The type of digital wizardry Pixar introduced the world to with 1995's "Toy Story" has come a long way and afforded animators opportunities at times to experiment more with style. "Turning Red" provides plenty of opportunities to go big with its anime-influenced animation flavor, thanks in part to the film's heavily-advertised giant red panda and family curses and teenagers and such. Not everyone is on board with the look, though.
Redditor u/peb-is-taken wrote that the background colors were "flat" and everything on-screen "looked like plastic." Others expressed displeasure with the cartoonish look of the characters, especially the "bean mouths," referring to an animated mouth drawn roundly like a bean. "Some of us just don't really like the bean mouth art style," u/cinnabun6 commented about "Turning Red."
There is a clear love-hate divide on the animation, as others push back against those nostalgic for the Pixar movies they grew up with. "I don't think Pixar's movies are getting uninspired, I think they're just changing the style," u/fictioncvre offered in explanation of Pixar's shifting looks. Others said those dissatisfied with the "Turning Red" look are seeking too much reality in their animation. "At this point, people seem to only like animation when it's super realistic and hate it when it's stylized," u/Aleppo_the_Mushroom wrote.
