Why Does Turning Red Get So Many Weird Reviews?! 

First

Those one star reviews are not the infamous review. Yes, they need to be called out for stupidity. The infamous one that blew up the internet and put the Tumblr cult on torches and pitchforks was from a professional critic, it was 3 out of 5, it's ok, and it's OK to have a targeted audience.

省电侠。。。😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 The joke made me smile

So what do you think about the ccp.

Only people with XX chromosome can menstrate. Define them.

LMAOOO

More cowbell! 😅😂

That's the best way to summarize every stupid take on Turning Red.

I feel like we forgot canda and USA are brothers from another mother

People are whack

And they absolutely 100% do not read fanfics that would scandalize their parents or share links to said stories they 100% do not read with their friends

I don't have friends

At 13 I wrote a shitty sonic fanfic. I tried writing smutt but failed since I had no sex experience. Still don’t and now I’m 22

Meh, that's just society being society and having it's weird hot takes on things. Considering there was a time period when people considered the Malleus Maleficarum as a credible source of how to treat others, imo, I'd say society doesn't always have a grasp on those aforementioned things. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Folks were just mad that this movie didn't demonize teenage girls like other shitty nostalgia bait does.

Turning Red came out the same year ultraconservatives overturned the constitutional right for women to get access to reproductive care.

Interesting that you say that since this movie seems to be almost a shot for shot remake of the 1980s movie Teen Wolf.

Sadly for them instead of look menacing they look hughable...

That's actually so cute

Oof yeah. Or when you mention that you have cramps to other people *who have menstruated for half their lives* and they're like "ew TMI." I get that some people are wigged out by any source of blood, but can we all just agree to admit that periods are extremely normal?

Even my dad who is a docter is okay with barfing during dinner, but talk about period stuff grosses him out. But my husband is really nice. I can talk openly about it and he even made me a pillow you can heat up as to help manage cramps

@@sigridbjergbakkemeyer3653 aww, he's a keeper!!

Don't forget, there is a lot of superstition around menstruation. The idea that one is unclean in that time in some way can be found in many cultures. For a long time in the past people didn't know what was actually happening in the body and explained it in funky ways. Coming from Germany, my great grandmother believed a menstruating woman couldn't make Sauerkraut, cause it would supposedly rot upon touch. It's very stigmatized.

Reading all these replies, I feel so proud about how accepting my family is about periods. My mom told me about them when I was 9. And, in fact, both my mom and dad congratulated me on getting my first one and told me how it was nothing to be ashamed of

Owwnn so cute 🥰🥰🥰

wHOLESOME

i thought that lol!

Cute!! I would have loved if she also answered "well she can't really draw below the waist" kinda like how lots of artists I know growing up couldn't draw hands so we all defaulted to drawing characters with their hands behind their backs.

What a mood. XD

I think I was hyperventilating at that part, lol. As a kid I was so deathly afraid of people seeing my weird drawings that I carried everything around in locked briefcases.

@@Newfiecat OMFG SAME😫 I'm still afraid of people seeing my "keep to self" drawings, most of the time their just drawings of me and my comfort characters.

bruh I've been waiting for the moment when it turns out that this was all a thought in her mind but no 💀💀💔

No cause when me and my friends all 3atched it, we literally paused it and had like 3 simultaneous anxiety attacks. Screaming like mad

I’ve heard of people saying they can’t watch this movie because of the flashbacks they get of their own embarrassing moments it’s too relatable XD

The media is hypocrite and indecisive 😂

when did the media ever say That

@@TurretBot Mostly in the 2010s. Thankfully all that propaganda sort of died down a little bit in 2020. It was so damn cringy, because it was less about being sympathetic to those who actually did grow up with these awful parents and more about the media trying to make fun of and generalizing millennials while making baby boomers look like a bunch of control freak Karens. 😂 You're lucky that you didn't see it.

To be fair, white parents do it pretty differently than Chinese parents 😂

@@jeanettekakareka True. White parents generally speaking aren't as overly protective and strict. That's probably why a lot of the people complaining that the movie isn't realistic aren't Chinese or even Asian in general.

Yeah... Especially since this "too mature" thing is a real-life thing that happens in literal thirteen-year-old girls' lives :/ In general I think the probably mainly US thing of abhorring things like human body functions and intimacy in media, while brutal violence is just everyday and usual to show on screen, is completely bizarre. Also, why on earth would a kids' movie have to comment on 9/11? Especially since, you know, the movie doesn't even take place in USA, it's Canada, for goodness' sake! I'm sure at the time, as a neighboring country, Canada was also affected in some ways, of course, but I find it weird how US people seem to sometimes expect all the world to be impacted by their country's affairs just as drastically as they are. Yes, I live over 4500 miles away from said country, and although I was a kid at the time, remember 9/11 being covered by the news for a while... But nothing here really changed, and it was another horrible thing that happened, in a country far away. Of course it was a horrible tragedy. But it just didn't really affect us more than wars or earthquakes or any other type of tragedy, in other countries that weren't our own.

THEY HIT_______ THE PENTAGON😭

*sigh* the American exceptionalism was particularly high in that one, the movie was set in Canada

My friend says the girl trys to monetize the "panda" selling it for parties because thats what teenage girls are forced to do in China. Is that true?

And they couldn’t be arsed to remember when puberty usually starts. It’s typically anywhere from 9-14 and over.

Lmaoo

No, no, but you see! Mei is 13, which means she's a toddler that absolutely cannot think for herself and we should think of the children, meanwhile Ariel is 18, an adult that should leave her parents' house and marry a good man who'll support her through her own life Edit: My GOD, people, FINE! Ariel is SIXTEEN, I know it, you know it, but do you really think some adult who thinks Turning Red is about satanic witchcraft to make children disobey their parents will know that???

