by lhb412 » Sun Nov 16, 2014 1:37 am
Just finished the original series.
Speed Racer, like many, many, many anime has that problem where they ran out of budget and/or time in the final run of episodes. Just take episode 50, which valiantly ties up a lot of loose ends from the series and is sort of a sendoff of Racer X, but is also crazy rushed and feels like it's mostly stock footage (where you see how much better the animation was in the earlier episodes firsthand). Luckily, they do pull out all the stops in the final two-parter to produce the craziest, most over-the-top race (Formula-one cars! Boats! Planes! Submarines!) and give a chance for almost every member of the main cast to shine. Would have liked to have seen a victory kiss between Speed and Trixie like in the movie, but I suppose that kind of thing may have been off-limits in a boys adventure cartoon of the time.