Though the trailer for “Turning Red” was released back in November of last year, the drama seems to have kicked off in earnest this week when Twitter user @Bolverk15 tweeted about the style of animation Pixar went with for the children’s movie. Along with a screenshot of Mei in “Turning Red,” the Twitter user wrote, “Pixar fell off so f***ing hard ike [sic] what the [f***] even is this?”
Battle lines were formed, with many quick to point out that the target demographic of the movie is, in fact, kids. “a child ? in a children’s movie ? say it ain’t so,” @meatgirl tweeted with apparent sarcasm. Others said they actually prefer the more dramatic, embellished style of animation over Pixar’s previous attempts at realism, with @ungrassedgrass commenting, “This criticism is so tiring because Pixar’s shift towards more expressive and exaggerated animation is one of my favorite things about their recent movies. Grown men just cant stand seeing a female character who isn’t perfectly adorable, and expressionless all the time.”
However, some agreed with the original tweet. @moriibee tweeted, “The characters look so ugly who approved this.” On the other hand, many looked to Pixar’s long history to demonstrate how far the studio’s animation has come. With a picture of the dog from “Toy Story” attached, @king_of_limb joked, “bro pixar thought this was a dog in 1995.”
There’s no way to know for sure how good “Turning Red” will be before it debuts next month on Disney+, so perhaps judgement is best reserved for that time.