In a film all about the trials and tribulations of growing up,
it’s only natural to have scenes that focus on the relationships we have throughout our
lives - whether that be with a parent or a best friend. Pixar’s latest film,
“Turning Red” is of course no exception to this, and we felt it’d be worth trying
to see which of the film’s relationships are the healthiest and which could use some work.
I’m Caleb with WickedBinge and this is Turning Red Relationships: Healthy to Most Healthy
Spoilers ahead for Pixar’s latest film. Additionally,
though there are a few relationships from “Turning Red” with some issues, we
couldn’t really call any of them “toxic”. Still, we’re going to start with the relationships that
have the most to work on and work our way up to the strongest and healthiest relationships.
First up, we have the enemies-to-friends relationship, Mei and Tyler. It shouldn’t be
too surprising to see this particular relationship this low on our list, given how much conflict they
had. Since they’re both in middle school, it isn’t farfetched to assume that both characters
are still somewhat in their “boys VS girls” phase. Not helping is how Tyler treats Mei, often teasing
her with taunts or crude drawings. At one point, he even goes so far as to insult her family when
she makes him mad, calling her a “freak”. We also can’t forget how Tyler blackmailed Mei in
order to force her to make a panda appearance at his party. Now, Mei isn’t completely innocent in
this relationship either. In fact, she probably insults Tyler just as much as, if not more than,
he does. Granted, her insults are less personal and more childish, but still. Mei also went as
far as to physically attack Tyler, though she regretted this and didn’t want to actually hurt
him. Despite a lack of on-screen apology and all the friction these two have, all of that conflict
is pushed to the side the moment that Tyler is revealed to be a fan of the boy-band group,
4-Town. Instead of teasing him, Mei and the rest of her fans immediately accept him as part of the
group. Keep in mind that “Turning Red” takes place in the early 2000’s, where any instance
of a boy being into something quote-unquote ‘girly’ was seen as even more of a taboo,
and this gesture from Mei and the girls becomes even more meaningful. Unfortunately, because this
new friendship happened so quickly and didn’t have much depth or development to it, we couldn’t rank
Mei and Tyler’s relationship any higher - even if the surprise twist to it was still sweet.
Next up, we have the secondary mother/daughter relationship of the film, Ming and Wu. In a way,
Ming and Wu represent the worst possible scenario for Ming and Mei’s relationship if it
were to fracture and become distant. On Ming’s side, she seems almost afraid of Wu at first,
nearly panicking when she hears that Wu is going to be there for the panda banishing ritual.
Like Mei, Ming just wants her mother’s approval and tries to be seen as a “perfect daughter”,
no longer wanting to hurt her. However, this comes with a cost, as the two are still distant and
aren’t as close as they once were. Unfortunately, Wu doesn’t do much to fix their relationship.
She’s seen being critical of Ming’s skills as a mother, and isn’t exactly supportive nor does
she give Ming much positive feedback, though she does warn Ming about Mei disobeying her. The two
of them are able to take a step towards healing their relationship in the film’s climax, however,
when Wu frees her own panda side in order to help banish Ming’s panda. She also forgives Ming for
hurting her when she was younger, showing Ming that while she may not always show it
she does genuinely love her. Still, we felt this relationship could use quite a bit of work,
but in their defense, there is a possibility of them eventually becoming close again.
From there, we have Mei and her aunties. One of the more minor relationships in the film,
they seem to represent a typical “distant relatives” relationship. Mei’s aunties are,
simply put, a little overbearing. They comment on not just her panda side but also her weight
and her looks - comments that are likely familiar to most female members of the audience. Still,
they try to be supportive, giving Mei food and gifts when they arrive. They also help Mei save
her mother, although they only remove their own panda charms once Wu starts the initiative. As for
Mei, she seems pretty distant from her aunties and mostly seems to be overwhelmed by them,
although we can’t say that she dislikes them. It should also be noted that when they visited
Mei already had plans that she was focused on, so we’ve never really seen her interact with
them during a time where she wasn’t stressed out or wanting to get away. Though this adds
a bit of ambiguity to this relationship, it still ended up falling into the lower half of our list.
Slightly ahead of that relationship, we have Mei and Wu. Much like Ming, Mei takes her
grandmother’s approval seriously. Wu, however, is a bit warmer towards Mei than she is towards Ming.
Though she confronts Mei about her continuing to let the panda out, Wu does so in a calm way. Wu
also makes it clear that she’s only warning Mei because she doesn’t want to see Mei and Ming’s
relationship become fractured. Mei also shows a bit of respect towards her grandmother in that
she does at least try to heed her warning, briefly choosing to not let her panda side out anymore.
While Mei does change her mind, this is more due to not wanting to let her friends down
than her wanting to disobey her family. These two aren’t super close, but the respect is
evident - as is the love, even if they aren’t as affectionate as Mei and Ming. Speaking of which-
We’ve finally come to one of the biggest relationships in the film,
Mei and Ming. Though these two aren’t as conflicted as say Merida and Queen Eleanor
from “Brave”, there are plenty of issues between them that could be discussed and improved. Let’s
start with the positives first though, as unlike a lot of mother & teen daughter relationships,
Mei and Ming are shown to be incredibly close, affectionate and friendly with each other. They
clean and run their family’s temple together, they watch Chinese soap operas together,
and family photos show them playing tennis together. They’re a great team! Unfortunately,
the conflict starts to come with Ming’s more… overbearing side. She expects great things
from her daughter, including perfect grades, and intensely disapproves of Mei expressing
her more teenage side. This is best shown with her reaction to Mei’s sexy anime boy drawings.
