I like that the grandmother saw that the panda wasn't the problem it was her expectation that drove a wedge between her and her daughter. And when she said "You don't have to apologize I'm your mother" was her letting go of that toxic idea of bottling everything up.
Oh, and one more symbol that I noticed -- clothing color. Ming, Wu, and all the aunties wear green, opposite of red on the color wheel, which I think symbolizes pushing away the red panda. Mei wears a lot of warm colors, especially pink and red. Red is already part of Mei and her spunky, confident personality well before she transforms into the panda.
Green is also meant to represent tranquility. I think the color wheel theory is also very accurate and its also meant to show how meis idea are so different from the rest of the family
uh gotta colour coordinate with the green jade talismans containing their own personal panda, Mei never went or follows through with obtaining a jade panda accessory talisman so no colour coordination with green jade for Mei.
@@juliaabernathy7441 no during the auntie panda force moment each and every one of their accessory's that held a panda was green jade the only time another colour was used on one of them is the red colouration of Mei's mom's broken necklace symbolizing she is not in control and about to go to a new level of overbearing mom mode aka karen mode aka mucho grande red panda mode.
I think it's sad really. The red panda is their uniqueness. I think Mei's mother had such a large panda because she had so much to express: love, creativity, passion, etc. Mei doesn't get her quirks from her dad. Her mom, if free to express herself, would have been one of those wonderfully weird, rare people. But, sadly, all of that larger than life character was locked away (as the large panda symbolizes) and she became like that.
I also still think the reason for the size difference is their repressed emotion. If you look at Ming's panda during the fight and compared it when it enters the spirit realm the size is vastly different from each other. That's just me though. Any thoughts?
I'm a bit surprised that you didn't comment on Wu's scar. I took that as a scar left from Ming's attack on her -- "I hurt my mother," she sobbed in the forest when Mei found her. She physically hurt her mother and is horrified and ashamed of it. The enormous tension between Ming and Wu is evident all through the film: Ming's expectations of Mei's success (which she rewards with praise, while I suspect her own mother only prodded her to do more); Ming's terrified reaction to her mother's phone call; Ming's overprotective behavior to her only child. She feels like she will NEVER be good enough for her mother. Even look at her clothing: all uptight, tailored, buttoned-up, no hair out of place, picture of perfection. Perfection was the minimum expectation when she was growing up. Homely, sweet, comfortable Jin was definitely not up to Wu's standards! Ming has struggled all her life, I think, to find her place somewhere between her mother's unreachable standards and her own true self. In her attempts to be a better mother than her own, she's used praise to reinforce Mei's accomplishments instead of punishment and criticism for every deviation from perfection. That's given Mei a lot more confidence and self-acceptance, though she, too, struggles with her mother's high expectations and over-protectiveness.
I think Turning Red is a combination of Encanto’s emphasis on generational trauma as well as unconditional acceptance and love as opposed to conditional acceptance and love with the addition of dealing with the family shadow; both by accepting these shadow aspects, but also incorporating them back into your identity. Mei’s family saw shame in the Red Panda aspects, and it is Mei’s journey to both come to terms with and then embrace them that show her true strength.
My first guess before seeing this: Ming’s panda size reflects the stress she endures. Sun Yee’s was big during 2d legend narration while appear to be normal mystical panda size towards end of movie. This indicates that the family’s respective red panda size reflects their fight-or-flight instincts. Or something like that?
The first red panda manifested as Sun Yee's desire to be able to protect her family. It was huge, its size matching the perceived threat. Ming is desperately trying to protect her daughter from the world. Ming pushes Mei to always get perfect scores so she doesn't have to experience failure. The whole thing with Devon was trying to protect her from heartbreak. When bringing feminine hygiene products to school, she was trying to protect her from discomfort. She's the ultimate helicopter parent. Ming's panda is so huge from the sheer burden she's placed on herself to protect Mei from the whole world.
Very nice theory. However, you're saying that Ming's panda is so big because of her suppressing her emotions after the fall-out with her own mother. But Jin clearly said that Ming has always been this big in panda form, which means, she couldn't have pent up emotions before and this is most likely her true size that she always had.
@@ravem410 but the author here tries to claim that Ming started getting bigger only after the fight. Which , according to the sentences given by Jin, isnt true
They do mention that Sun Yee could take various sizes as well. I assume that's the same of her descendants. However, Mei seems to be the only one in a few centuries to embrace her panda to the point that she might eventually even learn to control her size.
She always had repressed emotions due to her mother pressuring her to be perfect, the family pressuring her to reject the panda and be the pretty perfect little girl and A+ student, the pressure was always there most likely similiar to what Mei was expected to deliver in school and working at the Temple 'So Ming's Panda was already huge when Jin saw it the first time or maybe when Ming transformed the very first time It only got worse from there, and repressing the panda/emotions didnt made anything better and the fight with her mom just took it to extremes that no control was possible
Generational Trauma and pressure from family plays a huge role, Ming had learned to repress her emotions, her sadness, her rage, her passion, her happiness, her friends and most importantly: her childhood This is why we also see her teenager self in the forest and not the adult women, so much repressed emotion that burst out only to be locked away again as Ming approached the clearing Honestly extremly sad that she couldn't and might never be able to regain what she lost due to her Mother & the family that pressured her into being perfect Mei would've turned the same way, with her Panda growing to gigantic size if she hadn't listened to her friends and her heart and be the child she is, not a perfect rolemodel.
I also thought it had to do with emotion but more connected to what kind of emotion. Mei’s dad says something along the lines of “maybe yours is love”. So I just assumed the reason for Ming lee’s size is that hers is anger/rage. Small, cute, fluffy red panda= love Big, destructive, scary red panda=anger
@@kai_4927 Correctly for me, Ming has alot of stress and mental problems, Mommy issues, and family problems which may have caused her own panda to make up as a destruction and a very much dangerous panda, The panda depends on you're emotions but even for the ancestors who we're red pandas we're twice regularly bigger than Mei but for Ming, She's wayyy bigger than we think
Actually I heard a statement from Pixar that the panda is supposed to be a metaphor for the "Loud, messy, weird part of ourselves." The part we think should be locked away but embracing it helps us to grow. But I'm not sure what part they're talking about. Also, early in development, they were going to have the panda get bigger the stronger the emotions until Mei and her mother had this kaiju-style fight across the city. So I think it's left over from that. And that a kaiju-panda would be a better climax then a normal sized one. By the way, does anyone else think it's unbelievable that the world went on as normal after it learned magic was real? Or that the world forgave Ming after she turned into a 100ft rage monster and did $100,000,000 of damage?
