Turning Red released right to Disney Plus this month, and it’s easy to see why so many people
are connecting to this film. It’s a relatable story of growth, family and friendship. Centering
around thirteen year old Meilin Lee, many are able to relate to the questionable choices and
sometimes chaotic energy that the main protagonist displayed as she fought for her own identity. But
of all these characters, who is the dumbest? And who came out on top as the most brilliant?
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge and this Turning Red : Dumb to Brilliant.
First up here, we have characters who are… Not The Brightest.
Taking the ranking as dumbest on our list, we have to have the boyband 4-Town. While they
are given a fair amount of screentime, they’re primarily seen through the eyes of Mei, Priya,
Miram and Abby. And how these girls see them is as attractive young men with nice voices, so there
isn’t much depth to explore. When 4-Town was seen at their concert,
they were soon nearly taken out during Ming’s rampage on the dome. When they were spotted
by Miriam, the boys had managed to make their way through the wrecked stage and get themselves free
of the rigging they had been left in. It’s uncertain what Miriam, Priya and Abby told
the boys to convince them to stay and help, but 4-Town came through with the request.
They had no way of knowing their song would charge a magic circle. After all, that was something Mei
herself had only learned minutes prior at her own ritual and she didn’t have the chance to
tell her friends about the details pertaining to everything that happened. So all 4-Town knew
was what the girls told them: that singing the band’s songs gave Mei confidence. They didn’t
expect to help to the extent they had, and managed to keep the performance going even with the ritual
taking place. They simply didn’t question it. It probably would have been smart to make sure
everyone that was in attendance for their concert was being escorted out safely, but considering
the boys had been left in their rigging and no adults besides the ones in Mei’s family were seen,
all the staff had likely left without them or hadn’t managed to make it into the main stage
to assist. A public relations nightmare, sure, but it wasn’t really 4-Town’s fault.
Next up our list is the Average Folk. These guys are, as the name implies,
pretty average in terms of intelligence. Not too smart, but not too dumb. Normies.
Coming in as the second dumbest character in the movie we have Tyler. There’s not much explanation
we need to give as to why Tyler is so low on this list. He was a bully that picked on others
as a way to cope with his own insecurities. He did things spur of the moment, trying to gain any sort
of reaction he could from his peers. Normally that meant he would mock kids and try to rally others
to join in on the bullying, as he was seen when Ming confronted Devon at the convenience store
and during their gym class. As the movie progressed, Tyler found a way to use Mei’s
growing popularity to his advantage and resorted to blackmail to get her to agree.
We’re not saying we necessarily support resorting to blackmail, but it was an effective tactic.
After Mei, Priya, Miriam and Abby accepted his love of the band 4-Town, Tyler made the right
call and decided to spend the concert with them. He knew better than to let pride or embarrassment
make him miss out on a chance to openly enjoy something without worrying about what his peers
might think. When the girls stuck around to help encourage Mei with the help of 4-Town,
Tyler stuck around rather than fleeing. It would have been easy for him to write off
Mei for the sake of his own self-preservation, but he was able to be mature enough to overlook
their past conflict and recognize that Mei was just a girl in trouble.
Our first ranking in this section is a tied spot going to Mei’s close friends Priya,
Abby, and Miriam. These girls made up one of the most encouraging and supportive friend groups in
not only Pixar’s history, but all of animation. They never once hesitated to lift Mei’s spirits,
and because of that they helped her achieve something no one thought was possible: controlling
the red panda. Sure, encouraging Mei to use the red panda form so often and in public wasn’t the
smartest idea considering Mei was planning to get rid of the form at the time. However, these girls
thought of everything to avoid being caught. A believable alibi, a space they could switch
back and forth should Ming show up unannounced, not to mention a plan on how to raise all that
moneyt… When Mei decided to take Tyler’s offer and do his party to avoid being exposed to her mother,
Miriam had spoken up that it wasn’t a good idea. When everything started to go wrong at the party,
the girls quickly connected the dots as to why Mei was upset and did their best to calm her down.
During the final scenes, Priya, Miriam and Abby also managed to catch 4-Town before the band fled
the demolished stage, using them to help support Mei as she and her family completed the ritual.
Next up is Mei’s father Jin. He was a man of few words,
but that was mostly because he wasn’t really allowed to give his input on anything. But
being silent doesn’t mean Jin was ignorant. It gave him a chance to watch and observe,
meaning he was able to pick up on things others missed. Jin had been the one to notice Mei’s
reluctance before the ritual and found her tape she made with her friends. He was able
to recognize that his daughter was happier when she was confident enough to express herself,
and that the red panda helped to bring her more happiness. He had been the first person in the
family to encourage Mei to consider keeping the red panda rather than going through with the
ritual. When Ming transformed and confronted Mei at the concert, Jin rushed into action, grabbing
some equipment to create a giant circle around his wife so that a ritual could be performed.
Following we have Mr Gao. For his spiritual knowledge alone, Mr Gao had earned his
spot on this list. Not only was he well versed in traditional practices, but he was able to
adapt and improvise when needed. During the final conflict, when Ming, Wu and the Aunties
had to go through the ritual again, Mr Gao managed to find everyone a new vessel for their red pandas
among the debris at the crashed concert. He was also quick to move into position on high ground,
despite the fact that the dome was quickly becoming more unstable by the second.
In another tied ranking we have the Aunties: Chen,
Ping, Helen and Lily. The Aunties were shown to follow Wu’s lead, allowing her to make the call
on what needed to be done at any given time. They had dropped everything to travel to Toronto and
perform Mei’s ritual. They had to be pressed into following Wu’s lead again to help Ming,
transforming on the spot. However, they were more than secondary characters.