It’s during these moments where we see the biggest point of conflict with their relationship.
Because Mei wants to honor and respect her mother while also earning her approval,
she hides her true feelings and reactions whenever Ming does something that upsets her.
This leads to Mei being dishonest, sneaking around and eventually lashing out at Ming - resulting in
their big panda fight. Thankfully, it’s their similarities that allow them to find common
ground and accept each other. Mei shows Ming that even if she’s changing she still loves her mother,
comforting her and assuring her that they’ll still have a relationship,
even if it’s different from before. As a result, Ming is willing to acknowledge her own failings
and give Mei the freedom to be herself. Though we couldn’t put them any higher due to the major
issues in this relationship’s status quo, the eventual positive development of it as well as
the initial closeness between them is enough for us to rank them in the upper half of our list.
Next up is our only canon romance from the film, Ming and Jin. While these two don’t
get a ton of focus as a couple, they work well enough. While Ming runs the temple,
Jin will take care of things like dinner. Ming can admittedly be a bit strict,
like when she doesn’t allow her husband to have a donut at breakfast or when she doesn’t let
him give his opinion on whether Mei should go to a concert or not. But while this isn’t great persay,
Jin never shows any signs of being unhappy with his wife. He respects her and cares about her,
not even being intimidated by her huge panda-side. Speaking of which, while Ming’s main focus may
be on Mei, we learn that when it came to her relationship with Jin, Ming still fought for
it despite her mother’s disapproval. This shows that even if this couple isn’t necessarily one
with a lot of physical affection and lovey-dovey moments, Ming still cares deeply about her husband
and their relationship - and vice versa. They aren’t a perfect couple,
but they’re far from toxic or loveless and still earn their spot near our top relationships.
We had to give a shoutout to Mei and her ancestor, Sun Yee. Though brief with hardly
any lines - in fact, Sun Yee doesn’t speak at all - the connection that these two are able to make
is really a beautiful scene. While the rest of her family is hesitant and concerned about Mei
keeping her panda side, Sun Yee shows her support 100%. She also takes the time to show her approval
and embracing of Mei’s panda side after Mei asks if she’ll regret her decision. We also saw that,
even before they met, Mei had a deep respect for her ancestor. Even if it meant sacrificing
time with her friends, Mei still seemed to genuinely enjoy taking care of her family’s temple
and didn’t really see cleaning it or praying to her ancestors as a chore. Yes, there was
a brief moment where Mei was angry at Sun Yee and nearly ripped her scroll, but considering
how their relationship eventually ended up we feel that it’s hardly a black mark against them.
From ancestor to father, we have Mei and Jin’s relationship next. It really is a shame that Jin
sort of gets the short end of the stick when it comes to how much the film focuses on him,
since he really is a good man. This is seen the best in his interactions with Mei,
whether they be simple - like him approving of the dumplings she made - or more emotional.
Jin is the first member of Mei’s family to show approval of her panda-side,
telling her that seeing that side of her made him laugh and smile. It’s obvious that he just
wants to see his little girl be happy, and isn’t interested in trying to control her
interests or putting his hopes and dreams on her like Ming tends to. Because of this more casual
relationship as well as Jin’s honesty, Mei is able to be more relaxed and open around him,
giving her someone to talk to outside of her friend group. While it doesn’t get a ton of focus,
this father/daughter relationship is incredibly sweet and wholesome.
Finally, for our Most Healthy “Turning Red” relationship, we have Mei and her friends.
These four girls are pretty much the definition of a perfect friend squad, with their interaction
just screaming “friends for life”. These girls are constantly hanging out and having fun,
often using their love of pop music as a means to help whenever one of them is upset. Speaking
of which, their support for each other is clearly evident throughout the entire film, both through
cheering each other up and protecting each other. Whether it’s working together to raise money for
tickets or the rest of the group being unwilling to sacrifice their own fun if one of them is left
out. On Mei’s side specifically, it’s like she says - these girls are the people she loves the
most, and even just thinking of them is enough to make her feel like everything is going to be okay.
Although we mostly see her friends supporting her as she deals with the emotional turmoil that
is ‘panda puberty’, we can’t call it one-sided. Mei only acts out because she wants to show her
friends a good time, and when it looks like they aren’t going to have enough money for tickets,
Mei is willing to take a risk and transform into a panda one last time to get the money they need.
All in all, these four are a great example of what it means to be best friends.
But while Mei is incredibly close to all her friends, we wanted to give a nod specifically to
the strong friendship between Mei and Miriam. As far as we can tell, Miriam is usually the leader
of the friend group and seems to be Mei’s best and closest friend. She’s always the first to step up
when Mei needs comfort, guidance or encouragement, and makes it clear that she supports all sides
of Mei - panda or no panda. Mei does her best to return the favor, even if she can’t always follow
Miriam’s advice. However, there is one negative that we can’t not mention and that of course is
Mei’s brief betrayal. When Ming goes after Miriam specifically for being a “bad influence” and
verbally attacks her, Mei chooses not to defend her out of fear of losing her mother’s approval.
While this was an awful move, Mei never tries to excuse it and it doesn’t take long for her to
regret her actions and apologize. She also doesn’t argue when Miriam makes it seem like she isn’t
going to forgive her, showing that Mei knew how badly she messed up and was willing to accept the
consequences. All that said, given how this moment is a one-time thing and Mei learns her lesson,
making it seem likely that she won’t throw her friends under the bus again, we felt that even
this wasn’t enough to keep the relationship between Mei and Miriam - and to an extent,
the rest of the their friends too - from being ranked as the film’s healthiest relationship.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking,
and let us know what we should cover next! Remember to hit that notification
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