Glad that someone is finally referencing the ACTUAL CREATORS of the show! I'm getting tired of people assuming that the creators made the panda a representation of periods and puberty. Is there a parallel? Yeah, seems like it. Does the existence of a parallel intrinsically mean that this is what the creators were saying? No! It's very "what is the author saying" in English class. Who knows? I'm not the author
What I also think is that Ming could have been stuck with the panda for a very long time. Maybe even for years, or decades We all know that a full lunar eclipse is needed to get rid of the red panda. But maybe Ming had to wait for a very long time or even for years till the next full lunar eclipse. Maybe on days of a lunar eclipse it was too cloudy or it wasn't full. And along all those years of waiting for a clear view of the red moon, the more and more the red panda grew along with her. But that's what I was thinking...
@@0-springytears-0 itd make sense because she'd be forced to spend more time repressing and keeping herself neutral just to not take the building down in a tantrum haha
My theory is that Ming's panda was that big because of how overprotective she is. The only other giant panda in the family was Sun Yee's, and that was at a time where she needed to protect her family. When Ming went out of control, it was also to protect Jin from her mom. It seems the size has a lot do with the purpose the panda is given. Plus, the size of Ming's panda couldn't be because she grew inside the pendant due to pent up emotions since her Panda was stated to have always been that big, even before being sealed.
This theory is pure gold and I honestly accept it in its entirety. The only thing I would add is that apart from Ming's bottled-up emotion, I think Ming's giant form also conveyed the most brutal battle Mei had to fight: standing up to her mother and expressing independence because she was of age to do so. Another topic I would like to point out is that Mei's ancestor was enormous in the flashback when fighting all the hoards of enemies. The emotional turmoil of war and the need to save her children were so strong that they grew to the size of a giant. It could also explain why even in the legend of the red panda, Mei's ancestor remained in a panda form on the secret scroll. She embraced this gift and when wartime was over, her children had to bottle up emotions and go on with life as at that time women who were outspoken may have been put in greater danger (I'm assuming).
I think it was her age, maybe she was significently older than mei and the rest of her family when her panda emerged makeing it bigger, all things considered she did go on about how she thought mei was too young for it to happen yet. What if she thought mei's panda would be late like hers?
@@XiELEd4377 A lot of people think whenever their children start menstruating is "too young." There is a strong reaction to knowing your child can now get pregnant, and not every parent deals with it well.
I think the bigger the emotion the bigger the red panda and she has the biggest emotions because she has to hide them away she has strong emotions because she has a different style than her mom and she has to hide it too just like May May the reason they may doesn't have a big Panda it's because she didn't have much time to get a big panda and she learns to control her emotions
I think the reason for Ming's panda being so big was that Sun Lee had a colossal Panda. That's how she defeated the enemy that attacked her village because if her panda was the size of Mei's aunties, she would have been overpowered. I think once in every century one woman in Mei's Bloodline get the true power of the Red Panda i.e. The Colossal Panda.
I definitely think it was all the pent up emotions and stress. But also the panda was originally a way to protect and defend during war. Ming's panda is in battle mode, so to speak, due to all that fear and pain boiling over.
I know people started to get a bit bored of the generational trauma themes after Encanto (also a great film) but you have to admit that the way Turning Red used it was extremely good and was something a lot of women could resonate with. I definitely could.
First, it’s kaiju: large building-sized monster. Think Godzilla, where it originated. Second: Love that the movie used a Euphemism for your period for when the ritual had to take place. There is a lot of pain and emotional issues that come with begging womanhood biologically, and no movie that I know of outside of this one actually even touches on it. Coming-of-age stories are generally boy-centric. When they do feature a girl, it’s only just about what’s happening outside of the girl. never about how her body is changing and growing wider hips and bleeding between the legs every month for a week while suffering in agony like you have the flu. As far as your original question, I personally think that her panda was bigger because it could also be a representation of how her periods are. Some women do not have very painful periods, whereas others like myself need to be home in bed for 2 to 3 days before they can even move because it’s so debilitating. Also, she very well could be one of these women that suffer humongous mood swings similar to being bipolar during her period, so that could potentially be represented here. She also wasn’t allowed to express these pains in mood swings and was probably physically abused by her mother. So when she got sick of it and lashed out at her mother it would’ve been brutal. I personally do not think that Mei’s mom and her grandmother were close and that is just the perspective of the grandmother.
One thing I have against the background of how the Red Panda ability was passed onto Mei’s ancestor is how Sun yi’s kids got the gift. The kids seemed to be around 5-10 years old. So unless the red moon also gifted the kids aswell then it would seem odd that the kids would also have it I’ve they would have been born long before the gift was bestowed upon their mother
Well, either the kids got it too (albeit, maybe manifesting it later when they reached puberty, as it seems that's the trigger for the red panda), they didn't got it but their kids did (like, it skipped a generation), or Sun Yi had other kids after that, that got the red panda, and the descendant of one of the younger kids are Mei's ancestors.
In my opinion, I really like how this movie demonstrates that you shouldn’t be afraid of the “Red Panda” inside yourself because even though it’s not easy accepting the fact that it does exists, you can’t just cage up it forever. Seriously, I get that acceptance isn’t easy; but you shouldn’t be a pussie about it or else you’ll never overcome it!!!
this makes a good point... but what about when the dad says "I told you she was big!" That kind of throws a large chunk of this theory out of the window.
