Critical response
Turning Red received critical acclaim. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 291 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads, "Heartwarming, humorous, beautifully animated, and culturally expansive, Turning Red extends Pixar's long list of family-friendly triumphs." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 83 out of 100 based on 53 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
The Washington Post's Michael O'Sullivan gave 4 stars out of 4 and concludes: "[The film] delivers a bigger, and in some ways more universal message: It's okay to not always be in control, to let your freak flag fly. To paraphrase Sigmund Freud, sometimes a red panda is just a red panda. And sometimes it's a metaphor for that inner spark of creativity, the flame of originality that is to be cherished, not extinguished. With Turning Red, Shi demonstrates that she's got it, in spades". IGN's Siddhant Adlakha gave a rating of 9 out of 10 and concludes: "A story of magical transformation as a metaphor for personal and cultural change, Turning Red (from Bao director Domee Shi) is Pixar's funniest and most imaginative film in years. It captures the wild energy of adolescence, uses pop stars as a timeless window into puberty, and tells a tale of friendship and family in the most delightfully kid-friendly way". Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson commented that "The film often seems squarely, deliberately, aimed at ... parents instead, offering them a gentle (if busy) reminder that they were young once too, once bursting at the seams with enthusiasm and curiosity and, yes, budding lust." The film was also praised for its realistic depiction of female friendships and their ups and downs, which producer Lindsey Collins credited to having mostly women on the creative team. Sara Michelle Fetters describes the film as "a coming-of-age sensation where the supernatural and the mundane happily walk hand in hand, with each eye-popping surprise grounded in lifelike normality."
The Guardian's Benjamin Lee gave 3 stars out of 5 and concludes: "The journey is slick and diverting, and at times incisive, but Turning Red is yet another Pixar film that coasts rather than glides. Hopefully its next offering can turn into something more". Chicago Sun-Times' Richard Roeper gave 2.5 stars out of 4 and comments that "The problems are mostly with the script, which often requires Meilin to be almost irritatingly obnoxious. Meanwhile, her mother behaves like a monster for much of the story, which takes on an increasingly supernatural element to the point where there's a Ghostbusters homage". World's Collin Carbarino comments that, "With Turning Red, Pixar abandons decades of nuanced storytelling and warms over Disney's clichéd advice to follow your heart." The Gospel Coalition's Brett McCracken said that "For all of its merits, the film ultimately advocates a wrongheaded central message under the guise of empowerment: embrace who you are, even your reckless vices and dangerous impulses, and don't let anyone stop you."
CinemaBlend's Sean O'Connell called the focus on a Chinese Canadian girl as "limiting" to a broad audience: "By rooting Turning Red very specifically in the Asian community of Toronto, the film legitimately feels like it was made for Domee Shi's friends and immediate family members. Which is fine – but also, a tad limiting in its scope". The New Yorker's Jane Hu echoed O'Connell's views, accusing the film of relying on East Asian stereotypes and of being "hyper-specific and alienating." O'Connell's review received backlash by members of the press on social media, who called it "sexist" and "racist"; crew and cast members of the movie eventually spoke up on the case. Lead voice actress Rosalie Chiang said the film was meant to appeal to all: "This is a coming of age film, everyone goes through this change ... I think different people of different cultures are going to go through it differently, but at the end of the day, the core messiness and change is something everyone can relate to". As a result of the push-back, CinemaBlend's editor-in-chief Mack Rawden pulled O'Connell's review and apologized publicly for it and that the site had "failed to properly edit" the review before posting; O'Connell also posted his own apology for the review.
The attention drawn by O'Connell's review led to parents and other audience critics to raise further issues with the film due to the character specificity, bringing up concerns that the film, aimed at a family audience, brings up the issues of menstruation, teenage crushes and sexuality, and disobedience of one's parents, which these people felt were topics best left for parents to discuss with their children on their own. Movie critics for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and Vox argued that these are natural topics that reflect the realities of 13-year-old girls and should not be considered taboo, and praised the film for its honest portrayal of these behaviors.
In 2023, Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail named the film as one of the 23 best Canadian comedy films ever made, acknowledging that it was not a Canadian production but writing that "Turning Red gets a pass because it not only reminds audiences of what Pixar can do when it's not in an Elemental-y slump, but showcases one of this country's brightest, funniest filmmakers, who is surely just getting started." Kimberly Jones from The Austin Chronicle summarized the film as a funny, sweet, and empathetic portrait of cultural identity, gentle teen rebellion, and tetchy mother-daughter relations.