@@claralima1967 You know what’s funny? For those who don’t know, Ariel is 16. 😂😂

@@Little1Cave Yeah, we know that, but most parents (at least most parents I know) think she's at least 18 😂😂 Let's not tell them, though, or Little Mermaid might be accused of, I dunno, encouraging teenage pregnancy

Seriously! Cinderella, disobeys stepparent. Ariel, disobeys father. Jasmine, disobeys father/runs away from home. Simba, disobeys father. Pocahontas, disobeys father. Mulan, disobeys father/runs away. Rapunzel, disobeys 'mother' figure. Tarzan, disobeys gorilla father. Quasimodo, disobeys 'father' figure. Merida, disobeys mother. Moana, disobeys father. WHY ARE YOU SO SHOCKED. It's more surprising and rare to find a Disney protagonist that 1. has living parental figures and 2. listens to them.

I'm pretty sure they believe anything that isn't Christianity is satanic

Par for the course for fundamentalists. My parents believe that everything is either godly (Christian) or of the devil (any other system of religion or spirituality).

@@dannaaay7542 right

Fundies don't exactly believe in multiculturalism. It's all or nothing for them. Which is why they are so closed minded and intolerant.

Sometimes anything pagan is technically of Satan. Since in Chrstianity even Beelzebub and other "false gods" and idolatory are seen as not of God and therefore adverse. And in the 10 Commandments God probits any other god. Granted this ritual ad nothing to d with deities so it's a blur. I'm just trying to explain Christian theology, I'm not really Christian.

yeah society is confusing

I felt called out

The style too, we’ve all been there 💀

@@mochi5512 YEAH THE STYLE... 😭

I only didn't relate because I can't draw for shit But oh boy the fan fic I wrote

@@mochi5512 Im so glad i never had an anime phase

Yep. I see this in the conspiracist/christian types. "The media wants to turn girls boyish! The horror!" But then they see girls being unapologetically feminine and see a girl's experience through the perspective of a woman and they still are not happy because "it's gross and too sexually suggestive." Honestly these guys need to get offline.

ya

Not really no.

@@ashishhembrom3905 yes really

@@chidaluokoro9104 no really

It is based on Domee Shi’s own experience

I didn't know this movie was going to be a period piece (pun gonna pun) but throughout the movie I had this strange feeling of overly accurate familiarity. Then I found out it was set in 2002 with a thirteen year old and it all clicked. This is my exact age group. I was that age in that year and the familiarity just all fell into place straight down to the Malcom in the Middle style of the main character addressing the audience.

@@ScionStorm1 Same!!

I had a feeling that was the case. Plenty of artists beforehand have based their work of their own experiences.

In the documentary Domee Shi literally said that the movie is based on her experience as a girl going through puberty in the 2000s and growing up with strict parents as a Chinese in Canada. 😃

yeah, for a lot of parents it's like their precious baby could never do things on their own. my mom flip-flopped between "it's all those friends of yours!! they're a bad influence!!" and "you are the worst child ever and no one else's kids are as bad as you" but it's funny because some of the stuff were things i actually picked up from her 😂 when i was younger i said a lot of curse words that i learned from her yelling them at me

Seconds) I'm 28 and STILL get that from my mom. Anything she doesn't like in me is an evil external influence 😈 bc kids never have a free will of their own do they But in our case I'd rather think it's post-Soviet habit of blaming everything on outsiders, Soros, illuminati and whatever

Same here me dad somehow can’t believe I do things without other people’s influence he always thinks that someone taught me to do it or influenced me

Yeesh. My parents were the exact opposite because they knew I wasn't an angel and punished me righteously if I did or said anything bad.

Right!? Nobody says anything about other fantasy or superpower movies being unrealistic, but they expect a kids movie to be "realistic??"

right? lol

And they are right to expect this movie to be realistic, Pixar always does realistic movies like Monsters INC, Ratatouille, Up, A Bug's life, Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Coco and others. Man Cars is based on a real story

@@diegocalderon5190 You had me in the first half xD

@@diegocalderon5190 Pls, I was about to go off on you and then I read further xD

+

They can't keep getting away with this

It's a kids movie. It doesn't have to be event accurate geez!

@@gimmeurshibaquik7 They're just being sarcastic

@@Fullmetalbasil I was being sarcastic too haha

Another thing is that Mei's ancestor smiled at her because she was the first relative to keep the panda

Agreed. Not to mention, these are 13 year olds. They would have had little understanding about how serious that event was until they were a but older (hell, I was in high school and plenty of my peers didn't get it).

Definitely. I grew up in Toronto during 2002 and Turning Red was pretty accurate in that there was really not too much impact of 911, at least, for a child.

I gotta say, as an American, we make really need to stop making September about us. Yeah, what happened was a national tragedy. And we responded by creating like, 50 other national tragedies in other countries. It’s time to move on and make do with the memorials.

Exactly. I'm Brazilian and I was around that age at the time, all I can remember was that a cartoon I watched on tv got interrupted because of the incident and sometimes it got broght up on news. It was a tragedy, but it didn't affect us in the same way.

@@impish_snake3526 pretty much annihilated our taxpayer dollars in the middle east and yeah the government created 50 other national tragedies.

Maybe this could be the reason as to why Turning Red is getting hate. I remember reading a comment on "Brave was a Disappointment" (which is a really great video, go watch it), which said something along the lines of "Many males (especially the writers)can't handle not being center of attention. I can think of several stories that have zero female characters, but none with zero male characters."

Turning Red succeeds as a movie because it begins the same way as Cuties, both in the story and the controversy it faced before its premiere, but it comes out much better in every way. Turning Red does not get wildly positive reception for now, but it feels like it should in my heart because Turning Red became the *GOOD* version of Cuties by being everything that should have been because Domee Shi, like most decent human beings, knew why she should not sexualize teenagers in her first movie. January 29, 2023, 1:47am

Yes yes yes! I didn't have the words describe it before but I felt the same about the typical singular boy crush vs. their general boy crush phase. So much more relatable when I think back on being a kid.

