When you are an adult, there are only a few things that make noise as they break you. The ones that fix you, however, bring incongruous music in their wake.
The world of Turning Red is unabashedly women바카라s. Its central characters 바카라 all women and girls 바카라 overthrow the prescribed script of norms that robs women of confidence and self-worth. It also highlights the repression that women and young girls face, the emotions they suppress, as well as the silence and obedience that daughters inherit form their mothers.
When you are an adult, there are only a few things that make noise as they break you. The ones that fix you, however, bring incongruous music in their wake.
There is a moment in Pixar바카라s latest Turning Red, where Mei Lee, the Chinese-Canadian protagonist, confesses to her band of three best friends without any perceptible explanation that she cannot poof up into the giant red panda 바카라 a blessing-turned-curse passed down by Mei바카라s warrior ancestor and that transformed their women into hairy, curvy beasts on experiencing strong emotions 바카라 to entertain her peers at a party. The girls have been monetising Mei바카라s metamorphosis to raise ticket money for a boy band concert they are obsessed with, but Mei has recently learnt that releasing the panda frequently would mean she may never permanently get rid of it.
Miriam, one of the best friends, says: 바카라It바카라s fine. You don바카라t have to do it.바카라 There is a measured assurance in her words, a glaring warmth and understanding. The utterance may sound almost banal to those who may have only a feeble inkling of what being colonised in the frozen tableau of culturally sanctioned femininity means. For the rest, the unflinching kindness and support 바카라 so rarely represented in female friendships 바카라 is a cornucopia of big and small treasures. It is a well one gets to endlessly draw power from 바카라 a power that is addictive and freeing. A single expression has the power to confer on the protagonist a choice, something she, under the tutelage of her protective mother and the society in general, may have been denied.
The conspicuous brilliance and optimism of the scene lies in the fact that the girls are just 13 years old, and on the precipice of womanhood, identity crisis and self-actualisation. They are bristling with hormones. Making it to the concert is an extremely serious business. But their friendship is no gimmick. The moment 바카라 perfectly ordinary and reticent on its own 바카라 loosened a few knots in my stomach. Something churned and was immediately anchored. The music is the gift of female friendships that took me an excruciating amount of time to completely conceive and cherish. And I am obviously way older than 13.
Later, Miriam confides in Mei that she likes her when she is the panda 바카라unfettered, harmless, fun. It becomes clear in this moment that Mei has already begun to realise she is not obligated to service the concept of expectations that buries one바카라s individuality. Miriam바카라s observation is not towering or authoritarian. Nor is it fleeting that it escapes the crutches of Mei바카라s subconsious. It, in fact, helps her shape a self. Their friendship is a device through which Mei explores the deeper recesses of her female psyche. The warmth of their connection burns bright. These are deep, passionate bonds.
The world of Turning Red is unabashedly women바카라s. Everything said and done is by them, for them. At the core of it is also the repression that women and young girls face, the emotions they suppress, as well as the silence and obedience that daughters inherit form their mothers. It then makes sense that their penance also lies within and among them. They first bring ruin on themselves; they only stand guard when all hell breaks loose.
Mei바카라s mother is the mother we all know and have: She wants to govern what Mei does and how she behaves. She is overbearing, but in her own right. Mei is also us, us women and girls: She seeks her mother바카라s approval, contends to all familial and cultural expectations and does nearly everything that boxes her into the archetypical model of girlhood. Their relationship has plenty of love and joy, but is stymied by a pressure to conform. Until the red panda emerges 바카라 an allegory for freedom as much as for puberty. The panda is fluffy and free, and Mei is the most untrammelled when she is her. She twirls and zips and flits in out of the avatar with a convivial animation. She becomes the life of a party. She pins down the bully who speaks ill of her family. She is finally comfortable with herself. But her chagrin comes from her mother, who, we learn towards the end, is caught in the circuit of generational hurt. The mother did everything that her mother asked her to, but wasn바카라t still enough. She did not know what to do with the suffering, so she passed it on. In one of the most dazzling transitions in the climax, which takes place inside a mystical forest where all women of the family have to let the beast go, the mother is seen as the daughter and the daughter as the mother.
One of the other conflicts in Turning Red is also between the mother and Mei바카라s girls, although it바카라s never established covertly. The mother doesn바카라t like one of Mei바카라s friends and believes the latter to be a wrong influence on her daughter. When Mei is caught at the party, the mother immediately points finger at her friends for leading her astray, and Mei is a mute spectator to the skirmish. It바카라s the girls바카라 warm and intensely supportive presence that helps keep the panda in check, but Mei tells her mother that the family was the grounding force. Mei바카라s dilemma and anxiety is not unfounded: Giving precedence to friends over family is among the transgressions a 바카라good daughter바카라 is frequently shamed for.
What Turning Red wants for its central characters 바카라 all women and girls 바카라 is to overthrow the prescribed script of norms that robs women of confidence and self-worth. It may take women-years, decades 바카라 if they are lucky 바카라 to realise that it바카라s okay for the world to see the side they wanted to hide, one that is conveniently labelled 바카라crass바카라. That it바카라s okay to embrace the mess. That being a good daughter should not have to come at the cost of self-diminishment.
And that바카라s how one of the film바카라s most comically earnest scenes arrives: Mei owns the beast 바카라 which is also her magic 바카라 and tells her mother with the most promising temerity a 13-year-old could have: 바카라I like boys. I like loud music. I like to gyrate. I am 13 years old, accept it.바카라 Panda Mei then goes on to gyrate in Panda mother바카라s gigantic face 바카라 even if it is to distract her for the sake of performing the ritual on her. Mei바카라s authority latches to the viewer like a second skin. It바카라s honest and beautiful and moving.
Turning Red is a distillation of a series of acts of acceptance and breaking free. It바카라s about learning to let each other go. And letting go can be messy. One of Pixar바카라s most commendable feats is how it never deems it necessary to explain anything. None of the characters are in actual opposition to the other. All the little acts 바카라 none of which are neatly resolved 바카라 are rendered toothless in the face of the final act. The end, in fact, comes together like a patchwork quilt. The sum is greater than the parts.
Nothing explains the bravery of Turning Red better than those who made it: For the first time in Pixar바카라s history has a movie been made and led by an all-women team. Turning Red thrives on its compassion. But it바카라s also savage. That women turn into mammoth creatures could as well be a deliberate act. Who understands it better than women that it바카라s time to take up space 바카라 physically, emotionally.
Anshika Ravi is a Delhi-based writer