Turning Red | 2022 | PG | – 2.3.1

Why is “Turning Red” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “thematic material, suggestive content and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes several scenes of teenagers swooning over teen band members and teen girls looking at teen boys and pictures of teen boys, several discussions of menstruation, many scenes of a teen girl and several women transforming into giant pandas with different levels of violence and rage leaving a lot of property damage and one person with a bloody scratch, and some mild language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Becoming a 13-year-old holds many secrets for young Meilin (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), including a family connection to giant red pandas. When she begins changing into her panda self, she is terrified by what this will mean for her future, but quickly learns to accept her new identity. Also with the voices of Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Hyein Park, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Orion Lee, Tristan Allerick Chen, Lori Tan Chinn, Mia Tagano and Sherry Cola. Directed by Domee Shi. A few lines of dialogue are spoken in Cantonese and Korean without translation. [Running Time: 1:40]

Turning Red SEX/NUDITY 2

 – A young teen girl draws a picture of a teen boy and appears to be smitten with him; she draws muscular arms and abdominals and becomes embarrassed when her mother finds a drawing of the boy and the girl embracing. Four young teen girls talk about and swoon over boys in several scenes.
► A young teen girl wiggles her hips toward the camera in several scenes. A teen boy teases a young teen girl and pantomimes kissing with smooching sounds and caressing his own shoulders. A woman complains about the members of a band and is upset by their “gyrations.” A teen boy on stage throws a kiss to audience members that scream and swoon.
► Teen girls watch teen boys on a basketball court and makes suggestive remarks in several scenes. A woman thinks that her young teen daughter has started her menstrual cycle by asking “did the red peony bloom,” and offers her advice and supplies; the girl yells at her mother trying to explain that that is not what is happening (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details) and the woman says, “Protect your delicate pedals and clean them regularly.” A woman calls out to her young teen daughter, “You forgot your pads,” as she holds up a package of feminine hygiene pads in front of the girl’s classmates. A young teen girl asks her friends, “Are we allowed to boy-girl party?” A young teen girl as a giant panda wiggles her hips and tail suggestively toward her mother also a giant panda.
► A teen boy wears a vest that is unbuttoned to reveal part of his bare abdomen.