I love that, too. It was one of the things that annoyed me about Coco. Sure, his great great grandmother (IDK how many greats) is very beautiful, but I have a hard time imagining ger dying at a very young age if she was literally carrying her family.

Bruh, that blew my mind you are so right ＿|￣|○

@@justjess6636 I imagine she died at a young age due to heartbreak or overall stress

@@justjess6636 I think it was more because the only reference the audience had of how she looked was the pictures on the altar. Which may be why at the end of the movie, after his great grandmother died and was added to the altar she still mostly looked the way she did while alive.

@@justjess6636 Back then people died earlier and earlier and she still seems in her 50s so I don't even get what you're saying.

Inject hot sauce into her tampons

Your subservience to your mom is a normal trauma response to having an emotional immature parent. It takes time and support to unlearn those patterns, and it's not your fault that you're struggling with this. Do you have access to therapy? Online might be a good option for you as it would be less obvious to the scrutiny of your mom. Not that her opinions should dictate your health decisions, but I know that it's not as simple as that, and gaining independence is a skill that therapy would help with.

Yeah, true. Now day because of the internet though, I feel that many teenagers (I am a teenager) fit into stereotypes much more. You don’t find as many kids that aren’t like how media portrays them because if they don’t act like that, they’re weird. So they repress that side of them, both boys and girls.

@@avyay9818 Really? Where I am it feels like no one fits in just one clique. Even if your main friend group is a stereotype you make acquaintances with other people. Like for me I was part of the artists but I had a close friends in other bubbles like popular girls and class clowns and we exchanged interests/points of view on various things and pushed each other out of our boxes.

@@pappanalab not a bubble, but I’ve seen many people who are unique in elementary or even middle school, but then from like 8th grade onwards have all become a certain way, and start acting like common stereotypes when they are with people they don’t have a strong connection with.

I mean, what's the harm? Sure, some assholes would proceed to mock them, but most people just laughed about the absurdity of the concepts, and how quickly some of them became viral, especially with some girls on social media basing their entire personality on viral topics. Generally speaking, there's a lot of joking made at the expense of things that garner enough attention as well as the people who contribute towards those things, simply because that means more people "get the joke".

@@KazeMemaryu this is my take on it

"Our expectations for you were low but holy FUCK"

What the fuck, I am so sorry

I'm appalled, what the fuck. I hope that therapist has lost her job.

I am horrified, so sorry that someone who was supposed to help you would say something like that. I hate that as well but because I haven’t had mine yet and for years I felt as if I wasn’t “woman” enough. When I was 7 - 9, whenever we visited my (my parents have several siblings so my mom’s elder sister specifically) aunt, uncle and cousins, my male cousin would touch me when we were alone. This happened several times and my mother was only aware of one such occasion but still didn’t tell her sister. When I told her what was happening when we stopped visiting them (unrelated to this, visiting them was expensive) she just told me that I should be wary of all men, as if I wasn’t terrified of all men and distancing myself from my father. When I told my father he was flip flopping between saying that I shouldn’t have experienced that and saying that he was just a young boy and young boys experiment. He also blamed me for not saying anything. It is disgusting how people bend backwards to take blame away from men and boys who make us feel uncomfortable in our own bodies, who are literally nightmare material. You are better off without that so called therapist. I hope you are doing well.

That therapist needs therapy

The auntie I think, was hypocritical. She wasn’t exactly designed as skinny herself.

@@elainestegeman7204 which makes it realistic because this actually happens (hypocritical aunties)

My dad just installed a lock for me, I never even asked for one. Idk I’m blessed with having really chill and supportive parents 👍 (extra note: my family is mixed of white and indigenous)

My mom allways did. My door also had a key to lock from both sides. I barely used mine tho. I didn't need it.

My mom has always knocked (my estranged father never did) and I’ve always had a lock- though it was a push lock that you can open with an uncurled paper clip

Cuban Jamaican here. SAME!

Eyyyy, Rican here! Those Caribbean moms, though.

peruvian here. Very similar shit happened

indian here, SAME. the end of this movie always always always gets me in the sense that mei mei was finally accepted, and was able to be TRUE with her mom. it hit bcs it felt so personal, also maybe because i knew i'd never be accepted by my own mom. but yes definetely also the points you mentioned!

OMG SAME LMAOOOO

How dare they turn the tables and make a film where the main character is an Asian 13 year old girl struggling through puberty and her overprotective mother, her 3 friends, all female, 1 Korean, 1 Indian and 1 that could potentially be Jewish. This film does not relate to white men, but every other film exists does.

@@VioletNKisHere no literally. People can’t fathom how not every single film caters toward themselves specifically and it drives them insane

THIS!

Bruh im a white guy and I like this movie😢 (Oh wait, French Canadian 🤢)

@@bigroi2324 nobody is saying you can’t like it, I’m talking about the people who complain about it not being relatable when it clearly isn’t catered towards them

love how ur pfp is Megatron, I see you're still going strong

@@XiranJayZhao awww, thank you. 🥺

Me growing up with Transformers Prime 😅 I had the biggest crushes on Arcee and Smokescreen

@@littleartfloof Arcee, regardless of which iteration you grew up with, is the best girl. 💕

TFP Optimus Prime's shapely thighs were responsible for Lots Of Things

If it helps, I was beyond rebellious as a kid -- I was actually horrible. Lying is a normal part of development, vital to making your identity

Rebelling is a natural part of going through puberty.

If that was the worst thing you did, don't be too hard on yourself. I went down a very dubious path that could have ended badly. Got out in time and I didn't hurt anyone, so thankful for that.

The whiny idiots who say learning these things will "traumatize the children" have no clue what trauma actually is and I hate that they trivialize the word.