I mean...was this not obvious in the movie? Ming is obviously SEVERELY emotionally repressed and putting up the perfectionist facade because she never really learned how to deal with emotions, probably because her mom didn't like that she HAD emotions in the first place, so she suppressed all of them out of fear of appearing "imperfect" to her own overbearing mom. Her giant panda is representative of just how much of herself she's suppressed to appear perfect, which includes the panda form itself
I think that the size of the red panda depends on their self confidence. The less self confidence they have, the bigger the panda (in order to make up for it with massive protection)
Repress of the emotions are might be the cause because of what ming went through. And when we see ming around meis age she felt like she had to because she attacked ming but I'm sure it was just an accident. ( the scar on Wu’s eye brow ) and I'm sure that the family will grow closer and wear colors other than green
I always thought it was her flow... I mean think about it really. The normal flow would be the rest of the family and mei is a light flow of sorts and ming and ming would be a heavy flow leading to a bigger panda.
I don’t know why but this made me laugh so hard because it’s very accurate I would probably have that large of a flow and it was horrible as I always had to get big pads and my emotions were always laughter or crying uncontrollably so maybe that could add to ur idea as well I wonder if u have a larger flow u have more emotions or if we r just more emotional because we’re frustrated about pad size 😂
@@OceanSongBird6355 same lol. My first period really said: Wait you wanted to have a good first experience? Not a thing. now here is a pound of blood every 5 seconds. lol
The two theories are pretty good. But there is a theory and also involves the other Red Panda forms. The Red Panda forms are symbolism for Periods and the sizes of the Pandas are the flow. Mei Lee's is the Smallest she has a light flow, her aunts and Grandmother have larger Pandas so a medium flow, and finally Ming Lee's is massive so a heavy flow. The connection of emotions works as well as the hormones a woman has during that time are out of whack so they tend to be more emotional
I think is a combination of things, but the dad said her panda was the biggest of them all even before the the mom hurt the grandma.... so I don't think that the enormous size was because of all the years of her feelings bottled up in the pendant, but throughout her life until it erupted as a volcano (enormous panda + bottled up anger/desperation/depression/etc/etc + years of trying to ignore + one last drop of anger = extra gozdilla size red panda out of control)
I honestly thought they would exclusively revolve around a woman's period. While there was a joke about that, at least it wasn't the main focus on the story as we were led to believe. The men on her generation would have used her bloodline for war in ancient China if they found out, probably why they kept it a secret for everyone.
I saw a theory, and i agree with it. The panda forms show themselves when the bearer is of age, which is usually when a girl gets her first period. The theory states that the size of the red panda represents the blood flow during that time of the month.
Ming's mother also said that she and her ming are close once but the red penda took it away. Yes ofc her panda form is so large it's because of her emotion yeah that's pretty much what I think it it...
One thing I don’t get about Disney is why they didn’t have a turning red themed tamagotchi released. They partnered with ban dai to make the Star Wars ones so it would make so much sense to make a red panda themed one.
It's like all about repressing your emotions. If you don't express how you feel, even if you're scared of the results you'll end up keeping them stored in their little "circle" like a red panda cub being put in time out. Until one day your emotions become too much for you to contain: and that little red panda cub turns into a rampaging monster red panda
I think its just when her emotions got too big, her panda grew too, if you saw their eyes, whenever they were angry the eyes turned red. if their already in panda form, they just lash out and get mad, but, i think that if they transform while in this state, the panda is VERY BIG
At first I thought the size was about generations, like how Sun Ye was a giant red panda, and Ming so happened to be that generation number that inherited the giant form, and then that’d continue
Creators said reason ming was so large was actually theory one correct was due to her emotions and life she had with her mother. Wu was not exactly easy to live with from what I could observe from the movie. Now as a woman myself who lived in a simliar way only without the red panda part could connect to both Ming and Mei Mei as it was very similar with my mother and I. Only my mother wasn't as uptight but she was very overprotective. So the fact Ming's pandawas so large was pent up stress and emotions she refused to accept which in turn bottled up and grew worse over time. So I can see where Ming is in the situation.
I think mings panda is bigger than meis because she has so many big emotions than anybody the larger of emotions the larger the panda is the rest of the family does not have emotions like that but Ming did and the crying is not perfect and I think grandma wu got that scar because of mings panda that's probably why her mother Acts like she doesn't like her own daughter
This sounds very similar to stories I heard from Pakistani/Indian families as well. Mothers banning their daughters from everything, after they themselves were banned from so many things when they were young. Then they get very angry and envious when they see young girls have more freedom than they themselves had during their teenager/young adult time. A generational trauma that is transferred from generation to generation. It especially becomes stronger with immigrant families in western countries, when parents become even more overprotective because they see the other extreme in western cultures (other kids having no rules or limits at all, which is also harmful, you should go for a middle way, you need rules to protect your child from things that are actually harmful/bad, but not pointlessly ban everything even though its harmless), and isolate even more to people of their own culture. Family honor and "what will other people think of us" also plays a huge role. This is a widespread problem in many cultures that are even geographically far apart from each other.
The first theory is wrong, Meis dad is not surprised at the size of Mings panda. He even said earlier that it was big already back when Mings mom And Ming had their fight
It’s the same thing with mei mei all the stress come in the panda like the day her mom went to the gas station and should she drawings she was embarrassed and humiliated and all that stress came in one panda and that happened the next day that’s why she was having dreams and the same thing with her mom she thought she wasn’t good enough all that stress she had came In To one panda and remember panda shape shift only comes when you’re feeling a type of emotion I feel as though it was stress that made the plan to come out on them and if she thought she wasn’t good enough for her mother all these years then that’s how she probably have grown into how her panda forms was I think all the stress that mei mei mom went to turn her into the panda because it’s so funny the day after when she showed the drawings mei mei turned panda it was because it was humiliation embarrassing th turned her into the panda and her mom relates to the same story she thought she wasn’t good enough and all those emotions for the last few years with her mom she grew
Well her size could depend on her emotion so like if she’s like just a little angry then she’d probably be a size about when the other woman in the family but if she’s so angry like really really really angry then she’s probably going to be a huge panda yeah a huge panda I mean I expected big but not that big so that’s why I think her emotions would get her angry not really so much so once the necklace was broken the panda was released I don’t think the panda look adorable I mean that beagle it look like a big red furry cat furry
This sounds like generational trauma honestly, my family on my mom side bottles up their feelings, and nobody talks about their feelings EVER. I’m also the only one in my family that has gone to therapy.
