on the kind of roles that have been afforded Jackie Chan for decades.  Yes, she is a great actress, and though Hong Kong and Chinese audiences have seen her range, I doubt many American moviegoers know that she could be so good in such a physically and emotionally challenging role as Evelyn Wang.

The influence of the Wachowski's groundbreaking 1999 film, The Matrix, on Everything Everywhere All at Once is obvious.  Ironically, Yeoh was one of the actresses considered to play “Trinity,” the lead female role in The Matrix.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a whole lotta sound and fury for a film that is ultimately about the conflicts that can define a mother-daughter relationship, as well as basic family dysfunction.  I also think that it could have done the same thing in a considerably shorter run time than two hours and 19 minutes.  Everything Everywhere All at Once is good, but not great, and any greatness that it does have, it has because of the all-time great, Michelle Yeoh.

6 of 10
B
★★★ out of 4 stars

Friday, July 29, 2022


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Negromancer News Bits and Bites from August 19th to 25th, 2018 - Update #19

Support Leroy on Patreon:

BREAKING - From ABCNews:  Senator John McCain has died at the age of 81, Saturday, August 25, 2018.  A seven-term Republican senator from Arizona, he was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, from 1967 to 1973.

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TELEVISION - From BleedingCool:  ABC Studios is developing a reboots of the classic TV sitcom, "Bewitched" (1964 to 1972), this time starring an "interracial" couple.

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JAMES BOND - From BleedingCool:  Rumors about why Danny Boyle departed as director of "Bond 25."

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STREAMING - From TheGuardian:  An article about Stephen Maing's Hulu documentary, "Crime+Punishment," about a group of minority NYPD officers who took on the illegal quota system.

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MOVIES  - From Deadline:  Lena Dunham is among new cast added to Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood."

From TheWrap:  Mike Moh will play legendary movie star, Bruce Lee, in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood."  Article contains a link to a fine interview with the author of the biography, "Bruce Lee: A Life."

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CULTURE - From Deadline:  Revered Chinese -American actor, James Hong, speaks on his career on on the success of "Crazy Rich Asians."  Wong never thought it would take this long.

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COMICS-STREAMING - From Deadline:  Brendan Fraser will star as "Robotman" in "Doom Patrol," for the streaming service, "DC Universe."

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TELEVISION - From Deadline:  This coming TV season, the 2018-19 season, will be "The Big Bang Theory's" 12th and final season.  The popular CBS comedy will end its record-setting run in May 2019.

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MOVIES - From Collider:  Peter Jackson's World War I documentary is entitled "They Shall Not Grow Old," and it will premiere October 16th at the 2018 BFI London Film Festival.

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JAMES BOND - From Deadline:  Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle is out as director of the 25th James Bond film, which is due in U.S. theaters in Nov. 2019.

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AWARDS - From TheWrap:  2018 MTV VMA winners list.

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From Deadline:  TNT has ordered a talk show pilot from its "Claws" star, Niecy Nash.

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BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficeMojo:  The winner of the 8/17 to 8/19/2018 weekend box office is "Crazy Rich Asians" with an estimated take of $25.2 million and also an estimated $34 million over its five days in release.

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SCANDAL - From YahooNews:  #MeToo figure and Harvey Weinstein accuser, Asia Argento, apparently paid off a male teen who accused Argento of sexually assaulting him.

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TELEVISION - From Deadline:  Fall Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series: 2018 Edition

MOVIES - From TheWrap:  Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves have reunited on the film, "Destination Wedding." But Ryder thinks she and Reeves were actually married during a wedding scene in 1992's "Bram Stoker's Dracula."  [That is one of my all-time favorite films.]

OBITS:

From THR:  Veteran entertainment journalist, Robin Leach, has died at the age of 76, Friday, August 24, 2018.  Leach was best known as the host of the syndicated TV series, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" (1984-1995).

From Variety and TVLine:  Film and television producer, Craig Zadan, has died at the age of 69, Tuesday, August 20, 2018.  Zadan and his partner Neil Meron produced ABC's Academy Awards telecast from 2013 to 2016.  He produced the original "Footloose" (1984), among several films. He produced NBC's recent string of live musicals, beginning with 2013's "The Sound of Music Live!" up to this year's "Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert."

From BBC:  Former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, has died at the age of 80, Saturday, August 18, 2018.  In 2001, Annan, born in the African nation of Ghana, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work.

Review: "Kung Fu Panda 2" Brings Awesome Back

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 45 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
Running time: 90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG for sequences of martial arts action and mild violence
DIRECTORS: Jennifer Yuh
WRITERS: Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger
PRODUCER: Melissa Cobb
COMPOSERS: Hans Zimmer and John Powell

ANIMATION/MARTIAL ARTS/COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: (voices) Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Gary Oldman, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, James Hong, Michelle Yeoh, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Haysbert, and Danny McBride

Kung Fu Panda 2 is a computer-animated film from DreamWorks Animation. A martial arts, action-comedy, it is the sequel to the Oscar-nominated 2008 animated film, Kung Fu Panda. The sequel is every bit as good as the original, but the action and fight scenes in the new movie not only surpass the first film, they are also better than anything yet seen in computer-animated films.