You're a good parent

When I was a boy I use to see commercials for menstrual products and I had no idea what it was so once I randomly had the urge to barge into the livingroom where my mom was helping my brother with something school related and I asked what menstruation was. They both just looked at me in confusion until my brother who's only 3 years olden than me said "it's when blood flows out of women's vagina every month" I just said "Ok! :D" and left.

See. It's that simple. Just treat it like it's normal. That's it. And they're kids, they won't linger about it for too long and their attention will be on something else.

See, his lack of panic at women’s bodily functions is proof of his trauma. You broke the boy (/sarcasm). I saw a viral FB post where a woman was angry the movie forced her to talk to her 10 and 8 year old daughters about periods. WHY DON’T THEY KNOW WHEN THEY’RE SO NEAR THE AVERAGE AGE!?

This!!

Sadly this is one of the reasons why my mother refuses to watch movies like this. If she knows it has a message about understanding your child, she won't see it. But she will force me to watch every movie that involves the son/daughter suffering for not listening to their parents... 🤣 Hell. Even if I managed to get her to watch it, she'd either fall asleep or at the end be like "and none of that would've happened if she just listened to her mother"

@@JewelWildmoon LITERALLY SAME THOUGH!! my mom said that Turning Red was a bit "innaporpiate", but hey any movie with a child suffering because they didn't do one thing the parent said to do is totally fine!

@@h34rteyezz86 Damn I'm sorry you have one that acts like that too 🤣 It's so hard to get em to listen to the message in those movies unless it's beneficial to them.

@@JewelWildmoon that is sad. Really sad.

I did. Also, I guarantee that the people saying "no parent acts like this" all grew up in the part of the suburbs where parents spoiled their children rotten.

@@Baldwin-iv445or they are the parents that acted like this and are refusing to believe they are bad

@@teathesilkwing7616 That is true.

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The only 2 Spanish names to ever exist according to Hollywood: 1. Maria 2. Jose

@@killerbug05 "Javier" "Juan" There are not more spanish names for social media

@@killerbug05 And Jesús I think

the same with Indian names... if I see another Rajesh or Priya, I will scream.

I literally skipped school everytime my period from when I was 10 to 12 just bc of the embarrassment

This movie is just fucking awful

@@Error_-ct2vp wrong comment section

@@tanglekelp1857 don’t care lmao this is a comment section. Not a comment section with limits

@@Error_-ct2vp Opinion invalid, go to jail.

My aunt (uncle's wife to be precise) was always very big into the entire "periods and boobs mean you're a Woman now" thing. It took years for me to realise that there was an unspoken "so you should be proud of yourself" instead of "be more ladylike" when she told me to keep my chin up and similar stuff...

In the near past it was actually a sign of full adulthood, the period was literally the natural mark of adulthood.

@@denniswilkerson5536 It's true, but nowadays with periods coming earlier and frontal cortexes finishing development way later, it just doesn't work as a mark of adulthood anymore. It might mean your reproductive system is fully online, but that definitely doesn't mean you're emotionally (or even physically) ready to bear children yet--that used to be the implication of periods signifying adulthood, and it's often still an unspoken implication, even if the people saying it would never want their kids to get pregnant right away.

@@denniswilkerson5536 Which it was an idea based only on cultural myths and traditions. It's biologically wrong, past or present.

@@denniswilkerson5536 It was also why, in the past, more girls died during childbirth. It was a misconception that getting your period means you should have children at that moment. It's not the natural mark for adulthood at all. At the start of puberty, both boys and girls are able to produce children, but in no way should. The brain is only starting to fully develop (and won't be done until you're 25) and with girls, the start of your period is to give your body time to form a natural cycle, get used to the hormones and actually develop a body safe enough to have children.

@@whatsyourname9581 Maybe because the minority groups ONLINE, are always complaining about how discriminated they are?. Rather than having an actual life, which is something minorities do in real life?

I have NEVER in my life seen so many people so desperate to see racism in a movie. EVER. These people are tripping or something.

My elementary school in New England in the 1980s was very mixed. The exception was that most of the African American students were bussed in. This was because "urban renewal" tore down almost all of the historical black neighborhood in my city. The forced removal and bussing did create a cultural and social divide. However, by the time I graduated black families were starting to move into neighborhoods that had been previously off limits. My city even elected a black mayor. So the mayor, governor, and president were all African American at the same time. So that racial line was real because of redlining and "urban renewal", however aside from that our classroom was really multicultural. Chinese, Indian, Jewish, Italian, Irish, Russian, Japanese, Canadian (lol). Some of our Chinese classmates were truly right off the boat and were learning English on the fly. Cantonese was the dominant language of Chinese immigrants then.

privileged groups expect escapist media for themselves, but when the escapist media doesn't specifically cater to their identity, they complain that it isn't realistic enough. gotta put the target audience in their place by reminding them of their suffering. 🤷

When there’s not enough racism: *_How dare you! You’re undermining a serious issue!_* When there is racism: *_How dare you! This is offensive!_*

100th like

IN COLLEGE IN FUCKING COLLEGE

Yeah~ in god damn college i need to explain that to my friends

my mom explained the birds and the bees to me like a month before my period came (i was around 11) i dont get why people have to make it seem so bad it just happens biology does that

if periods are so adult why do we get them at like 11 years old?

Moral of the story: they just need to make more movies where white people can turn into adorable kaiju, too 😌

I mean it's not like princess and the frog where she spends the majority of the movie in frog form. So that's completely different

@@akorn9943 I can't wait to see white people turning into kaiju labradors (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Also with regards to the whole "another POC turning into an animal" argument, the actual problem with that trope is that it happens too frequently to DARK SKINNED POC in animation. This trope isn't nearly as common with East Asian leads, we're not struggling to find Chinese human protags in animation where they stay human the entire film, so Turning Red's premise is fine, just don't make it the norm.

Humans are animals for you don't know

I don't know about the Canucks in your neck of the woods, but everyone I know still calls it the SkyDome.

