The year is 2008, I’m just on the cusp of leaving my childhood behind me and entering my moody teenage years. I’ve recently discovered The Matrix trilogy and I am watching them basically on repeat because what else am i going to be doing? I witness the trailer for the new Speed Racer film and basically my only takeaway from it is that the Wachowski’s are directing it, so naturally my Matrix addled mind begs my dad to take me to go see it. He obliged and I’m pretty sure he spends the next two hours having an aneurysm whilst he’s assaulted with colours beyond comprehension and the sheer absurdity of the world of Speed Racer…and I leave disappointed and confused that it wasn’t The Matrix (I mean clearly I didn’t actually pay any attention to the trailer, stupid boy). Anyway, long story short, I among many found Speed Racer to be a disappointing film when I saw it at the cinema, but as the years have gone by I’ve caught the odd screenshot or clip of it and I’ve been desperate to go back and watch it with fresh eyes, eyes that weren’t just expecting a more colourful Matrix film. So that’s exactly what I did! I grabbed some sugary snacks and fizzy drinks to get me real buzzed and I think I quite literally tasted the rainbow.
An automobile enthusiast of the highest calibre and his passion fuelled by the death of his older brother, the talented race car driver, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch), is offered a spot on the racing team of Royalton Industries, owned by E.P. Arnold Royalton (Roger Allam). Turning the offer down for fear of losing sight of what’s important to him, Speed becomes the target of corporate espionage when his father, Pops (John Goodman), has his business run into the ground, and all fingers point to Royalton.
To help clear the Racer family name, Speed teams up with the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox) to race in the Casa Christo 5000, the race which cost Speed’s brother’s life, so that they may use the race to uncover the law breaking of several of the large racing teams, including Royalton.
An automobile enthusiast of the highest calibre and his passion fuelled by the death of his older brother, the talented race car driver, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch), is offered a spot on the racing team of Royalton Industries, owned by E.P. Arnold Royalton (Roger Allam). Turning the offer down for fear of losing sight of what’s important to him, Speed becomes the target of corporate espionage when his father, Pops (John Goodman), has his business run into the ground, and all fingers point to Royalton.
To help clear the Racer family name, Speed teams up with the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox) to race in the Casa Christo 5000, the race which cost Speed’s brother’s life, so that they may use the race to uncover the law breaking of several of the large racing teams, including Royalton.
There’s no way to sugar coat it, Speed Racer is absolutely nuts. It’s completely unhinged, and it feels like a Saturday morning cartoon come to life. This almost absurd eccentricity works to the films favour, and to its detriment, in almost every possible way. The result is a flawed film, that has a lot to enjoy provided the problems it has don’t irk you too much.
First up, the story is complete nonsense most of the time. The film is far too long, clocking in at two hours and fifteen minutes, and the story moves at a million miles an hour to try and fit everything in, when in reality a lot of it could have been cut out because it’s irrelevant.
The writing is so clunky, and the pace so frenetic, that I wouldn’t be surprised if you come away with whiplash from it. I almost feel like this is what the Nazi’s saw when they opened the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark, just the blistering speed and constant barrage of eye popping visuals are enough to make your brain melt and your eyes slide out of your skull.
The story jumps around in time a lot, which is usually difficult to keep track of at the best of times, but this will often do it on a shot by shot basis with no indication as to what’s happening in the present or the past. It just expects you to know, or it might go off on a massive tangent for five minutes only to drop you back where you were in the middle of an action scene or something and you’ve completely lost what was going on. It really is a visual representation of ADHD, just sensory overload all the time and an inability to keep track of anything for longer than five seconds.
Although the story is a bit meh, the performances are all brilliant. I mean everyone is absolutely chewing the scenery as hard as they can, hamming it up and being as cheesy as possible so all you’d need to do is stick them in a toastie press and voila, lunch is served. But because of how absurd the story is, and how eccentric the visuals are, this constant over the top melodrama/slapstick comedy works incredibly well, and you can see everyone’s having a blast. I’ve never seen the cartoons this film is based on, but the clips I have found online are just as insane with the voice acting being just as eccentric, so I feel it fits perfectly.
Although I could do with just a little less of Speed’s younger brother, Spritle (Paulie Litt). Clearly there as the annoying comic relief, Spritle is just on one massive sugar high the whole film as he basically just hurtles through the entire thing at lightspeed screaming his head off.
First up, the story is complete nonsense most of the time. The film is far too long, clocking in at two hours and fifteen minutes, and the story moves at a million miles an hour to try and fit everything in, when in reality a lot of it could have been cut out because it’s irrelevant.
The writing is so clunky, and the pace so frenetic, that I wouldn’t be surprised if you come away with whiplash from it. I almost feel like this is what the Nazi’s saw when they opened the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark, just the blistering speed and constant barrage of eye popping visuals are enough to make your brain melt and your eyes slide out of your skull.
