Quote:
"[Domee] Shi and her co-writer, Julia Cho, play deftly if sometimes exaggeratedly with the figure of the Asian tiger mom, pushing Ming to an outlandish comic extreme early on when she publicly humiliates Mei after a misunderstanding. You might scoff or wince at that moment (I did a little of both), which occupies that perplexing zone where truth and stereotype meet. But you might also appreciate the cultural dimension that makes Mei's mortification so personal. Helicopter parents and rebellious kids clash every day, but it's specifically Ming's Chinese-ness, her perceived outsider status, that gives her 'psycho mom' reputation such a sharp sting. And so while Turning Red has the fanciful, farcical complications you might recognize from other Pixar movies—supernatural twists, clever coincidences—its busy narrative machinery is driven by the inordinate pressure Mei feels to keep her worlds separate. Here, the horrors of bodily transformation and the challenges of cultural assimilation become one and the same."
-- Justin Chang

Source:
Chang, Justin. "Review: With the charming 'Turning Red,' Pixar unleashes teenage panda-monium." Review of Turning Red. Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2022.