Lmaoo my mom isn't Chinese but I relate to this

I could feel that pain, but honestly some times thinking about those moments I'm like "wow, my parents really care about the smallest things for me" Though it's overbearing and I kind of dislike those actions, but at the end of the day, I can't help but think of how much effort they are going through the small things. -there are still a lot of other issues, but oh well... It's going to be okay-

@@madeliefynana for sure after everything I’m rlly grateful how much my parents care and put me first always

@@madeliefynana that's true.

Mine started at 9 too but I was already aware because my mom let's me see her period blood (it was disgusting 😭)

The best book that had this when I was young was "the year without a summer". (Set during the titular event, the main character's mom died so she raises her siblings. She decides to walk them back to Connecticut from upstate new York because her father is a drunkard working on the Erie canal. Partway through the journey she starts bleeding and, thinking she is dying, she turns around to save her siblings and it's super heartbreaking. Then it turns out she's not dying thankfully but yeah. If no one talks about it, you are starving, and your mom died of illness, why wouldn't you think Random blood was a sign of death?)

Same. I freaked out but my mom was in the room with me. She also taught me what it was earlier so i knew what it was unlike like everyone else my age then.

@@cherilynsarts8845 Oh geez. That's maybe not the best way to teach your kids about periods lol. But yeah @Dante Dare, I have heard so many stories of people who thought they were dying when they got their first period because what else would you think if you were suddenly bleeding and no one had told you it was normal?

Accented cinema made some complaints

I have an Asian friend who didn’t love it but is was just because of the pacing. People who aren’t Asian will just criticize everything tho 🤦‍♀️

@@batzdoartz I’m black and loved the movie, I can relate to how mei’s mom treats her, and thought the movie portrayed how it felt to be a 13 year old/preteen girl quite well

Trust me, if you search hard enough you will find real complaints from other people too. The movie has received enough mixed reviews to the point where you're incredibly likely to find reviews that both contain good complaints AND come from non-Asian people.

@@lexdraws1729 Same here and I'm Mexican. Mei's mom reminded me a lot of my own, even those scenes where she "acted like no parents would"

As someone from México I can tell I had a very similar experience as yours

Wait… drawing is a sin in Islam? But there’s plenty of visual art from all over the Islamic world, and I know a lot of it is geometric or based on Arabic script instead of trying to drawn an animal or something. But drawing being straight up a sin? Really?!

I always felt like my parents very much reacted to parenting asa result of their upbringing. They tried to give us what they didn't have, but sometimes didn't realise that might not be what we want. Like you said, they saw us as mini versions of themselves.

@@peterwang5660 I think it's drawing living beings but don't quote me on that. I don't follow it anymore, but it's what I grew up being taught.

Aha! I spot another Asian Muslim like me! I also vaguely remember that I was once told I shouldn’t draw too realistically for the same reason, so I kept drawing in a different style for a while (can’t remember what style) but now I’m trying to draw Semi-Realistic and most of my family is really supportive of it. Hope you are doing great!

Dear Christ what is with Asian parents?

Glad to know I wasn’t the only one. I am also Mexican-American myself and there were many parts within this movie that had me close to tears or had me crying. There were just so many things that hit close to home.

Cuban-American here... this movie hurt.

This ^^

^^^ Absolutely this. It hit hard

I have very few friends from the US, but as a Mexican, the Asian kids really seem to have the most similar family experiences. When I sister lived in the US, some of her closest friends where Indian or Chinese, exactly because they could relate so much to each other about their families *and* had similar values, both the ones aligned with their families and the ones developed in reaction to them. It’s eerie and heartwarming at the same time

I really liked that it was more complex then a binary "PARENTS AND TRADITION BAD: CONSUMER CULTURE GOOD" story. Like you said, Mei clearly loves her parents and her heritage, she just naturally wants some space to herself as she gets older. I liked that she enjoyed working at the temple.

@@jordanetherington1922 Does she really love her heritage? Even if she enjoys commodifying it, she prefers Western pop, thinks French is sexy (while Cantonese is portrayed without much dignity in this movie) etc. Or maybe I should stop commenting on this video and movie because it wasn't made for people that feel 100% Chinese like me. This whole movie just seemed to be for kids who ended up assimilating. Domee also draws way too many characters with straight fucking lines for eyes, I've always accepted that East/Southeast Asians have a different eye shape, but it's not a straight fucking line. I get that Domee incorporates a lot of Chinese influence in this movie, but that's pretty much just taking advantage of the few memes of Chineseness that are familiar in the West. Using Chinese art style in the backstory of Sun Yee is just exoctizing Chinese culture even more, because it's like saying only when you want to make an animated video of Chinese history is it logical to use Chinese art styles. It's like saying you're just drawing something, you ought to catch up with the times and draw like a Westerner.

@@peterwang5660 she literally grew up in a western environment so sure she enjoy western entertainment, it's not the same that she not loving or appreciating her heritage, also it's funny as people wants see cultures as some type of monolith, I'm latine and I enjoy asian culture that's not mean I don't love being latine and all my culture expressions

@@peterwang5660 This movie is about as Chinese as Panda Express.

@@LiNestHetalia they see it as a monolith to invalidate the experiences of Asians who were born in the west. You can see it in the comments tinged with the weird critique about Mei / the director being not Asian enough. It's a simplistic take on culture and identity, when in fact we should understand identity as an evershifting force influenced by our transforming and changing relationship towards heritage and culture.

Probably because Inside Out focuses on a white family and doesn’t talk about periods, and has an entire section about people being attracted to a guy.

Same here! The whole "becoming a woman" thing is just gross adultification and hyper-disciplining girls

@@s-a-r-a-h Agreed. I think it stems from the time when women got married in their early teens because having your period means you're of childbearing age. And to be fair, in nature it kinda works that way, but our society is faaaaaaaaaar from nature. Our definition of "woman" isn't "able to bear children" (unless you're a transphobe or you're just so narrowminded that you leave out everyone going through menopause etc.). And if our definition of "woman" isn't linked to bearing children anymore, getting your period shouldn't be associated with "becoming a woman" either.

