https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akvq3k/culture-warriors-are-very-upset-about-the-sweet-and-inoffensive-turning-red

Turning Red, the latest film from Disney-owned animation studio Pixar, isn’t one of its more ponderous, philosophical films. It’s a sunny coming-of-age story set in the modern day—technically, it takes place 20 years ago, but this seems mainly like a device allowing the film to address contemporary concerns without being totally up to the minute—starring a precocious 13-year-old who only wants to know how to be a good daughter to her mother. Why this movie has made so many people so angry is a question for which there’s no obvious answer.

Children’s media has become a political battleground, one where the so-called “culture war” is fought. Turning Red has become just the latest film to find itself being shot at from multiple rhetorical fronts, even though the film itself is—in a good way—pretty banal. Like many Disney and Pixar films, Turning Red depicts a child with a tumultuous relationship with her parents; in this case, having strong emotions will turn her into a giant red panda. What’s a boy-band-obsessed 13-year-old to do?