THIS Is Why Ming’s Red Panda Is Bigger Than Everyone Else’s!

As you know if you’ve seen Pixar’s Turning Red, all of the women in Mei’s ancestral line have been both blessed and cursed with the ability to shapeshift into red pandas as they come of age, and throughout the film, we got to see the differences between each of the pandas that belonged to Mei’s relatives. The most apparent of which is the size difference between Mei’s mother Ming’s panda versus everyone else’s. When Ming transformed, her red panda was monster-sized compared to the rest of them, which is kinda strange when you think about it, seeing how she was literally the only one who had this insane size. In today’s video, we are going to be discussing why that is, because interestingly enough, when you look at it from a psychological perspective and the family dynamics, the size difference actually makes a lot of sense.

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[kendracarnes]

I like that the grandmother saw that the panda wasn't the problem it was her expectation that drove a wedge between her and her daughter. And when she said "You don't have to apologize I'm your mother" was her letting go of that toxic idea of bottling everything up.

[writerious]

Oh, and one more symbol that I noticed -- clothing color. Ming, Wu, and all the aunties wear green, opposite of red on the color wheel, which I think symbolizes pushing away the red panda. Mei wears a lot of warm colors, especially pink and red. Red is already part of Mei and her spunky, confident personality well before she transforms into the panda.

[NAVEMAN]

I also still think the reason for the size difference is their repressed emotion. If you look at Ming's panda during the fight and compared it when it enters the spirit realm the size is vastly different from each other. That's just me though. Any thoughts?

[candacylindie]

I think it's sad really. The red panda is their uniqueness. I think Mei's mother had such a large panda because she had so much to express: love, creativity, passion, etc. Mei doesn't get her quirks from her dad. Her mom, if free to express herself, would have been one of those wonderfully weird, rare people. But, sadly, all of that larger than life character was locked away (as the large panda symbolizes) and she became like that.

[writerious]

I'm a bit surprised that you didn't comment on Wu's scar. I took that as a scar left from Ming's attack on her -- "I hurt my mother, " she sobbed in the forest when Mei found her. She physically hurt her mother and is horrified and ashamed of it. The enormous tension between Ming and Wu is evident all through the film: Ming's expectations of Mei's success (which she rewards with praise, while I suspect her own mother only prodded her to do more); Ming's terrified reaction to her mother's phone call; Ming's overprotective behavior to her only child. She feels like she will NEVER be good enough for her mother. Even look at her clothing: all uptight, tailored, buttoned-up, no hair out of place, picture of perfection. Perfection was the minimum expectation when she was growing up. Homely, sweet, comfortable Jin was definitely not up to Wu's standards! Ming has struggled all her life, I think, to find her place somewhere between her mother's unreachable standards and her own true self. In her attempts to be a better mother than her own, she's used praise to reinforce Mei's accomplishments instead of punishment and criticism for every deviation from perfection. That's given Mei a lot more confidence and self-acceptance, though she, too, struggles with her mother's high expectations and over-protectiveness.

[cindywells]

I think Turning Red is a combination of Encanto’s emphasis on generational trauma as well as unconditional acceptance and love as opposed to conditional acceptance and love with the addition of dealing with the family shadow; both by accepting these shadow aspects, but also incorporating them back into your identity. Mei’s family saw shame in the Red Panda aspects, and it is Mei’s journey to both come to terms with and then embrace them that show her true strength.

[Frazzled_Chameleon]

The first red panda manifested as Sun Yee's desire to be able to protect her family. It was huge, its size matching the perceived threat. Ming is desperately trying to protect her daughter from the world. Ming pushes Mei to always get perfect scores so she doesn't have to experience failure. The whole thing with Devon was trying to protect her from heartbreak. When bringing feminine hygiene products to school, she was trying to protect her from discomfort. She's the ultimate helicopter parent. Ming's panda is so huge from the sheer burden she's placed on herself to protect Mei from the whole world.

[zenziryx]

My first guess before seeing this: Ming’s panda size reflects the stress she endures. Sun Yee’s was big during 2d legend narration while appear to be normal mystical panda size towards end of movie. This indicates that the family’s respective red panda size reflects their fight-or-flight instincts. Or something like that?