I actually got mine 'late' compared to everyone else I knew (12). There was only one girl behind me and I, ashamedly, was like "Really?? YOU haven't gotten it yet?" But before I did get it, I was prepared for it and despite knowing it wouldn't be comfortable, almost wished I would get mine too, like everyone else. And my chest grew in around 9 like Ms. Zhao too-- but one side faster than the other. Both these reasons made my mom freak out and she thought it was an allergic reaction to a bug bite, keeping me home from school to see the doctor.

When I was a kid I got my first period at 11 years old and my mom told the whole family about it despite me asking her not to and it was just so weird getting congratulated by some family members for becoming a woman because I definitely still felt a little awkward child 😩 my parents even cried a little because they felt like I was growing up and all I wanted to say to them was that literally nothing had changed about me.

Even for girls who get their periods in high school, (I got mine at sixteen; my mom was seventeen) periods shouldn't be a signal of womanhood. I was still a minor! Why are we calling minors "women?"

Sooooooooo,Is Tyler Chinese?

@@ghostprince4284 no, more like he wants the part of Chinese culture that benefits him to serve him while tossing away everything else he dislikes about it

Sounds like the commodification of foreign cultures. Sand it down to just the few cherry picked pieces that are palatable. Just want some easy to digest flair to add to things and not anything authentic. Like an all you can eat chinese buffet that serves americanized chinese, korean, and japanese food along with pizza, french fries, and mashed potatos with some trinkets bought out of an airport souvenirs shop strewn about.

@@ghostprince4284 Apparently his surname is Nguyen so... Vietnamese? His dad definitely seems to have some kind of Afro-carribean accent though...

Tyler isn't western, or not any more western than Mei. I think his dad was Indian, though 1 line & digital form aren't enough to tell

great comment

best comment ever

Here, you dropped this 👑

I also love that instead of laughing about Taylor when they find out, the girls are totally hyped and imediately accept him into their group❤ I wish we could just all be like this in real life! Edit: Just corrected some grammar and spelling mistakes😅

Yeah but that doesn’t excuse him being racist to her

This movie is set in 2002 ,not even a year after 9/11. That's the only reason that scene came off as unrealistic to me, people were very jumpy about suspicious looking people at that time. I don't know if the real life one just happened earlier then 02 or what but it felt way to soft on her with that reference in mind.

@@nahte123456 The movie takes place in Canada, not America. I think this is also the disconnect because Americans fear stuff they legitimately don't understand. I don't think Canadians got the same... Message Americans got that year.

@@justjess6636 You realize there were security changes in Canada as well correct? Putting aside that "fear of the unknown' was not the largest issue, I lived in New England, I understand what it changed thank you.

@@nahte123456 but the movie setting is Canada, it may be hard to imagine but 9/11 didn't affect people of other nationalities that much, yes, there were political , security changes (mostly in the US) but it probably didn't affect the everyday lives of most people who are not american, I know in my case it was literally old news by october of the same year, nobody cared because it didn't affect the place I am in at all. Also, you live in New England the area close to the place it was affected so yeah, to you it fucking changed, a person who lives more far away like probably didn't have to deal with any changes, you're experience is not universal and also this is a kids movie, where people turn into a red panda, it's not supposed to be realistic.

@@bluester7177 First as I already said, Toronto isn't small, it has had threats as well. But also I said, multiple times, that's just me feelings on a mostly good movie. You are not required to agree with me any more than I am to you. Even then I never said it was badly written just that I think it wasn't something I can personally like. The only thing I'd say isn't good writing is I think they tried to do to much with the panda to quickly but since that's the movies gimmick I'm still not that critical of that.

We used to do the same in Poland (haven't heard it for years) . Funny how languages work. OTOH, people also used "aunt" in an augmentative form to make it sound vulgar, or as a slur for gay men, or men who are not traditionally masculine.

Americans seem to think everything surrounding them will have the same impact as the rest of the world.

Yeah, some of these reviews just scream "Didn't do any research about Canada because they just assumed it's the US, but bigger and colder".

@@mageofmagic870 Lol this movie is made by a Chinese-Canadian!!!

@@eshaleemadgavkar Right! It's so ridiculous how some people (like Mr. Enter) just assume that a Chinese-Canadian woman somehow got major cultural aspects about Canada wrong, all because they're just assuming that 9/11 had the exact same impact in Canada as it did in the US! It's like they don't even realize that Canada is a different country!

I mean, I grew up in Texas (other family is in Toronto, too!) and had a racially diverse friend group, but we never thought of it that way until we left school and started going to required diversity trainings. It was like... wait.. you all have to force this? We did it "naturally" (there weren't conscious choices). Not every place in the world is/has racism. The kids I tutor now don't chose their friends by ethnicity/color. And yes, my parents (mixed) were more wary of the partying white kids than my dorky friends.

Totally. Somewhere along the way parents have apparently forgotten that raising a child is all about guiding them through their development, preparing them for adult life and making sure they're able to be self-sufficient enough before they leave the house. Instead, parents just see it as "keeping the child alive long enough so that they can then leave the house and learn how to adult". Of course there's a time and place for everything, but menstruation is such a normal, natural thing in life. It happens to the overwhelming majority of afab people. Why the hell wouldn't you want your kid to be prepared for when it happens?

Part of the parenting problem is familial abuse that we stupidly dismiss as “tough love.” Because why teach your kids real consequences when you could instead beat them every time they screw up? Once you’re gone, they will have no one to beat them anymore, but by then, they’ll have kids and beat your grandkids too.

