“Turning Red” is a new animated family flick from Disney and it’s honestly probably the worst animated Disney film I’ve seen. The film has received some criticism from Christian groups due to its depiction of Chinese spirits while other parents are angry about the references to teen girls’ periods. However, I just hated it because of its obnoxious characters and bad writing.

Meilin (Rosalie Chiang) is a Chinese girl living in early 2000s Toronto, Canada. Due to an ancient family curse, she starts turning into a red panda whenever she gets emotional. Her mother (Sandra Oh “Sideways”) initially assumes this is just part of puberty but then realises it’s the whole panda thing. Now, Meilin must learn to control the power of the panda as her family gather to help perform a ritual to remove it from her.

The characters in this film are beyond annoying. Meilin has got to be one of the most unlikeable protagonists ever featured in a mainstream film. Her friends are really bland and irritating too. The mother character is slightly less annoying but I still don’t like her. The red panda looks pretty lousy. To think that this is more than a decade after DreamWorks did “Kung Fu Panda” and this doesn’t really look much better.

“Turning Red” is a horrendously stupid film. The red panda analogy for girls’ periods simply doesn’t work very well when periods themselves are so clearly referenced. The characters are just awful and I hated spending time with any of them. The animation is also pretty weak. Disney is meant to innovate with its animation and yet this is far less visually interesting than most other Disney 3D animated films and even other studios’ animated films such as “Wish Dragon” and “Kung Fu Panda”. “Turning Red” is a real low point for Disney.