Following the events of the first film, Kung Fu Panda 2 finds Po (Jack Black), the giant panda, living his dream as the legendary Dragon Warrior. He protects the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, the legendary Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Monkey (Jackie Chan). Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) wishes to continue Po’s lessons by helping him pursue inner peace.

However, Po and the Furious Five must race stop a powerful new enemy, Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), the exiled son of the late Peacock Emperor. From Gongmen City, Shen plots to unleash a powerful new weapon that threatens to destroy kung fu and help him conquer China. For Po, however, there is something familiar about Shen and his murderous army that paralyzes him whenever he faces them. Suffering from bad dreams, Po must delve into his past, the place he doesn’t want to go. If he doesn’t, Shen will win.

I must admit to being in love with great martial arts fighting scenes. I could watch the fight sequences in films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and even Ninja Assassin on a continuous loop. The fight scenes are what really won me over with Kung Fu Panda 2. It’s still hard for me to believe that computers can create this kind of character animation and movement with such precision and dynamism. I don’t know if I should call it high tech virtuosity or art as the illusion of life. Kung Fu Panda 2 has some of the most beautiful animation I’ve ever seen and rich hues and colors that sparkle.

This movie is not all about the visual spark, however. Kung Fu Panda 2’s story has heart and also the kind of compelling character writing we’ve come to expect from Pixar’s films. Po’s struggles with identity and his origin and the fear that engenders are genuine to the point that you might start worrying about him as if he were a real person. I can say that same thing about Lord Shen, a thoroughly fashioned character and the kind of complicated, complex adversary usually reserved for films seeking Oscar nominations. Gary Oldman does a splendid job in his voice performance as Shen, emphasizing that while Shen is the contrast to Po, they also have similar issues.

Anyone who tells you that Kung Fu Panda 2 is more of the same may not quite be full of crap, but they’re more than half full. This is a sequel that is a continuation of the original’s excellence, and Kung Fu Panda 2 is one of the year’s best.

9 of 10
A+

Sunday, May 29, 2011

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Review: First "Kung Fu Panda" Kicked Butt

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 43 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Kung Fu Panda (2008)
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – PG for sequences of martial arts action
DIRECTORS: John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
WRITERS: Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger; from a story by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris
PRODUCER: Melissa Cobb
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Yong Duk Jhun
EDITOR: Clare De Chenu
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Raymond Zibach
COMPOSERS: Hans Zimmer and John Powell
Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/MARTIAL ARTS/FANTASY/FAMILY

Starring: (voices) Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Dan Fogler

Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 computer-animated, martial arts, action comedy movie from DreamWorks Animation. It is the story of a lazy, genial giant panda who dreams of greatness and suddenly finds it thrust upon him.

Kung Fu Panda is set in ancient China, specifically the Valley of Peace (a fictional place), which is inhabited by talking animals. That is where you will find Po (Jack Black), a giant panda who is also a kung fu fanatic. He lives with his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong), a goose and a noodle maker. Mr. Ping, who does not care for kung fu, owns the most popular noodle restaurant in the Valley and wants to one day pass the shop down to his son, Po, who would rather become a kung fu master.

Po gets more than he expects when a kung fu master, the elderly tortoise, Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), suddenly and unexpectedly chooses him to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Po is the prophesied Dragon Warrior! However, the man chosen by Oogway to train Po, the diminutive red panda, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), is unwilling to believe that Po could be the Dragon Warrior. Even Shifu’s students, the legendary Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Monkey (Jackie Chan), don’t believe in Po.

Po will have to believe in himself and make his dreams of becoming a kung fu master into reality. Shifu’s former student, the vengeful and treacherous snow leopard, Tai Lung (Ian McShane), is headed to the Valley of Peace, and it will be up to Po to defend everyone from him.

I consider Kung Fu Panda to be the best film from DreamWorks Animation, to date. Virtually everything about this film is done to perfection. Every voice actor is just right for his or her role, but I must single out my favorite, the wonderful James Hong as Po’s lovable father, Mr. Ping. You can imagine that he does a really good job to get singled out, considering Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, and Ian McShane are superb in their respective rolls. Everyone brings his or her character to life in a way that matches topnotch performances in live action pictures.

The films by Pixar Animation Studios are so good that it is easy to forget that DreamWorks has become the co-gold standard in computer animated films. While Pixar excels in scriptwriting and storytelling of their films, DreamWorks has come to surpass them in software and tech. Computer-animated films generally do not have the character animation and movement on display in DreamWorks films, particularly those released during the last three years or so.

Kung Fu Panda moves like a Looney Tunes cartoon short – with the chaos of a Road Runner cartoon and the madcap comedy of a Chuck Jones Bugs Bunny short, but it does everything faster; the movement is so much more complex. The most important thing, however, is that Kung Fu Panda is just a great story about a lovable wannabe hero; he must put aside his slacker ways and psychological issues to be the hero he always wanted to be. Po the hero succeeds and along the way, his story, Kung Fu Panda, also reaches the summit.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2009 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film of the Year” (John Stevenson and Mark Osborne

2009 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film”

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

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