A really underrated detail in the movie is when Mei's mom asks Mei if she got her period, *and Mei already knows what she's talking about.* There's no scene of her mom trying to awkwardly explain what a period is because, despite the fact that her mom says herself that she thinks it's too early for Mei to be hitting puberty, she's already had that conversation with Mei and normalized the topic by the time this happens. 10/10 parenting in that regard. The best time to have that conversation is long before you think it'll happen, not once it already has.

Same here, I'm white and American, but I was a thirteen-year-old girl once and I my parents were similar to Mei's. I found the movie extremely relatable.

I can't help but wonder if some of the "critics" are just millennials who still feel guilty about their own spicy deviantart phases lmfao

I would love to see those people reacting to canon character x selfinsertOC and canon character xreader fanfics/imagines/headcanons , etc written by real 13 years old girls. They would have a heart attack seeing the super cringy and badly depicted ( as is only normal) graphic smut XD

Premarital handholding 💀

@@egrumblybus7792 For anime/manga weebs, it's lewd. For tokusatsu weebs, it's wholesome and practical.

Like, it’s 100% them and not the movie.

Well, the answer is that it's your job to do it anyway, you're the freaking parents here

They also miss that "PG" literally means "parental guidance suggested."

@@troodon1096 For real! Parents are so weird sometimes. They go up to school, demanding stuff like "why are you teaching my kid THIS!?" Well, it's because some parents will just lie to their kids about their bodies, or parents think that they don't need to be teaching their kids X lesson. Why do you think it keeps becoming the "school's" problem? If you aren't going to teach them, SOMEBODY will and you just better home they teach them correctly (because as it stands, those same parents will say, yes, it's totally okay to lie to children if that means they have no idea how their body works!) Parents want total control sometimes and I wish they would realize they're bullies.

@@johannesstephanusroos4969 I often say, any moron can have a kid. But raising one correctly is not something anyone can do

@@troodon1096 Well that's because ratings are stupid and pointless. Heck, it seems that the people who would use them don't actually use them

Exactly. Precisely because the overwhelming majority of people who get their periods for the first time are specifically _not_ adults.

Yeah, there are people who are literally born having their periods--it's not a healthy thing, but it happens. If a toddler has to learn about it, an adult should recognize that it's not an "adult thing."

And like...not even just women? I'm a transguy and that shit caused SO MANY ISSUES

I got mine at 9 years old

@@alexandrarivera2332 Same

that's what I figured. I was like, this scene is very specific. this probably happened to someone working on it

My parents taught me about periods before mine came too. Which is probably the main reason I was calm about mine and didn't panic thinking my privates were somehow injured, as I would've assumed blood = wound.

Same here. When I got my period I was actually away from home during Winter Break. My mom was actually bummed because she wasn’t there to support me.

I got really lucky in that my mom is a medical professional who isn't grossed out by anything, and I didn't get my period until sixteen. (family trend) So I didn't freak out or have anyone else freak out about it. I was very UNLUCKY in that we were on vacation at the time and all my mom had were her tampons. That was not pleasant.

I actually did the same thing for like two whole years. Just used toilet paper. No joke. I told nobody.

I got mine really early at eleven with no prier knowledge of what was happening. I just did the rolled toilet paper trick for FOUR DAYS while the bleeding happened. My mom didnt find out until she was doing laundry and was like, "is there something you would like to talk about?" Turns out she was going to give me the talk the next week, lol.

As an American (at the time) and now Canadian, who was a child living in New York (not the city) at the time, I didn't even fully comprehend the magnitude of what happened. I remember watching the news and seeing the plane hit the second tower. I remember adults around me were acting differently for months. But we still stayed at school that day and went to school the day after. We had recess and played. The atmosphere around from adults was tense and awkward. And we knew something had happened and something had changed, but not what it meant for us. And the day our teacher cried when she found out her sister had died, we had a more somber recess. But it didn't last long, much less a year. There WAS increased racism towards Middle Eastern/Muslim families. I mean, it would be silly and inaccurate to deny it, it's easy enough to look up statistics and accounts from Middle Eastern families at that time. But generally it was from the top-down. It started with teachers and parents feeling uncomfortable or acting differently towards students who were Muslim or Middle Eastern, and then students picking up on it. Even then, it was more..."if the teacher is scared of them and doesn't want to teach them and Sarah's mom wants to transfer her to a different class just to get her a way from this student, then maybe I should be scared of this student too". Canada may not have felt the repercussions of 9/11 the same way (though it did feel it more than other countries because it is a neighboring country and New York borders Canada and the Canadian capital is like less than 2 hours away from NYC) and many of the planes headed to the States had to be diverted to Canada, when US airspace closed. (Come From Away is a great musical based on the true events where 38 planes, carrying approximately 7,000 passengers had to land in Newfoundland and were grounded there for days). And like, Canadians can be just as racist (residential schools, for example). One of my closest friends from University is Muslim and wears a hijab, and years after 9/11 still deals with people being rude and racist. But none of the main characters are Muslim or Middle Eastern and the increase in racism was really directed mainly at Muslims/Middle Eastern people. Though, it is possible the security guard and Priya might have gotten some of that backlash from people who couldn't tell the difference between Middle Eastern and Indian. The same way COVID has caused an increase in racism towards Asians of all ethnicities, because some racist people blame China for COVID and therefore feel justified in acting racist towards people they think are Chinese, while not being able to tell the difference between Chinese, Korean, Thai, Japanese, etc. But even if Canada was as affected as the US and was experiencing a rise in racism against all races, it is a movie for kids about being a preteen dealing with preteen drama like family, tradition, and puberty.

Basically anyone who's mother isn't American can relate😆

Try a black old school mom lol.

Ahahaha

Same!! But with a Latinas mom. My mom had a habit of yelling out the car “make us proud, mija!” whenever she dropped me off. Good intentions but oh god embarrassing

Me with a brazilian mom:

Yeah, exactly. If the characters had gotten on a flight, taking off shoes/coats and only being able to bring liquid that could fit in a litre ziplock would have been important to show. But as a teenager in Canada post 9-11 it was not something I was thinking about in 2002. Unless I had to get on an airplane.