They were quick to catch on with whatever was happening. Though they could be distracted fawning
over Mei or making a complaint about something, they made an excellent team and adapted quickly.
Now we’re really getting into the College Bound. These are the characters who are just a stone
throw away from the top, proving they have the ability to be the best, but just fall short.
Taking the next ranking is Mei’s mother, Ming Lee. Ming revealed in her conversations with Mei that
in her own youth, she had been a dedicated student that achieved high marks in all that she pursued.
She was quick to respond when she saw Mei unexpectedly transform at the school,
and had even abandoned her car to chase Mei all the way back to the temple. When Mei insisted
she could now control the red panda, Ming had the foresight to insist they test the ability
to be sure her daughter wouldn’t slip up when at school or traveling around the city. However, for
as clever a woman Ming was, her over-protective nature meant that she often overlooked much of
what was right in front of her. Ming had been well aware that there was a generation curse-
or blessing- on the family, yet she did nothing to prepare her daughter for the transformation.
When Mei was panicking, Ming misunderstood the situation, and instead assumed it had to do with
Mei experiencing puberty. Ming loved her daughter, but was not great at listening when Mei tried to
express her embarrassment. We understand that Ming was only trying to do what she thought was best,
but sometimes a doodle in a notebook is a work of fiction and she really should have heard Mei
out before causing a scene in front of everyone. There was also the fact that Ming continuously
broke the law in order to spy on Mei while she was at school, and outright called for Mei to
explain to the guard that she was her mom and was only bringing her pads. Ming’s inability to
hear out Mei’s concerns or needs was ultimately what pressed Ming to transform after her pendant
was broken. She had gone on a rampage simply because she wholeheartedly believed that Mei
was being corrupted rather than just accepting her daughter was becoming someone different.
Thankfully in the end, Ming was able to accept that she had a lot of her own issues to work
through and apologized for pressuring Mei. Ming realized she had taught Mei
a lot of things that she herself had resented being forced into
growing up. It showed a lot of development that Ming was able to reflect and change her behavior.
Taking the bronze medal of most brilliant character is
the main protagonist herself, Meilin “Mei” Lee. It was revealed in the very first minutes of the
movie that Mei was driven. She was an excellent student, getting an A+ average and excelling in
all of her extracurricular activities. On top of that, Mei was also efficient. Once she set her
mind to something, she did everything she could to make sure her performance couldn’t be outmatched.
When she found that her classmates were willing to pay to see more of her red panda form,
Mei quickly capitalized on the fact. She was able to use her newfound popularity to earn enough
for her and her friends to attend the 4-Town concert. Mei had been the one seen planning
all the details they would need for their plan to succeed, assigning everyone a role to avoid
being caught. When Ming discovered the evidence of what her daughter had actually been up to, there
were some papers showing Mei’s grades had dropped. But even with the distractions, Mei was still a B
average student, showing that even when she was slacking off, she was still doing incredibly well.
On top of all of this, Mei was able to be the first member of her family in recent generations
to control the red panda. Not only that, but once she accepted the panda as a part of herself,
Mei was able to shift back and forth between forms easily as she made her way to the 4-Town
concert. It was an impressive skill that she quickly had to use when confronting her mother,
able to take down Ming despite her massive form far exceeding Mei’s.
Much like Tyler had, Mei also showed a lot of maturity and growth by the end of the film.
She was able to stand up for herself and make her own choices without the fear she
held before. Mei was even able to help her mother’s inner child gain some closure,
able to accept that Ming had reacted as she did out of desperation to please Wu and protect Mei.
Finally, we have The Geniuses. The smartest characters in the film!
The silver medal of most brilliant goes to Grandma Wu Lee. Wu was a woman of absolute
control. Everything related to the family’s image and reputation was a top priority. So
when she saw a giant red panda featured on the news running through Toronto,
Wu was able to quickly assess the situation and jump into action. By the time she called Ming,
Wu already had the Aunties and Mr Gao on board to perform the ritual. In fact,
Wu was shown to be the one to call with shots several times throughout the film, with not
only the Aunties but with Jin and Ming. After they arrived, Wu was able to confront Mei face to face,
informing her granddaughter that she was aware Mei was shifting into the red panda out in public.
Wu had been taught to repress the nature of the red panda and pushed that belief
onto her own daughter. She expressed to Mei that she blamed Ming’s panda form for being
the reason that they were no longer close, explaining that without the transformation,
Ming would have never accidentally left the scar we see on Wu’s face. In the end, however,
Wu was not only able to accept Mei keeping her panda, but was able to overcome her own fear.
She allowed herself to transform one last time in order to save Ming from becoming trapped.
Finally, taking the gold medal of most brilliant is Sun Yee. Sun Yee was by far the most powerful
and brilliant in this entire feature. She was able to channel power to gain the ability to transform
and used the gift to protect her family and her village. She wasn’t given any dialogue in
the movie, but we see between the story told by Ming and Sun Yee’s appearance during the ritual
that she had great control over her own red panda form. Being able to become a massive
beast to face an army and taking on a smaller version of the form when interacting with Mei
no doubt took a lot of practice and control. Not only did Sun Yee have a massive amount of
spiritual knowledge, but she was able to help run her home and community in a time of war and chaos,
which would have been an impressive feat for anyone during that time.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking. And tell us what we should
cover next. Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Dumb to Brilliant playlist.
Where we figure out which characters have the most wits. But most importantly, stay wicked.