[YuubiTimberwolf]

Generational Trauma and pressure from family plays a huge role, Ming had learned to repress her emotions, her sadness, her rage, her passion, her happiness, her friends and most importantly: her childhood
This is why we also see her teenager self in the forest and not the adult women, so much repressed emotion that burst out only to be locked away again as Ming approached the clearing

Honestly extremly sad that she couldn't and might never be able to regain what she lost due to her Mother & the family that pressured her into being perfect
Mei would've turned the same way, with her Panda growing to gigantic size if she hadn't listened to her friends and her heart and be the child she is, not a perfect rolemodel.

[josieseay]

I also thought it had to do with emotion but more connected to what kind of emotion. Mei’s dad says something along the lines of “maybe yours is love”. So I just assumed the reason for Ming lee’s size is that hers is anger/rage.
Small, cute, fluffy red panda= love
Big, destructive, scary red panda=anger

[insignia]

Very nice theory. However, you're saying that Ming's panda is so big because of her suppressing her emotions after the fall-out with her own mother. But Jin clearly said that Ming has always been this big in panda form, which means, she couldn't have pent up emotions before and this is most likely her true size that she always had.

[EccentricGentelman]

Actually I heard a statement from Pixar that the panda is supposed to be a metaphor for the "Loud, messy, weird part of ourselves." The part we think should be locked away but embracing it helps us to grow. But I'm not sure what part they're talking about.
Also, early in development, they were going to have the panda get bigger the stronger the emotions until Mei and her mother had this kaiju-style fight across the city. So I think it's left over from that. And that a kaiju-panda would be a better climax then a normal sized one.

By the way, does anyone else think it's unbelievable that the world went on as normal after it learned magic was real? Or that the world forgave Ming after she turned into a 100ft rage monster and did $100, 000, 000 of damage?

[sharingheart]

My theory is that Ming's panda was that big because of how overprotective she is. The only other giant panda in the family was Sun Yee's, and that was at a time where she needed to protect her family. When Ming went out of control, it was also to protect Jin from her mom. It seems the size has a lot do with the purpose the panda is given. Plus, the size of Ming's panda couldn't be because she grew inside the pendant due to pent up emotions since her Panda was stated to have always been that big, even before being sealed.

[rayaden]

This theory is pure gold and I honestly accept it in its entirety. The only thing I would add is that apart from Ming's bottled-up emotion, I think Ming's giant form also conveyed the most brutal battle Mei had to fight: standing up to her mother and expressing independence because she was of age to do so.
Another topic I would like to point out is that Mei's ancestor was enormous in the flashback when fighting all the hoards of enemies. The emotional turmoil of war and the need to save her children were so strong that they grew to the size of a giant.
It could also explain why even in the legend of the red panda, Mei's ancestor remained in a panda form on the secret scroll. She embraced this gift and when wartime was over, her children had to bottle up emotions and go on with life as at that time women who were outspoken may have been put in greater danger (I'm assuming).

[SNiYa]

Just realized that the necklace around Ming's neck could symbolize a collar of sorts. Like keeping in control of her emotions

[smeetkamble]

I think the reason for Ming's panda being so big was that Sun Lee had a colossal Panda. That's how she defeated the enemy that attacked her village because if her panda was the size of Mei's aunties, she would have been overpowered. I think once in every century one woman in Mei's Bloodline get the true power of the Red Panda i.e. The Colossal Panda.

[t-b]

What I also think is that Ming could have been stuck with the panda for a very long time. Maybe even for years, or decades

We all know that a full lunar eclipse is needed to get rid of the red panda.
But maybe Ming had to wait for a very long time or even for years till the next full lunar eclipse. Maybe on days of a lunar eclipse it was too cloudy or it wasn't full. And along all those years of waiting for a clear view of the red moon, the more and more the red panda grew along with her.

But that's what I was thinking...

[Slurparoni_Man]

I think it was her age, maybe she was significently older than mei and the rest of her family when her panda emerged makeing it bigger, all things considered she did go on about how she thought mei was too young for it to happen yet. What if she thought mei's panda would be late like hers?

[HansAdiWijaya]

The first theory is what I think when the mother explain that the blessing is to harness the emotion to turn into red panda

[Zyra]

I definitely think it was all the pent up emotions and stress. But also the panda was originally a way to protect and defend during war. Ming's panda is in battle mode, so to speak, due to all that fear and pain boiling over.