A White movie critic who deemed Pixar’s Asian-led “Turning Red” as unrelatable received backlash online, resulting in the review being deleted.

A White movie critic who deemed Pixar’s Asian-led Turning Red as unrelatable received backlash online, resulting in the review being deleted. During last week’s premiere of the coming-of-age animated film, which follows a Chinese Canadian teen girl who turns into a red panda when her mood shifts, CinemaBlend’s Managing Director Sean O’Connell referred to it as being “exhausting” and not “made for a universal audience.” The review quickly circulated on Twitter, where many users accused O’Connell of dismissing a movie because it featured Asian characters. Pop culture blog POC Culture responded to the review, tweeting: “This is what happens when White males are presented as the default. Audiences have empathized with White male protagonists forever but you get one Asian girl in animation and these people question their existence.” Soon after the backlash, O’Connell and CinemaBlend’s Editor-in-Chief Mack Rawden apologized—and deleted the review and its corresponding tweet. We told you about the #StopAsianHate and #VeryAsian movements that began online amid the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, and the swift backlash against the CinemaBlend editors shows that young people aren’t afraid to call out people or brands making ignorant and discriminatory comments. (NextShark)