New creation of Pixar, Red Alert depicts, once is not customary, the inner torments of its heroine. Through this crazy story, filmmaker Domee Shi, the studio's first female solo female director, signs an interesting metaphor for female puberty. But crushed under its references (both Western and Asian), the feature film misses its emancipation. Disappointing.
Red Alert: A Minor Feature Film from the Pixar Stable
Red Alert is the 25th feature film from American animation studios Pixar, owned by Disney since 2006. This feature film, the first of its author Domee Shi, after her very nice short named Bao, deals with emancipation and the passage from childhood to adulthood. Her gaze is defined, like her heroine, by her condition as a Chinese-Canadian woman. We follow the story of Meilin Lee, nicknamed Mei, a 13-year-old girl torn between the traditionalist and studious culture instilled by her parents and her feminine desires. The latter tend to explode into the open when one morning, Mei notices that she transforms into a giant red panda when she is overwhelmed by her emotions. 
As you can see, the metaphor of Red Alert is a little clearer: in this pivotal period of adolescence, Mei discovers puberty and learns to live with the exultation of her inner self. In this, this new Pixar production is very rooted in the real world. Through the eyes of the girl, we follow a group of colorful teenagers (although a little cliché on legs): the neurotic goth, the gruff ready to do anything to defend her friends and the tomboy. This group of girls who indulge in a remarkable sorority will have only one objective: to attend the concert of 4*Town, their favorite boy band that passes in their city. From then on, it will be for Mei to succeed in a shamanic rite of passage to permanently revoke her red panda.
Female gaze
Where Red Alert rejoices is in its desire to deal head-on with adolescent fears, under a new perspective: the feminine. It is also women who make up most of the technical team, in the most important positions: production designer (Rona Liu), screenwriters (Domee Shi and Julia Cho), technical director supervisor (Danielle Feinberg), executive producer (Lindsey Collins) and of course director Domee Shi. If this vision detonates in animation, especially Western, it does not escape its main weaknesses. Very programmatic, Red Alert has a hard time escaping from its formula more disneyesque than pixarian, with large tired dramatic springs (awkward foreshadowing, too identifiable function sequences). For a first feature film, Domee Shi seems far from applying the full potential of her talent as an animator, content to recite academically the specifications of a Hollywood production. 
Pixar losing ground
This is a problem that Pixar has been facing for several years. Unable to renew the dramatic breath of its beginnings, the studio finds itself forced to apply an industrial logic, with a lot of medium sequels (The Incredibles 2), when they are not useless (Finding Dory, Toy Story 4). Some original productions survive thanks to the talent of the studio's historical ones, such as Pete Docter or Lee Unkrich (Coco, Soul), but the new talents struggle to breathe a new golden age into the studio with the rabid light bulb. This is evidenced by their latest production, Luca, which locks itself into the same logic of personal work by calling for the Italian origin of its author, for a story without audacity. Red Alert suffers from the same syndrome, with its fun but dramatically flat treatment of a catchy pitch. While Domee Shi claims a melting pot of inspirations (discover our interview with director and producer Lindsey Collins), ranging from japanimation (Ranma 1/2, kaïjus films) to Disney/Warner works, the filmmaker finds herself crushed by her references. So much so that the impression of déjà vu quickly sets in. Especially since the delirious tone seems to sing Sony animation productions, as recently Les Mitchells contre les machines.
A miraculous animation
The feature film does not lack a formal charm to convince. His aesthetic mixing photorealism and anthropomorphic zany composes hilarious moments, the smile rarely falling during the viewing. Reaching a technical perfection that makes you speechless, Pixar can boast of a flawless animation, which sees the least of its pixels magnify the screen. The bet is once again won with Red Alert, especially since his calls of the foot to Asian techniques are successful and energize, when they are not too present, sequences originally indigestible. 
We will also highlight the care given to its first metaphor, that of puberty, by directly addressing the question of menstruation, hormones or disillusioned feelings. Few Hollywood animated feature films have taken up these subjects with such extremism. This will not fail to seduce, even upset the spectators who are most sensitive to it. The others, however, will not classify Red Alert as one of the major installments signed Pixar. [Edito]: The author of these lines would like to point out that it is revolting that the studio that is Disney imposes a release schedule on digital platform rather than in dark theaters which need popular works to survive. This mercantile logic makes invisible the work of all the technicians who respected their part of the contract for the major. Soul and Luca had already undergone the same seedy treatment. In addition, few people remember his works which, like other content drowned in an extended catalog of productions, are instantly forgotten. A dynamic and relevant feature film, Red Alert does not transform the essay by its pachydermic structure and its lack of formal audacity. If his few stylistic attempts (the songs of the boy band, ça passe ou ça casse) are to be highlighted, he symbolizes a stagnation for Pixar, unable to renew its herd of talent and to breathe a striking look, if not universalist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41pXKTSrC_g
