As you may know, Pixar's open letter to Disney confirms what we already knew,

[conuly]

namely that Disney is being run either by cowards or mealy-mouthed hypocrites and homophobes.

Nevertheless, we did watch Turning Red. Despite none of us being Chinese or Canadian, and some of us not even having been alive in the relevant decade, we all found the movie pretty relatable.

There's that so-called "soft bigotry of low expectations" rearing it's ugly head again, I guess. Oh, those poor white boys, unable to relate to the challenges of adolescence!

"It is clear that I didn’t engage nearly enough with the movie, nor did I explain my point of view well, at all."

Buddy, that's not the problem. The problem isn't that you didn't explain your point of view well, the problem is that you did, and apparently still don't understand that this is the problem.

Comments

[calimac]

I was intrigued by the reviewer's comment "This was exhausting," because I also found Turning Red a bit exhausting, but that was because of the fast pacing (not every movie is too fast-paced for me: Encanto wasn't) and had absolutely nothing to do with the setting. I also am neither Chinese nor Canadian, nor even female, and I'm closer to the grandmother's age than the parents', but I had no trouble relating to or liking Mei and her friends, and I found the issues of early adolescence, which I take to be the theme of the film, to be vividly relatable.

[conuly]

http://web.archive.org/web/20220307192648/https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/disneys-turning-red-review-in-pixars-latest-comedy-girls-just-wanna-have-fur

[calimac]

I'm sorry, what was your intent in sending this link to me? I don't agree with the author's dismissal of the film, as I hope my comment made clear.

[conuly]

It seemed you were wondering if there was a different context to that specific excerpted phrase.

[conuly]

And, of course, I should have been careful to read the original before posting the articles, especially as I'm not familiar enough with that person to know that the reporting was likely accurate.

This is something I try to remember to do out of principle, especially when I agree with the conclusions in the first source I read. But sometimes I forget.

[lilysea]

Yeah, as a white woman who has been a 13 year old girl, I found the movie pretty damn relatable.

And also, even if I hadn't have, NOT EVERY FILM NEEDS TO BE ABOUT ME.

[shadowkat]

It's interesting - Turning Red did have a homosexual character in it - but he's relegated to the background and kind of snuck into it. (Now we know why and what Pixar has been fighting.)

I had mixed feelings about the movie. It's not my brand of humor - I don't like slapstick or embarrassment humor (but I'd say that about 90% of American situation comedies - so my take is hardly the universal one). That said? I did relate to it - the mother-daughter dynamic, and being your own person is very relatable and universal. I even cried at the end. I really liked the end of the movie. Also it's nice to have it be about a girl for a change, who embraces her inner beast or red panda. Plus, I liked the Chinese Folklore. And the animation was good.

[conuly]

Oh, so it's not one of the girls? Huh.

[shadowkat]

The boy who is the bully - and turns out to be a huge fan of 4 Town, and kind of into the lead singer in a romantic way? He's the one with the party. It's very subtle - but I picked up on it. Pixar sneaks it into their movies.

[rahirah]

His point of view came through loud and clear. It was just a stupid point of view.

[shadowkat]

Agreed. What I liked about the movie was that it was based in Toronto and focused on Chinese culture. It made it different. I'm kind of bored of white heterosexual male coming of age stories that take place in NYC or the midwestern, US.

[jessie_c]

Disney is being run either by cowards or mealy-mouthed hypocrites and homophobes.

[conuly]

I wonder what that kid's doing now.

[hudebnik]

Yes, the movie is set in a very specific time, place, and subculture, while saying things that are universal to the human experience. The same can be said for most movies; are "The Graduate", "A Wonderful Life", and "Gone With The Wind" unrelatable? Come to think of it, are Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", "Richard III", and "Romeo and Juliet", with their specific historical, geographical, and socioeconomic settings, unrelatable?

This movie didn't "wow" me the way "Coco" or "Inside Out" did, but it does a good job of what it sets out to do -- explore the conflicts of friendship, the mother-daughter relationship, and puberty.

That said, I suspect that Disney is run less by homophobes than by homophobephobes -- people who are terrified that if a homophobe anywhere in the world says something negative about their work, they'll lose sales. Which is always true, but you can't let it rule your life. It's like Democrats worrying that Republicans are going to call them Socialists: of course they're going to call you Socialists, no matter what you do, because that's their job.

[conuly]

Disney can afford to cut their losses, they're already a phenomenally wealthy corporation.

[silveradept]

I haven't seen the movie yet, but just from the trailers, it seems like it would be potentially a fun movie to watch, but I also feel like I don't have to have movies written and tailored specifically for me before I will consider them fun.

Oh, and also, Disney is more than happy to take money from queer people, but definitely doesn't want to give them queer content, because they're more afraid of losing money from angry bigots than from queer people that might very well go ride or die for them if they actually took a stand in favor of queerness and stuck to it.

[conuly]

It is infuriating.