The story jumps around in time a lot, which is usually difficult to keep track of at the best of times, but this will often do it on a shot by shot basis with no indication as to what’s happening in the present or the past. It just expects you to know, or it might go off on a massive tangent for five minutes only to drop you back where you were in the middle of an action scene or something and you’ve completely lost what was going on. It really is a visual representation of ADHD, just sensory overload all the time and an inability to keep track of anything for longer than five seconds.
Although the story is a bit meh, the performances are all brilliant. I mean everyone is absolutely chewing the scenery as hard as they can, hamming it up and being as cheesy as possible so all you’d need to do is stick them in a toastie press and voila, lunch is served. But because of how absurd the story is, and how eccentric the visuals are, this constant over the top melodrama/slapstick comedy works incredibly well, and you can see everyone’s having a blast. I’ve never seen the cartoons this film is based on, but the clips I have found online are just as insane with the voice acting being just as eccentric, so I feel it fits perfectly.
Although I could do with just a little less of Speed’s younger brother, Spritle (Paulie Litt). Clearly there as the annoying comic relief, Spritle is just on one massive sugar high the whole film as he basically just hurtles through the entire thing at lightspeed screaming his head off.
I love, and I really mean adore the way that Speed Racer looks. It’s weird to say that because a lot of the time it’s horrendously ugly, giving off vibes of Spy Kids 3D and Sharkboy & Lavagirl, or perhaps even The Cat in the Hat. Everything is weirdly proportioned and brightly coloured, it ms like a clown ate all the coloured handkerchief’s stored up his arm and then threw them up all over the screen.
But despite the low quality CGI dominating the frame at all times, I think Speed Racer’s crazy and ugly aesthetic makes it stand out so much, and gives it an oddly timeless quality. It’s not like bad CGI that’s trying to look real, this bad CGI is trying to look as unreal as it possibly can, and as a result I’d argue it kind of works.
Just from an art direction standpoint though, I adore how Speed Racer looks completely unique. Like I couldn’t name a single other film that this film looks like, it’s totally original and every single model design is interesting because of how weird it is. Huge props to the art department for this film, they really pulled out all the stops when it came to creating what this world would look like.
The score is also amazing. Similar to the breakneck pace of the story, and unique art style, the score just a mind of its own and it propelled everything forward at a million miles an hour. Composer Michael Giacchino absolutely got the memo for Speed Racer, just do anything that’s against the grain and unconventional, and you know what? It works so well!
Speed Racer is probably one of the craziest films of the 00’s, and maybe one of the most outrageously inventive kids films I’ve ever seen. It’s not perfect (and it’s definitely not the Matrix), but what the Wachowski’s have created here is just pure childlike insanity. This film is what my scrapbooks looked like when I was five, with crazy colourful car designs, and racetracks that loop around themselves, and whilst corporate espionage is probably a bit too complex and boring for people the age of 8, the action should be more than enough to keep them interested.
Speed Racer is a great racing film, and honestly the way the Fast & Furious saga is going it wouldn’t surprise me if Speed Racer becomes a part of that franchise soon. It’s utterly bonkers, it doesn’t always work, but you know what? Who cares I had a hell of a lot of fun!
But despite the low quality CGI dominating the frame at all times, I think Speed Racer’s crazy and ugly aesthetic makes it stand out so much, and gives it an oddly timeless quality. It’s not like bad CGI that’s trying to look real, this bad CGI is trying to look as unreal as it possibly can, and as a result I’d argue it kind of works.
Just from an art direction standpoint though, I adore how Speed Racer looks completely unique. Like I couldn’t name a single other film that this film looks like, it’s totally original and every single model design is interesting because of how weird it is. Huge props to the art department for this film, they really pulled out all the stops when it came to creating what this world would look like.
The score is also amazing. Similar to the breakneck pace of the story, and unique art style, the score just a mind of its own and it propelled everything forward at a million miles an hour. Composer Michael Giacchino absolutely got the memo for Speed Racer, just do anything that’s against the grain and unconventional, and you know what? It works so well!
Speed Racer is probably one of the craziest films of the 00’s, and maybe one of the most outrageously inventive kids films I’ve ever seen. It’s not perfect (and it’s definitely not the Matrix), but what the Wachowski’s have created here is just pure childlike insanity. This film is what my scrapbooks looked like when I was five, with crazy colourful car designs, and racetracks that loop around themselves, and whilst corporate espionage is probably a bit too complex and boring for people the age of 8, the action should be more than enough to keep them interested.
Speed Racer is a great racing film, and honestly the way the Fast & Furious saga is going it wouldn’t surprise me if Speed Racer becomes a part of that franchise soon. It’s utterly bonkers, it doesn’t always work, but you know what? Who cares I had a hell of a lot of fun!