I just noticed something about this movie, the rest of the woman in mei's family are all wearing green, with there red panda gems being red. But mei (unlike the rest of them) has a red sweater (referencing the red panda that she in the end chooses to keep) and instead has a green hair clip. And as we see in the scene where mei is deciding weather or not to keep her panda, in the bamboo forest she was in, she was the only thing there that wasn't green, everything else around her was, just like her family, they all wear the color green, except for her, did other people notice or is that just me?
She is so big as a red panda for her overprotective attitudes towards Mei. Spoiler: In the end, she choses to not have the panda not because she wants to appear perfect, but because she wants to express her emotions without being a monster
The movie says that they use their emotions to take on ANY enemy therefore it makes sense that ming’s incredible fury she got fiery fur and a skyscraper bod
But Jin already said that her panda form was big and her sister's hinted at it. Dosen't that show that her panda was just always that big? For it to have grown over the years due to emotion means it had to have been smaller at some point but that's not what her family implied with Jin saying "I told you she was big".
It's good to see that women having their first period and talking about it more is coming more common in the movies and tv shows. Before the early 2000's this subject was pretty much a taboo subject to talk about amongst society unless you were a women or learning about this in 7th grade. Not surprising the gods chose a women's period being when their panda will begin to spawn.
A theory that I still think was interesting was the size of their panda was correlated with their period flow. Since that it’s a big part of a girl’s life, she is feeling bloated maybe, can’t control her emotions, and I reacted similar to Mei in the bathroom when she realized she turn and was flipping through disgust, confusion, worry and embarrassment to the transition into being a women.
Funny you mention anime references, there is a scene which refer to Sailor Moon, in the anime Sailor Moon has to pass through a narrow pasage that she can barely enter, same with panda Mei when she´s trying to get home after turning panda in the school for the first time.
I heard from somewhere that the size of the red panda they turn into is also the size of their periods every month, but I think the first one that was mention sounds more accurate to the red panda in Turing Red, which is sad really.
I wish they showed Ming’s side of it. They tell us but, they don’t show it. This movie would have been a high tier Pixar movie if they showed the fight that she had with her mom and they could have explained that she hates the panda.
If Charles Muntz wasn't looking for the bird in South America, he would tried to capture Mei before Ming tracked them down and ripped him into pieces even in her normal form.
My first guess was Mei is just a smaller red panda compared to her families' because she's younger, and that as she got older her red panda form would grow too, but it being based more on emotion makes sense.
Okay!!!! Soooooo....... In the bamboo scene at the end of the movie where Mai is leading Ming out of the forest, you see three stages of Ming's life. First, is when she hurt her mother, which was probably was her first time turning into the panda. The second might've been when Ming's mother disproved Mai's dad. The third was during that moment in time. So, Ming had turned into the panda more than once in her lifetime. In which, after hurting her mother had build up emotion to cause the panda to be that big from her past. This is just my theory.
I have to say this film was fun watch at first Pixar's third original Female Lead Character And her three best friends are all girls. The four main characters are girls. That's a first for PIXAR, I checked all the Pixar films Mei and her friends remind me of my sister and her three girlfriends They love each other so much, and they have a lot in common. Only now I feel extremely stressed and extremely anxious to watch this film both Ming and Tyler are too painful for me to handle and it's just sad that the girls got the date of the concert incorrect and Tyler's party is a bad memory for myself. and all of the sudden I have become very terrified of Mei angry in her panda form The point is I find it hard to enjoy this film The girls are great The rest of the film too stressful for me handle I don't know what to do😥
i think this movie is about periods, boys, kpop and periods, panda maybe ming had the the most painful period... and then bottling it up and mood swings and trying to be perfect.. and she hurted her mother because they fought because ming brought jin and her mother didnt like jin and so they fought and wu has that scar on the eyebrows and ming's panda was so big! so much anger... so dont be like ming kids.. dont bottle it up please (っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ
![KSI - Dirty [Official Visualiser]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VoDh1h1dPUE/mqdefault.jpg)
I like that the grandmother saw that the panda wasn't the problem it was her expectation that drove a wedge between her and her daughter. And when she said "You don't have to apologize I'm your mother" was her letting go of that toxic idea of bottling everything up.
Oh, and one more symbol that I noticed -- clothing color. Ming, Wu, and all the aunties wear green, opposite of red on the color wheel, which I think symbolizes pushing away the red panda. Mei wears a lot of warm colors, especially pink and red. Red is already part of Mei and her spunky, confident personality well before she transforms into the panda.
Green is also meant to represent tranquility. I think the color wheel theory is also very accurate and its also meant to show how meis idea are so different from the rest of the family
uh gotta colour coordinate with the green jade talismans containing their own personal panda, Mei never went or follows through with obtaining a jade panda accessory talisman so no colour coordination with green jade for Mei.
@@xyreniaofcthrayn1195 the grandma is the only one who's talisman is green jade
@@juliaabernathy7441 no during the auntie panda force moment each and every one of their accessory's that held a panda was green jade the only time another colour was used on one of them is the red colouration of Mei's mom's broken necklace symbolizing she is not in control and about to go to a new level of overbearing mom mode aka karen mode aka mucho grande red panda mode.
@@xyreniaofcthrayn1195 Yes, that's what I said.
I think it's sad really. The red panda is their uniqueness. I think Mei's mother had such a large panda because she had so much to express: love, creativity, passion, etc. Mei doesn't get her quirks from her dad. Her mom, if free to express herself, would have been one of those wonderfully weird, rare people. But, sadly, all of that larger than life character was locked away (as the large panda symbolizes) and she became like that.
I also still think the reason for the size difference is their repressed emotion. If you look at Ming's panda during the fight and compared it when it enters the spirit realm the size is vastly different from each other. That's just me though. Any thoughts?
Yeah! I noticed how much smaller it was after the stadium fight as well.
Thought
Here a question what if the family only had boys I think it would be fun to turn into a red panda
@jellypanda That's literally the comment you posted on. They said "I also still think the reason for the size difference is their repressed emotion."
@NicVandEmZ the boys wouldn't turn into pandas. The gift is specific to the women in the family.
