Note to Self: Next time you go to a movie, make sure it isn’t the late show! That’s because I got back at 0130 hours this morning and I crashed afterward. The Official Roommate also went along, and I hope he didn’t stay up too late because he had laundry to do. But I digress.
If I were to describe Speed Racer in just three words, it would be these: Live Action Cartoon. Yep, the Wachowski Brothers strike again and literally interpret the original Japanimation series from the 1960’s. It isn’t a film where the producers lift everyone from the small screen and set them onto the “regular world” of the silver screen, it really is a cartoon which happens to use live actors and (what else but) the chop-chop-chop-chop sound FX whenever Speed engaged the Mach Five’s jump jacks. The race scenes moved just like the cartoon; in particular, the fight scene with Togokhan aboard the bad guy’s truck as it swerved all over the torad, prompted me to think “OK, when’s the Mammoth Truck gonna show up?” The Togokhan team logo, when the signature dragon was taken away, screamed Ferrari. And the closeup/background perspective also screamed cartoon from way back when. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
This movie wasn’t without controversy; PETA complained about the use of the chimpanzees in the film (so what else is new?); and there was also that overblown story about one chimpanzees copping a feel of Christina Ricci on the set.
Speed Racer is rated PG for sequences of action, some violence and language. Great matinee movie occasion, and a relatively clean movie as far as today’s standards go.My rating: 7.5