With Turning Red Pixar continues a ludicrously long run of excellent and remarkably emotionally mature films. Odds are pretty good that if you’re reading this description then you grew up watching Andy play with Woody and Buzz Lightyear, and came of age somewhere along the way. But almost 30 years since Toy Story first hit the big screen, it’s become clear that it wasn’t just you growing up with the animation giant, but Pixar was growing up with you too. Here is how – by slowly but surely perfecting the coming of age story – Pixar came of age itself.
Turning Red on Disney+ is only the latest in a long line of films about parents and children. Going back to the early days of Toy Story, Monster’s Inc. and Finding Nemo, themes of parenthood wove their way through the animation studios work. But these gradually gave way to films like Brave, The Good Dinosaur and Inside Out, where the perspective shifts decidedly to the kids in the middle of growing up, with all the messy and confounding emotions that go along with it. The change didn’t happen overnight, but through the creatives behind the scenes at Pixar growing up right along with the rest of us.
This video was written by Siddhant Adlakha and edited by Tom Jorgensen.