Born in 95 did not give a flying shit, i was litterally a little kid 😂

From that similar age, I did care, my father was working closer the place so I was fucking scared but he was fine, and after that he move to new jersey, also cause NY was getting like a shit show and he thought it will get worse (it does XD).

As american, i was like in the first grafe when 9/11 happened and didnt realize it was a thing until middle school

Oh, I think the whole point of bringing up 9/11 is because of the verrrryyyy anti-immigrant culture that came as a reaction to it, I don’t think they were saying that it was weird that children didn’t care about global events lol, just that they believe it’s a weird time to set a feel-good childrens movie starring an Asian character. Now Personally, I don’t think it really matters, but I just thought I’d point that out since you said you were talking about your reaction as a Caucasian boy

I can attest as an American who was born in 2004. The only time we ever thought about 9/11 was every year teachers would have some sort of commemoration on September 11th but it depended on the class. It just isn't a part of our lives or cultural consciousness

What's crazier I find is that this movie takes place in Toronto Canada. Why would they even care about 9/11?

precisely this. I'm old enough to remember - I don't just not give a fuck, I actively make fun of it. it's especially rich to see the same people downplay the recent massive human deaths from Cøv!d as if that wasn't multiple chronic 9/11s back-to-back with no closure, honor, or recourse afforded to the families affected. Lmao and Lol.

Exactly! Like I don't even have words anymore at this point, so stupid

Because those weren’t glorified like Turning Red or as annoying

@@Error_-ct2vp Mulan leaving her family wasn't glorified? And Moana?

@@Error_-ct2vp annoying? how? cause it reminds them of all the annoying and embarrassing stuff they did when they are teenagers? glorified? how? have you watched Disney movies? they are literally about defying your parent's expectations and finally standing up for your own self and choosing your own destiny.

@@Error_-ct2vp Mulan was glorified. She even got the emperor of China honoring her for defying her family and saving china lol.

LOL yeah they hate Abuela so much omg

Well, that's one magical abuela for sure.

Damn now I fear the reactions when disney/pixar decide to make a movie about Balkan 😂😂 I'm already betting there will be at least one scene with enough alcohol to drown a whale

I’m absolutely losing it over ppl making abuela a villain. Her husband died and she was fleeing war with THREE BABIES. She then had to raise three babies and be a community leader all over night. That’s trauma. The whole point of encanto is creating a dialogue so you and your older generation of family can begin to address trauma and how it effects the family. From another lense we could completely make abuela out to be the protagonist. At the end of the day everyone with generational trauma just wants an apology and to fix the relationship. Even Steven Universe is about generational trauma and I feel like people humanize the diamonds more than abuela

I haven't heard anything about people saying Abuela was evil (I'm a white american). Then again the shitheads on the internet are the ones that scream the loudest. Among Disney fans Abuela is seen as just human, her and Mirabel's arc are seen as sweet and sends a message about holding on too tightly (something many parents and grandparents are guilty of). And using religion to justify yourself is something north american bible thumpers are JUST as guilty of

It was the original intention for animation to appeal to kid’s as well as adults it just got stigmatized to be only for kids later on and that stigma is gradually getting pushed away

I hate the idea that a story has to be relatable in order for it to be good. Not every film is going to relate to every part of its audience and it shouldn't

@@gracekang2161 i agree everyone has different personal experiences

It's also a pretty racist critique, given that it's never said about movies with white main characters

@@garaj1 racist and sexist. Many time when there are characters that are not white men there is going to people outraged.

Hold on cis men do what now

@@egg_mittens "As a male, I believe menstruation is a myth" -Guy on twitter literally being serious in a talk abt periods

@@BritAltie "as a bear, I believe hoverboards are a myth"

@@egg_mittens Yeah, some men either don't think periods are real or they believe they're not a normal function and only happen to women because of poor diets. I've actually seen some guys on Twitter talk about that.

@@BritAltie Ah yes, I deliberately bleed half to death once or twice a year (if I mess up on BC) because I am trying to trick my husband into buying me chocolate. The shivering and inability to breathe just adds another layer to the power high.

Exactly !

Honestly, in the Lorax it's so much worse not only because it's a possible weird age difference but also the main character didn't plant a tree because he actually wanted to change the world because of the implications of all of nature going extinct but because he wanted to impress a girl.. it's so trope-y, cliché and unsatisfying

Of course there was no backlash, because why would society oppress male sexuality etc. when you can oppress female sexuality instead? (insert sarcastic eye-roll). I haven't watched The Lorax by the way. So thank you for bringing that up and exposing some more of society's hypocrisy (which is thankfully on the mend).

Most people don't see a young boy getting a crush with an older girl as creepy because of double standards, there usually see as "nice taste, dude" rather than the actual implications behind it. Even South Park lampshaded that in the most extreme version with Kyle's brother dating with his teacher, as you can guess is quite gross.

Lorax is indeed my least favorite movie

Bc it's kinda "good" that boys get it from older ladies but noooo don't let it happen to girls

So basically, wanting to do all the cool western things while our heritage meant nothing but inferior backwards family dynamics? this movie has great feminist value, but it doesn’t seem to show Chinese culture as anything but antiquated or simply fucked up

@@peterwang5660 interesting interpratation

@@peterwang5660 Throughout the film, Mei, is repeatedly shown joyfully interacting with her Chinese culture: she loves helping out at her family's temple, she adores watching historical Cantonese soap operas with her mother, she has a clear love for Chinese food. Also, the mere fact that she chooses to 'keep' the panda spirit within her rather than caging it within an object (despite her family's initial objections) is essentially Mei unambiguously embracing her unique ancestral heritage. Also, family dynamics are the very foundation to a person's well being and sense of self. So I don't see what is the problem with family dynamics being at the core of any story, regardless of the nationality?