I'm a bit surprised that you didn't comment on Wu's scar. I took that as a scar left from Ming's attack on her -- "I hurt my mother," she sobbed in the forest when Mei found her. She physically hurt her mother and is horrified and ashamed of it. The enormous tension between Ming and Wu is evident all through the film: Ming's expectations of Mei's success (which she rewards with praise, while I suspect her own mother only prodded her to do more); Ming's terrified reaction to her mother's phone call; Ming's overprotective behavior to her only child. She feels like she will NEVER be good enough for her mother. Even look at her clothing: all uptight, tailored, buttoned-up, no hair out of place, picture of perfection. Perfection was the minimum expectation when she was growing up. Homely, sweet, comfortable Jin was definitely not up to Wu's standards! Ming has struggled all her life, I think, to find her place somewhere between her mother's unreachable standards and her own true self. In her attempts to be a better mother than her own, she's used praise to reinforce Mei's accomplishments instead of punishment and criticism for every deviation from perfection. That's given Mei a lot more confidence and self-acceptance, though she, too, struggles with her mother's high expectations and over-protectiveness.
I think Turning Red is a combination of Encanto’s emphasis on generational trauma as well as unconditional acceptance and love as opposed to conditional acceptance and love with the addition of dealing with the family shadow; both by accepting these shadow aspects, but also incorporating them back into your identity. Mei’s family saw shame in the Red Panda aspects, and it is Mei’s journey to both come to terms with and then embrace them that show her true strength.
Me too.
Wow. I just thought of it as a warmer fuzzier version of Hulk.😼
A then Professor Hulk at the end with the best of both worlds.😸
My first guess before seeing this: Ming’s panda size reflects the stress she endures. Sun Yee’s was big during 2d legend narration while appear to be normal mystical panda size towards end of movie. This indicates that the family’s respective red panda size reflects their fight-or-flight instincts. Or something like that?
The first red panda manifested as Sun Yee's desire to be able to protect her family. It was huge, its size matching the perceived threat. Ming is desperately trying to protect her daughter from the world. Ming pushes Mei to always get perfect scores so she doesn't have to experience failure. The whole thing with Devon was trying to protect her from heartbreak. When bringing feminine hygiene products to school, she was trying to protect her from discomfort. She's the ultimate helicopter parent. Ming's panda is so huge from the sheer burden she's placed on herself to protect Mei from the whole world.
If nowone likes this guy I will be mad😡
Very nice theory. However, you're saying that Ming's panda is so big because of her suppressing her emotions after the fall-out with her own mother. But Jin clearly said that Ming has always been this big in panda form, which means, she couldn't have pent up emotions before and this is most likely her true size that she always had.
She always had pent up emotions, they just got noticeably worse after Mei‘s father came into the equation
@@ravem410 but the author here tries to claim that Ming started getting bigger only after the fight. Which , according to the sentences given by Jin, isnt true
They do mention that Sun Yee could take various sizes as well. I assume that's the same of her descendants. However, Mei seems to be the only one in a few centuries to embrace her panda to the point that she might eventually even learn to control her size.
the pent up emotions thing... can start from waayyy before. which it probably did
She always had repressed emotions due to her mother pressuring her to be perfect, the family pressuring her to reject the panda and be the pretty perfect little girl and A+ student, the pressure was always there most likely similiar to what Mei was expected to deliver in school and working at the Temple
'So Ming's Panda was already huge when Jin saw it the first time or maybe when Ming transformed the very first time
It only got worse from there, and repressing the panda/emotions didnt made anything better and the fight with her mom just took it to extremes that no control was possible
Generational Trauma and pressure from family plays a huge role, Ming had learned to repress her emotions, her sadness, her rage, her passion, her happiness, her friends and most importantly: her childhood
This is why we also see her teenager self in the forest and not the adult women, so much repressed emotion that burst out only to be locked away again as Ming approached the clearing
Honestly extremly sad that she couldn't and might never be able to regain what she lost due to her Mother & the family that pressured her into being perfect
Mei would've turned the same way, with her Panda growing to gigantic size if she hadn't listened to her friends and her heart and be the child she is, not a perfect rolemodel.
I also thought it had to do with emotion but more connected to what kind of emotion. Mei’s dad says something along the lines of “maybe yours is love”. So I just assumed the reason for Ming lee’s size is that hers is anger/rage.
Small, cute, fluffy red panda= love
Big, destructive, scary red panda=anger
Or maybe Stress too?
Anger is mostly caused by stress too.
@@kai_4927 Correctly for me, Ming has alot of stress and mental problems, Mommy issues, and family problems which may have caused her own panda to make up as a destruction and a very much dangerous panda, The panda depends on you're emotions but even for the ancestors who we're red pandas we're twice regularly bigger than Mei but for Ming, She's wayyy bigger than we think
Actually I heard a statement from Pixar that the panda is supposed to be a metaphor for the "Loud, messy, weird part of ourselves." The part we think should be locked away but embracing it helps us to grow. But I'm not sure what part they're talking about.
Also, early in development, they were going to have the panda get bigger the stronger the emotions until Mei and her mother had this kaiju-style fight across the city. So I think it's left over from that. And that a kaiju-panda would be a better climax then a normal sized one.
By the way, does anyone else think it's unbelievable that the world went on as normal after it learned magic was real? Or that the world forgave Ming after she turned into a 100ft rage monster and did $100,000,000 of damage?
Glad that someone is finally referencing the ACTUAL CREATORS of the show! I'm getting tired of people assuming that the creators made the panda a representation of periods and puberty. Is there a parallel? Yeah, seems like it. Does the existence of a parallel intrinsically mean that this is what the creators were saying? No!
It's very "what is the author saying" in English class. Who knows? I'm not the author
Just realized that the necklace around Ming's neck could symbolize a collar of sorts. Like keeping in control of her emotions
What I also think is that Ming could have been stuck with the panda for a very long time. Maybe even for years, or decades
We all know that a full lunar eclipse is needed to get rid of the red panda.
But maybe Ming had to wait for a very long time or even for years till the next full lunar eclipse. Maybe on days of a lunar eclipse it was too cloudy or it wasn't full. And along all those years of waiting for a clear view of the red moon, the more and more the red panda grew along with her.