Turning Red VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 – A woman becomes enraged and transforms into a giant panda with glowing red eyes and sharp teeth and claws; she chases her young teen daughter that has also transformed into a giant panda (although much smaller than her mother); the woman pushes open a coliseum roof, breaks down a stage and hanging signs and grabs her young teen daughter (now in human form), they argue, and the woman tells other people to go home and put on some clothes. A woman becomes enraged and quizzes her young teen daughter when she finds drawings of a teen boy and assumes the boy has been making romantic advances toward the girl; the woman storms into a store where the boy works and confronts him, showing him the drawings and several other young people see them and mock the girl. A woman and her young teen daughter carrying brooms chase people painting graffiti on a wall and yell at them; the woman says, “I’ll tell your mothers.” A woman hides behind a tree in a schoolyard and a security guard tries to escort her out, and the woman yells and kicks him; when the woman’s young teen daughter sees her, she becomes enraged and changes into a giant panda, runs out of the room and hides in the girls’ bathroom. A young teen girl in a giant panda form runs away from her school, runs through sidewalks and cafes knocking people over, jumps onto a fire escape (it breaks away and lands on the ground below), jumps onto a large sign that pulls free and crashes onto the ground, jumps across rooftops and slams into a wall before charging through a shrine and into her house, breaking furniture. A young teen girl becomes enraged and transforms into a giant panda before attacking a boy and holding him on the ground; the boy is frightened and cries and we see a scratch on his face. A young teen girl as a giant panda jumps and head-butts her mother, also as a giant panda, knocking her unconscious.
► A young teen girl transforms into a panda and threatens a young teen boy in a few scenes and he threatens to tell her mother. Several women break amulets and transform into giant pandas, and several women transform back into human form. A young teen girl throws herself into walls and floors trying to get rid of a giant panda persona. A young teen girl looks in a mirror and sees herself as a giant red panda; she screams and bumps into walls, breaks furniture and gets her paw stuck in a toilet. A young teen girl opens a box filled with tiny kittens that crawl all over her. A young teen girl sprouts a giant panda paw and uses it to throw a ball very hard during class; it shatters the window. A woman finds things under her young teen daughter’s bed that suggest that she has been lying about what she has been doing and the woman becomes upset. A young teen girl sits on the ground and a circle is drawn around her for a ritual, as women sing around the girl, the circle glows, and a jewel on the shaman’s sword hilt glows red and shoots a blast toward the girls’ forehead; the girl is lifted off the ground and she seems to be transported to another realm where she meets a woman, and she touches a portal that separates her from her panda self. A young teen girl cries and says that she hurt her mother.
► A young teen girl has a nightmare about statues glowing red and exploding, she sees a teen boy with a mermaid tail gasping when he flops on the ground, and what looks like a serpent cut in half on the ground and she wakes up with a start. Three teen girls scream when they see their friend as a giant panda. A young teen girl bumps into people on a sidewalk while running for a bus and then to get home. A young teen girl dances and knocks over a sign before falling on the ground (she is unharmed). Four young teen girls push through other children while leaving school. A woman watches her young teen daughter through binoculars. A man describes a fight between his wife and her mother and that it was terrible and that their relationship changed afterward.
► A woman tells her young teen daughter about an ancestor that asked the gods to turn her into a red panda in order to protect her family and town while all the men were away at war. A young teen girl talks about striving to be perfect in her mother’s eyes. A young teen girl says, “Let’s burn this place to the ground” (she does not mean it literally). A woman talks about soap opera characters and says, “She’ll stab him on their wedding night.” A sign on a temple door reads, “Closed due to a family emergency.” A young teen girl tells a friend of hers that her mother doesn’t like the friend. A husband and his wife trigger test their young teen daughter trying to make her upset to reveal her panda side (she does not). A woman says that she fears her young teen daughter will, “Panda all over the place.” A woman says of a musical group, “Who do they think they are?” Young teen girls plot how they can raise money; one suggests selling her kidney and her soul. Four women kick a door open and pinch a young teen girl’s cheeks in greeting. A young teen girl betrays her friends when her mother accuses them of bad behavior and lying. A man tells a young teen girl that a ritual is “mostly painless.”
► We see claw marks on a young teen girl’s bedroom walls and floor. A young teen girl dresses in a cardboard panda costume in several scenes. A woman plucks a stray eyebrow hair from her eyebrow and we see a scar on her forehead that cuts through her eyebrow. A teen girl chews something sticky and pink and we see it sticking to her teeth and braces.

Turning Red LANGUAGE 1

 – 2 mild scatological terms, 2 mild anatomical terms, 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (major weirdo, dork narc, stupid, evil, hot hobo, brainwashed, good for nothing posers, sketchy, sicko, crass, stupid, tacky, delinquents, animal, trouble, creepy, jerk face, goody-goody, rebel, freak, diva, pandapocalypse, garbage, dork, messy, horrible, unruly beast, dork bag, loser, wacko, loser, filth, glittery delinquents, my furry ticking time bomb, slobby, smelly, freak, super boring, uncommon denominator, gross red monster, perv, nuts, jerk wad, insecure, awful, sexy, odd), exclamations (fudgesicles, awooga, buzz off, stop it, let’s get the lead out, you da bomb, wow, what the heck, don’t blow it, calm down, chill, ugh, yo, heck, are you serious, what a shame, oh my gosh, oh my goodness, oh no, oh my, killed it, yeah, ow, easy-peasy, whoo, oh snap, oh, what, huh), 5 religious exclamations (e.g. “O-M-G,” a woman and a girl pray at a shrine of an ancestor in several scenes). | profanity glossary |

Turning Red SUBSTANCE USE

 – None.

Turning Red DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Ancestors, family, courage, being yourself, controlling emotions, rituals, trust, luck.

Turning Red MESSAGE

 – Honor your parents, but also be yourself.