So can we talk about something?
Okay. So
I saw something on Twitter the other day, and I kind of wanted to talk to
you guys about it because it really made me think.
And there was a lot of stuff that happened in the Twitter world, and
I just figured that this would be a fun conversation to bring on to my channel.
So there is this new movie coming out called Turning Red.
It is absolutely adorable, from what I can tell.
It is about a Chinese girl who lives in Canada.
She discovers that she has the power to turn into a red panda
whenever she gets excited.
And from what I can tell, it's very much a coming of age story
that has a very Chinese focus.
And obviously the turning red thing is supposed to be, you know, a puberty thing.
Right.
And so some early reviews came out and there was one reviewer
who had a very, very interesting take, and I wanted to share it
with you guys and talk about a lot of the things connected to it. So
So this guy's name is Sean O'Connell.
He is a reviewer.
He published a book called Release the Snyder Cut.
There's more words there, I suppose but it was a book
that I think started a lot of the conversation around.
Snyder releasing the full cut of one of his movies that I don't care about.
But anyway,
this is what he said in his Twitter post, advertising
for his review on the website, that he is a director on, by the way.
He says some Pixar films are for a universal audience.
Turning Read is not. The target audience for this one feels very specific.
And very narrow.
If you're in it, this might work well for you.
I am not in it. And this was exhausting.
Now...here's the thing.
I don't know why an aging white man
thinks that he needs to identify
with every children's cartoon that comes out.
But it just I think
you know, I think that it's pretty normal
to say that not every piece of children's media is going to appeal
to everyone. In fact, I will start out this conversation
by saying that I don't think everyone has to universally like everything.
Some things are created for a very particular audience.
And from what I can tell.
Turning Red is very much a movie that is being made
to especially reflect some of the experiences of young women.
Right And so I don't necessarily think that that's a bad thing,
and I don't get why that has to be the issue.
Right.
And I know that you could like, look, at what he said here
and not think much about it, but he said more in the review
that made it clear kind of what his actual issues were.
Let's get into it.
So he says by rooting, turning red, very specifically in the Asian community
of Toronto, the film Legitimate at least feels like it was made for Domm Shi's friends and immediate family members,
which is fine, but also a tad limiting in its scope.
Okay.
So I'm sure you all can already know where I'm going to go with this.
But, you know, here's the thing.
I grew up in a predominantly Chinese neighborhood.
And I had friends who were of all racial backgrounds.
I had friends who came from different areas of the world
and we all had things in common, even though we were so different.
And personally, I love watching media about experiences
that I don't have,
about people living in countries that I've never visited, about people
going through things that I've never experience,
because I just think that it's so interesting that we can all live
on the same planet, but experience life so dramatically differently.
Right.
And so I think it really says something
when you watch a film about an Asian person
and what you come away with
it is that it was exhausting for you to empathize with these characters, right?
Because that's not what I think of when I watch honestly, any movie.
And also, one of the things that I really thought when I saw
this is just how frequently I as a person of color, grew up
watching things that were clearly not
things that I directly identified with.
I mean, a lot of media is create in centering whiteness,
centering white people and people of color just kind of have to like
ignore the ways
in which that's not reflective of who they are and enjoy it.
And that's something that I think most people of color are used to doing.
But I can tell by the reactions of a lot of white people to similar
things like this where they're just kind of upset that there's a person
of color on screen because they don't identify with it,
that a lot of white people don't really have that experience.
Right.
They they are so used to being given media
that is reflective of who they are that they feel alienated when it's not.
And that's interesting because people who are not white
just kind of have to overlook the ways
in which they don't directly identify with something and enjoy it.
And it's so interesting to me because before Toy Story 4 came out,
he did this pull of his top favorite Pixar movies.
And, you know, you'll notice a lot of the stories are about inanimate objects.
And you have to go to the seventh one
before you get to a story that centers a person of color's experience, right?
Everything else is about, you know, robots toys that become,
you know, alive rats who, you know,
make soup in France, and a family that's super or whatever, you know, like
these are all things that most people don't identify with,
but they're still loved by a large range of people.
And I just think it just says so much that
just the very
idea of a film about a Chinese girl in Toronto,
you know, is like a limiting in its scope
because it's apparently supposed to appeal to only people who live in Domm Shi's neighborhood, apparently.
I just think it's a very condescending thing to say.
And it's interesting
because in his review, he said that he thought that Mitchell versus
Machines was a story that was identifiable all to a universal audience.
And I wonder
what it is
that, you know, makes it more universal than
Turning Red
You know, I ever for the record, I haven't seen either of these films.
I haven't seen either these movies.
They might, you know, look who knows.
Maybe I'll come out of it being like, oh, it wasn't that great.
Which honestly, I feel that way about a lot of films people like this like. But
I just think that
you he should have really thought about what he was saying before he says it.
And listen, I want to be clear.
I don't necessarily think that this reviewer is like some terrible racist
who needs to be canceled or anything like that.
But I think it's a thing that he said without being even
remotely aware of his bias.
Right.
And I think that that's unfortunately how a lot of racism functions, right.
Where people sort of just do these things and deny
certain things because they don't identify with it.
Not, you know, intentional bigotry per se.
But it is a reflection
of the society we live in, which is often centered on whiteness.
So I just thought that I would share that with you guys.
I would love to hear what you guys have to say about this because,
you know, for me, it just seems like a thing
that didn't need to be didn't need to be said, didn't need too be said.
And in fact, he did actually end up deleting the review and the tweet
and apologizing kind of he sort of gave, you know, an apology, I guess.
But of course, there's people in the comment section who feel like
he shouldn't have been strong armed into making an apology
that he didn't probably need to make in some people's opinions. But
I guess in a
way, it is kind of nice that he sat with it more and thought about it
more and decided that he didn't want to have that out there.
But a lot of times when people delete
stuff like this, I feel like they're just deleting things to cover their butt
as opposed to actually changing their feelings about this anyway.
And that is what I wanted to say.
And I wanted to see what you guys said.
So please be sure to give me your thoughts in the comment box below.
And on that note, I will see you guys in the next one! Bye!!