But that's what I was thinking...
Very reasonable
What your saying is, is that Ming’s Panda is massive as it represents those months/years stuck as the panda.. very Well thought
@@0-springytears-0 itd make sense because she'd be forced to spend more time repressing and keeping herself neutral just to not take the building down in a tantrum haha
makes sense
@0-SpringyTears-0 I would say years.
Probably from child/tween years to adulthood
My theory is that Ming's panda was that big because of how overprotective she is. The only other giant panda in the family was Sun Yee's, and that was at a time where she needed to protect her family. When Ming went out of control, it was also to protect Jin from her mom. It seems the size has a lot do with the purpose the panda is given. Plus, the size of Ming's panda couldn't be because she grew inside the pendant due to pent up emotions since her Panda was stated to have always been that big, even before being sealed.
This theory is pure gold and I honestly accept it in its entirety. The only thing I would add is that apart from Ming's bottled-up emotion, I think Ming's giant form also conveyed the most brutal battle Mei had to fight: standing up to her mother and expressing independence because she was of age to do so.
Another topic I would like to point out is that Mei's ancestor was enormous in the flashback when fighting all the hoards of enemies. The emotional turmoil of war and the need to save her children were so strong that they grew to the size of a giant.
It could also explain why even in the legend of the red panda, Mei's ancestor remained in a panda form on the secret scroll. She embraced this gift and when wartime was over, her children had to bottle up emotions and go on with life as at that time women who were outspoken may have been put in greater danger (I'm assuming).
The first theory is what I think when the mother explain that the blessing is to harness the emotion to turn into red panda
I think it was her age, maybe she was significently older than mei and the rest of her family when her panda emerged makeing it bigger, all things considered she did go on about how she thought mei was too young for it to happen yet. What if she thought mei's panda would be late like hers?
The too young part is about menstruation, since children are now getting it earlier than their parents
@@XiELEd4377 A lot of people think whenever their children start menstruating is "too young." There is a strong reaction to knowing your child can now get pregnant, and not every parent deals with it well.
I think the bigger the emotion the bigger the red panda and she has the biggest emotions because she has to hide them away she has strong emotions because she has a different style than her mom and she has to hide it too just like May May the reason they may doesn't have a big Panda it's because she didn't have much time to get a big panda and she learns to control her emotions
I think the reason for Ming's panda being so big was that Sun Lee had a colossal Panda. That's how she defeated the enemy that attacked her village because if her panda was the size of Mei's aunties, she would have been overpowered. I think once in every century one woman in Mei's Bloodline get the true power of the Red Panda i.e. The Colossal Panda.
I definitely think it was all the pent up emotions and stress. But also the panda was originally a way to protect and defend during war. Ming's panda is in battle mode, so to speak, due to all that fear and pain boiling over.
Honestly, the first thing that came to my mind when I watched Ming was ‘Tiger Mom’
I know people started to get a bit bored of the generational trauma themes after Encanto (also a great film) but you have to admit that the way Turning Red used it was extremely good and was something a lot of women could resonate with. I definitely could.
First, it’s kaiju: large building-sized monster. Think Godzilla, where it originated.
Second: Love that the movie used a Euphemism for your period for when the ritual had to take place. There is a lot of pain and emotional issues that come with begging womanhood biologically, and no movie that I know of outside of this one actually even touches on it. Coming-of-age stories are generally boy-centric. When they do feature a girl, it’s only just about what’s happening outside of the girl. never about how her body is changing and growing wider hips and bleeding between the legs every month for a week while suffering in agony like you have the flu.
As far as your original question, I personally think that her panda was bigger because it could also be a representation of how her periods are. Some women do not have very painful periods, whereas others like myself need to be home in bed for 2 to 3 days before they can even move because it’s so debilitating. Also, she very well could be one of these women that suffer humongous mood swings similar to being bipolar during her period, so that could potentially be represented here. She also wasn’t allowed to express these pains in mood swings and was probably physically abused by her mother. So when she got sick of it and lashed out at her mother it would’ve been brutal. I personally do not think that Mei’s mom and her grandmother were close and that is just the perspective of the grandmother.
One thing I have against the background of how the Red Panda ability was passed onto Mei’s ancestor is how Sun yi’s kids got the gift. The kids seemed to be around 5-10 years old. So unless the red moon also gifted the kids aswell then it would seem odd that the kids would also have it I’ve they would have been born long before the gift was bestowed upon their mother
Well, either the kids got it too (albeit, maybe manifesting it later when they reached puberty, as it seems that's the trigger for the red panda), they didn't got it but their kids did (like, it skipped a generation), or Sun Yi had other kids after that, that got the red panda, and the descendant of one of the younger kids are Mei's ancestors.
I got my period super young and had a baby super young so the 8-10 years makes sense to me.
In my opinion, I really like how this movie demonstrates that you shouldn’t be afraid of the “Red Panda” inside yourself because even though it’s not easy accepting the fact that it does exists, you can’t just cage up it forever. Seriously, I get that acceptance isn’t easy; but you shouldn’t be a pussie about it or else you’ll never overcome it!!!
7:21 Mei used Skull Bash and it was super effective!
i thought it was about having really bad periods... but emotional trauma works too (and also not knowing how to handle periods properly)
this makes a good point... but what about when the dad says "I told you she was big!" That kind of throws a large chunk of this theory out of the window.
But Mei then said "that big?" I think Jin meant that Ming was quite big, but not as big as she was in the movie.
I mean...was this not obvious in the movie? Ming is obviously SEVERELY emotionally repressed and putting up the perfectionist facade because she never really learned how to deal with emotions, probably because her mom didn't like that she HAD emotions in the first place, so she suppressed all of them out of fear of appearing "imperfect" to her own overbearing mom. Her giant panda is representative of just how much of herself she's suppressed to appear perfect, which includes the panda form itself
I think Ming's is that large is because that's how heavy her flow is
Anger and sadness mixed up all together.
im glad she chose to keep her panda and fight back against her mom
I think that the size of the red panda depends on their self confidence. The less self confidence they have, the bigger the panda (in order to make up for it with massive protection)
Repress of the emotions are might be the cause because of what ming went through. And when we see ming around meis age she felt like she had to because she attacked ming but I'm sure it was just an accident. ( the scar on Wu’s eye brow ) and I'm sure that the family will grow closer and wear colors other than green
I always thought it was her flow... I mean think about it really. The normal flow would be the rest of the family and mei is a light flow of sorts and ming and ming would be a heavy flow leading to a bigger panda.
