Along with other movies and shows, “Turning Red ” made its premiere on Disney+ instead of in theaters. The movie was released on March 11. 

   The movie’s main character, Meilen Lee opens up the movie by telling us about the importance of honoring your parents and yourself. Then we meet her friends, Miriam, Priya and Abby. After leaving school that day, the girls talk to each other about their favorite band, 4Town. Mei then leaves the girls to go home and help her mom at their family temple. After Ming, her mom, embarrasses Mei, she turns into a giant red panda overnight. 

  After Ming embarrasses Mei again, Mei turns into a panda and flees from school. Her parents then explain to her that there is a way to stop becoming a giant panda. After Mei figures out how to control it, the girls use Mei’s panda as a way to make money to save up to go see the 4Town concert. Eventually, everyone, but Mei goes to the 4Town concert, which is also the day of the ritual. Mei’s grandparents and aunts come to help with the ritual. During the ritual, Mei decides that she doesn’t want to separate from the panda. 

   Mei meets up with her friends at the concert and reconciles with Miriam. Ming ends up unleashing her own panda and chases after Mei after finding out where she has gone. Mei’s family all unleash their own pandas in order to move Ming back into the circle to save her. In order to get the circle working, people must sing, and 4Town sings their song which revives the concert and gets the circle working. Mei decides to keep her panda and uses it to help out her family at the temple. Her relationship with everyone in her family is then restored.

   The movie definitely has a great message for younger kids growing up. It expresses to preteens that it’s okay to embrace yourself and be who you want to be. The characters in the movie are not the popular kids and it would allow kids who feel out of the loop to sympathize with a character.  I think it is a great movie and I would definitely recommend it to others.