Turning Red's Post-Credits Scene Completes One Of Its Best Running Jokes
Warning! SPOILERS for Turning Red ahead.
Pixar's Turning Red focuses a lot on the relationship between Meilin “Mei” Lee (Rosalie Chiang) and her mother Ming (Sandra Oh), sometimes leaving her father Jin (Orion Lee) in the shadows, but the Pixar film’s post-credits scene gives Jin his due in the funniest way. Turning Red is the 25th Pixar feature film, and it focuses on the energetic 13-year-old Mei, who one day realizes that every time she feels a strong emotion, she turns into a big and fluffy red panda. Turning Red was released exclusively on Disney+ on March 11, becoming the third Pixar film to do so after Soul and Luca.
As the transformation into a red panda is a “blessing,” as Ming described it, bestowed by Ming’s ancestor Sun Yee to all the women of her family, Turning Red concentrates a lot on the complicated relationship between Ming and her daughter Mei. Despite deeply caring for each other, Ming sees things differently from Mei, and Mei does not know how to fully express herself while also honoring her parents and making her mother proud. In this setting, Mei’s father Jin sometimes ends up overlooked, despite being as central to the story and to Mei’s accomplishments as Ming and Mei herself are.
Turning Red’s post-credits scene ends up giving Jin credit, though. While Jin is as central as all the other members of Ming’s family in the ritual to free Ming of her destructive red panda form, throughout the movie, he is rarely seen without Ming or Mei. Turning Red’s post-credit scene instead shows Jin listening to 4*Town’s hits and dancing along to them, fully vibing to the boyband’s songs while alone in the basement. If the rest of Turning Red sees Jin as a supporting character, Mei’s father fully shines in the post-credit scene, appearing carefree and happy in such an amusing way that both gives him his due while also embodying the movie’s comedic nature.
Still, Turning Red doesn’t make Jin shine only after the credits as a character on his own. When Mei and Ming go home at the movie’s beginning and watch a TV show together, Jin can be seen cooking. The scene is framed as if Jin truly is in his element at that moment, with ingredients looking particularly luscious and his cooking skills being displayed as clearly exceptional. While the moment is slightly undercut by Jin’s glasses fogging up, which provides a funny interlude, Turning Red shows glimpses of Jin’s peculiarities.
Turning Red’s ending reiterates Jin’s importance as part of the Lee family, especially when it’s revealed that the big fight Ming had with her mother was about choosing him as a partner. Still, the post-credits scene really cements the ongoing joke about him being slightly ignored or talked over, offering a peek at how comfortable Jin is with himself. By doing so, Turning Red not only provides a final entertaining joke, but it also gives Jin credit as being his own person and not only a supporting character.