I don’t know why but this made me laugh so hard because it’s very accurate I would probably have that large of a flow and it was horrible as I always had to get big pads and my emotions were always laughter or crying uncontrollably so maybe that could add to ur idea as well I wonder if u have a larger flow u have more emotions or if we r just more emotional because we’re frustrated about pad size 😂
@@OceanSongBird6355 same lol. My first period really said: Wait you wanted to have a good first experience? Not a thing. now here is a pound of blood every 5 seconds. lol
inner demons coming back because of the pain
The two theories are pretty good. But there is a theory and also involves the other Red Panda forms. The Red Panda forms are symbolism for Periods and the sizes of the Pandas are the flow. Mei Lee's is the Smallest she has a light flow, her aunts and Grandmother have larger Pandas so a medium flow, and finally Ming Lee's is massive so a heavy flow. The connection of emotions works as well as the hormones a woman has during that time are out of whack so they tend to be more emotional
I think is a combination of things, but the dad said her panda was the biggest of them all even before the the mom hurt the grandma.... so I don't think that the enormous size was because of all the years of her feelings bottled up in the pendant, but throughout her life until it erupted as a volcano (enormous panda + bottled up anger/desperation/depression/etc/etc + years of trying to ignore + one last drop of anger = extra gozdilla size red panda out of control)
I honestly thought they would exclusively revolve around a woman's period. While there was a joke about that, at least it wasn't the main focus on the story as we were led to believe.
The men on her generation would have used her bloodline for war in ancient China if they found out, probably why they kept it a secret for everyone.
One of the only anime/Japanese cartoon art styles that remind of the style of this movie is the cartoon, “Doraemon”.
I saw a theory, and i agree with it. The panda forms show themselves when the bearer is of age, which is usually when a girl gets her first period. The theory states that the size of the red panda represents the blood flow during that time of the month.
Ming's mother also said that she and her ming are close once but the red penda took it away. Yes ofc her panda form is so large it's because of her emotion yeah that's pretty much what I think it it...
One thing I don’t get about Disney is why they didn’t have a turning red themed tamagotchi released. They partnered with ban dai to make the Star Wars ones so it would make so much sense to make a red panda themed one.
Good, and to everyone else with no better explanation, quit hating on the Film already and let the rest have a sequel PLEASE?!
It's like all about repressing your emotions. If you don't express how you feel, even if you're scared of the results you'll end up keeping them stored in their little "circle" like a red panda cub being put in time out. Until one day your emotions become too much for you to contain: and that little red panda cub turns into a rampaging monster red panda
I think its just when her emotions got too big, her panda grew too, if you saw their eyes, whenever they were angry the eyes turned red. if their already in panda form, they just lash out and get mad, but, i think that if they transform while in this state, the panda is VERY BIG
Mei’s family has the power of separating the red panda
At first I thought the size was about generations, like how Sun Ye was a giant red panda, and Ming so happened to be that generation number that inherited the giant form, and then that’d continue
Be proud of yourself and never give up✨
Unrelated, but I think that the next person who will help with the ritual to separate the panda will be Mei’s dad after the old man passes away
My favorite Pixar movie! I agree with you about her Panda's size is about her holding her emotions in.
Creators said reason ming was so large was actually theory one correct was due to her emotions and life she had with her mother. Wu was not exactly easy to live with from what I could observe from the movie.
Now as a woman myself who lived in a simliar way only without the red panda part could connect to both Ming and Mei Mei as it was very similar with my mother and I. Only my mother wasn't as uptight but she was very overprotective.
So the fact Ming's pandawas so large was pent up stress and emotions she refused to accept which in turn bottled up and grew worse over time. So I can see where Ming is in the situation.
Her repressing the panda explains why her panda is so big and Mei’s is small compared to the other pandas
Turning Red would make a good anime. :)
I think mings panda is bigger than meis because she has so many big emotions than anybody the larger of emotions the larger the panda is the rest of the family does not have emotions like that but Ming did and the crying is not perfect and I think grandma wu got that scar because of mings panda that's probably why her mother Acts like she doesn't like her own daughter
6:47 bruh she got hit is the face! 😂
This sounds very similar to stories I heard from Pakistani/Indian families as well. Mothers banning their daughters from everything, after they themselves were banned from so many things when they were young. Then they get very angry and envious when they see young girls have more freedom than they themselves had during their teenager/young adult time. A generational trauma that is transferred from generation to generation. It especially becomes stronger with immigrant families in western countries, when parents become even more overprotective because they see the other extreme in western cultures (other kids having no rules or limits at all, which is also harmful, you should go for a middle way, you need rules to protect your child from things that are actually harmful/bad, but not pointlessly ban everything even though its harmless), and isolate even more to people of their own culture.
Family honor and "what will other people think of us" also plays a huge role.
This is a widespread problem in many cultures that are even geographically far apart from each other.
The first theory is wrong, Meis dad is not surprised at the size of Mings panda. He even said earlier that it was big already back when Mings mom And Ming had their fight
0:25 thats the most horrifying scene in the whole movie like- imagine seeing that thing walking towards ur house 💀
It’s the same thing with mei mei all the stress come in the panda like the day her mom went to the gas station and should she drawings she was embarrassed and humiliated and all that stress came in one panda and that happened the next day that’s why she was having dreams and the same thing with her mom she thought she wasn’t good enough all that stress she had came In To one panda and remember panda shape shift only comes when you’re feeling a type of emotion I feel as though it was stress that made the plan to come out on them and if she thought she wasn’t good enough for her mother all these years then that’s how she probably have grown into how her panda forms was I think all the stress that mei mei mom went to turn her into the panda because it’s so funny the day after when she showed the drawings mei mei turned panda it was because it was humiliation embarrassing th turned her into the panda and her mom relates to the same story she thought she wasn’t good enough and all those emotions for the last few years with her mom she grew
Pew pew for the giant panda
Well her size could depend on her emotion so like if she’s like just a little angry then she’d probably be a size about when the other woman in the family but if she’s so angry like really really really angry then she’s probably going to be a huge panda yeah a huge panda I mean I expected big but not that big so that’s why I think her emotions would get her angry not really so much so once the necklace was broken the panda was released I don’t think the panda look adorable I mean that beagle it look like a big red furry cat furry
This sounds like generational trauma honestly, my family on my mom side bottles up their feelings, and nobody talks about their feelings EVER. I’m also the only one in my family that has gone to therapy.
