Speed Racer

When I was a very young kid growing up, Speed Racer was my favorite show on TV.  My older brother and I would get into fights for control of the TV, because I had to see the adventures of Speed and his gadget-loaded car, the Mach 5.  The racing, and that car, were amazing!   The things it could do fueled hours of playtime imagination (and probably inspired a generation of NASCAR drivers).  The show was on for a few years, but soon disappeared after that, and (because this was the dark ages before video, cable, the internet … ask your parents about it, kids) I was left with just my memories of these adventures.  But oh, what memories!

The years passed, and as the video revolution swept over us all, many of the shows from my childhood resurfaced, like treasures unearthed in a ruined city.  Then, one day in the early ‘90s, Speed Racer was released on video, and several friends and I gathered to relive the excitement of our childhood.  We popped the tape (again, kids, ask your parents) into the machine, sat back, and discovered … the show was garbage.  Bad animation, two voice actors doing all the dubbing, plots that were simplistic to the point of being … well, you get the picture.  There was no going home to Speed Racer …

After that, with all the rumors of the movie version being made (Tom Cruise, anyone?), I listened with disdain and trepidation.  The show sucked, so what good could a movie be?  (And if you know Hollywood, they’ll make anything with name recognition into a movie.  I point to the nightmare that was SUPER MARIO BROS. and rest my case.)  And if they changed it all to make it “better” (more modern, more “accessible”), what would be the point?  Such a movie, like the abomination that was GODZILLA (1998), would be Speed Racer in name only.  So, when the Wachoski version hit the theaters, and everyone bemoaned the state of its eye-candy cinema, I skipped it.  When it showed up on DVD, I dropped it at the bottom of my NetFlix cue, out of simple curiosity, intending to get to it … someday.  But, after a watching-period of one too many deep, personal, and serious films, I was in need of some flipping eye candy, and pulled this one to the top.  Even so, it sat there for few weeks before I got to it.

When it comes to the Wachoski’s, I find their output a mixed bag.  For all the joy I get watching the MATRIX or V FOR VENDETTA, there is the pain of MATRIX RELOADED and the disappointing sputtering to an end of MATRIX REVOLUTIONS.  So, it was on a bored and lazy night, a beer in hand, with every intention of shutting it down when it started to suck, that I popped the disc into the player.

And within minutes, I was floored.  Because, you see, the Wachoski’s hadn’t made a movie of Speed Racer, the old ‘60s anime.  The Wachoski SPEED RACER is no less than a movie of my memories.  And oh, what memories!

When this movie started showing up on several critic’s “10 worst” lists for 2008, I was actually kind of stunned.  Is SPEED RACER the world’s greatest movie?  Best movie of 2008?  Well, one of the best of that summer?  No, on all counts.  But SPEED RACER was probably the most fun I’ve had watching a movie in a long time.  And the care and craft with which everyone involved made this movie really shows on the screen.

The effects (well, that would be every shot in the movie) are stunning.  This is not a real world — this is a cartoon world made manifest, and the effects do that concept justice in a way that is often gorgeous to watch.  Some of the casting (John Goodman as Pops, Matthew Fox as Racer X) is dead on, and pretty much all of the other actors bring depth to the roles they inhabit in this movie, giving the story a weight it might not otherwise convey.  And the screenplay, while staying true to the flavor of the old show, is actually a nicely written fable about learning who you can really trust when you leave the cocoon of family to head out into the outside world.  Finally, as a special bonus, the middle 30 minutes of the movie is a beautiful realization of what an episode of the old series should have been, had it been well-written, well-shot, and well-acted.

Now, granted, this isn’t a movie for everyone.  If you thought the first 30 minutes of MOULIN ROUGE was too fast, or if you can’t follow the BOURNE films, well … stay away from SPEED RACER.  It is a creature of its times, and displays the editing speed to keep up with its peers.

But, if you have small boys in your home (of just about any age or gender), take this one for a spin … they will love it.