6:13
this is off topic but this scene has all the budget used on it
I just noticed something about this movie, the rest of the woman in mei's family are all wearing green, with there red panda gems being red. But mei (unlike the rest of them) has a red sweater (referencing the red panda that she in the end chooses to keep) and instead has a green hair clip. And as we see in the scene where mei is deciding weather or not to keep her panda, in the bamboo forest she was in, she was the only thing there that wasn't green, everything else around her was, just like her family, they all wear the color green, except for her, did other people notice or is that just me?
You Know I Call Ming's Red Panda Pandazilla Because It's The Size Of Godzilla
Or Redzilla.
She is so big as a red panda for her overprotective attitudes towards Mei. Spoiler: In the end, she choses to not have the panda not because she wants to appear perfect, but because she wants to express her emotions without being a monster
If I had a choice I would keep the panda transformation
The movie says that they use their emotions to take on ANY enemy therefore it makes sense that ming’s incredible fury she got fiery fur and a skyscraper bod
Very very good announcement !
Her past!? That's why she's huge?!
But Jin already said that her panda form was big and her sister's hinted at it. Dosen't that show that her panda was just always that big? For it to have grown over the years due to emotion means it had to have been smaller at some point but that's not what her family implied with Jin saying "I told you she was big".
Do you ever think Bruce Banner (or General Thunder Ross) would find out the Red Pandas because of Ming.
The line “how could she do this to her own mother” may have been as much directed towards Ming as it was to Mei
I like how you always put so much effort into a single movie? Which will eventually mean nothing. But love your content still!
Jin tells MeiMei that her mom’s panda was always that big, it didn’t grow, or at least not that much
My friend says it's because anger (anger = size)
It's good to see that women having their first period and talking about it more is coming more common in the movies and tv shows. Before the early 2000's this subject was pretty much a taboo subject to talk about amongst society unless you were a women or learning about this in 7th grade. Not surprising the gods chose a women's period being when their panda will begin to spawn.
So your saying that the anger within her bundled up inside her panda making the panda size so big when it was released🐼
A theory that I still think was interesting was the size of their panda was correlated with their period flow. Since that it’s a big part of a girl’s life, she is feeling bloated maybe, can’t control her emotions, and I reacted similar to Mei in the bathroom when she realized she turn and was flipping through disgust, confusion, worry and embarrassment to the transition into being a women.
Hmm seems like Ming has a disorder I forgot the name of the disorder but it’s related to everything being perfect
OCD
Simple: Ming has a lot of EMOTIONAL DAMAGE!!!!!!!!
Funny you mention anime references, there is a scene which refer to Sailor Moon, in the anime Sailor Moon has to pass through a narrow pasage that she can barely enter, same with panda Mei when she´s trying to get home after turning panda in the school for the first time.
I heard from somewhere that the size of the red panda they turn into is also the size of their periods every month, but I think the first one that was mention sounds more accurate to the red panda in Turing Red, which is sad really.
I except his repressed emotions theory because it makes sense and works
6:51 wha- how did she dodge that?!
Finally I thought it was puberty blood but it is always on my name I love your videos
For Red Panda Ming, I call her Redzilla.
I wish they showed Ming’s side of it. They tell us but, they don’t show it. This movie would have been a high tier Pixar movie if they showed the fight that she had with her mom and they could have explained that she hates the panda.
Yeah that’s how I roll that’s how you roll
I think that when the panda, s turn older they will be larger
no it means anger but yeah
This video is about three times longer than it needs to be.
If Charles Muntz wasn't looking for the bird in South America, he would tried to capture Mei before Ming tracked them down and ripped him into pieces even in her normal form.
I believe that their red panda represents their shadow selves. Mei just figured out how to integrate hers with her ego self.
My first guess was Mei is just a smaller red panda compared to her families' because she's younger, and that as she got older her red panda form would grow too, but it being based more on emotion makes sense.
Bruh, it's godzilla. Ming's panda is supposed to be like godzilla.
Okay!!!! Soooooo....... In the bamboo scene at the end of the movie where Mai is leading Ming out of the forest, you see three stages of Ming's life. First, is when she hurt her mother, which was probably was her first time turning into the panda. The second might've been when Ming's mother disproved Mai's dad. The third was during that moment in time. So, Ming had turned into the panda more than once in her lifetime. In which, after hurting her mother had build up emotion to cause the panda to be that big from her past. This is just my theory.
I have to say this film was fun watch at first
Pixar's third original Female Lead Character
And her three best friends are all girls. The four main characters are girls. That's a first for PIXAR, I checked all the Pixar films
Mei and her friends remind me of my sister and her three girlfriends
They love each other so much, and they have a lot in common.
Only now I feel extremely stressed and extremely anxious to watch this film
both Ming and Tyler are too painful for me to handle
and it's just sad that the girls got the date of the concert incorrect
and Tyler's party is a bad memory for myself.
and all of the sudden I have become very terrified of Mei angry in her panda form
The point is I find it hard to enjoy this film
The girls are great
The rest of the film too stressful for me handle
I don't know what to do😥
i think this movie is about periods, boys, kpop and periods, panda
maybe ming had the the most painful period... and then bottling it up and mood swings
and trying to be perfect..
and she hurted her mother because they fought because ming brought jin and her mother didnt like jin and so they fought and wu has that scar on the eyebrows and ming's panda was so big! so much anger... so dont be like ming kids.. dont bottle it up please (っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