Go, Speed Racer, Go!

[lhb412]

Ever since seeing the Wachowski's incredible (and incredibly under-rated) Speed Racer feature film I've wanted to go back and re-watch the original series. Finally got around to it and I'm about halfway through. Does it hold up? Yes, it's a monumentally fun series, with an exuberant tone and the American dub that just contributes to the madness (I think the moment you no longer notice the bizarre 'fast dialog' is when you've truly embraced the madness) I can't imagine watching it in the original Japanese without Peter Fernandez!


So far *puts on critic hat* Challenge of the Masked Racer, Mammoth Car, Most Dangerous Race, The Fire Race, and The Fastest Car on Earth are the best episodes.

[Gwangi]

I always felt Peter Fernandez never got enough credit for all of his work and not just in anime but in kaiju features as well. In "Speed Racer" he is literally talking to himself when Speed and Racer X are conversing.

[Alpha OTS]

[The Shadow]

I saw the live action movie not long after it came out (an On Demand viewing probably); as a whole I thought it was a pretty good live action adaptation. I really ought to go back and watch the original show again, it's been a long while since I've seen it, probably pick up a copy of the movie and compare them properly.

[king_ghidorah]

The live-action film is one of my favorite movies of all time. Just pure, magical, childish whimsy and I love it.

[XvGojira]

I LOVE the Speed Racer movie. A friend of mine saw it opening night in IMAX on acid. Said it nearly killed him. He said as soon as the logos popped up in super technocolor he knew he was screwed.

[MekaGojira3k]

I really liked the movie. I thought it did a fine job adapting the show I remembered. My girlfriend hated it like crazy though.

[Alpha OTS]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

I find this movie terribly underrated. It should be THE TEXT BOOK for how to adapt anime or cartoons into live action. Everything about it was so honest and they got the tone, the world, the characters just right.

And critics can go to hell. After getting a DDT >_>

[Alpha OTS]

[lhb412]

One change for the Wachowski's movie I think is an improvement is the crazy fail-safe systems the cars have to prevent fatalities. I have no problems with death depicted, even in a cartoon for younger folks, but in the original Speed Racer there's an incredible amount of fatalities and collateral damage occurring around our main characters and often they're really blasé about it! That may be a part of the Americanization, though. For all I know, in the original they had people saying 'Oh, no! Those poor people!' or 'They may have been killers but no one deserves to go out like that' ect. ect.

Anyway. I got to the point where I'm getting the one-shot episodes amid the standard 2-parters. I'd read that it's generally felt that they're inferior to the longer stories, but I think The Snake Track, Man on the Lam, and The Supersonic Car are pretty great single episodes.

[Benjamin Haines]

Speed Racer was my favorite show for quite some time as a kid. Once I eventually saw Son of Godzilla and later Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, I immediately recognized Peter Fernandez's voice in the dubs. I wish this show was on Netflix.

I loved the movie. It's a glorious spiritual successor to the cartoon. The one thing that irked me about it was that the different lettered buttons on the Mach 5's steering wheel didn't all correspond to the wacky functions I remembered from the show. They kept most of the same functions, though.

[lhb412]

Apparently there was a bit of legal kerfuffle involving the Speed Racer license here in the U.S. I suppose my DVD set, bought new last year, was one of the ones produced even though the rights had elapsed.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2 ... ts-settled

The good news: rights are back with Tatsunoko, so hopefully it means a better quality, dual-language version in the future from whoever gets the license. Maybe we could get the 1997 series, too! Speed Racer Enterprises put the kibosh on that being released in America in the '90s.

[lhb412]

[Alpha OTS]

[lhb412]

[lhb412]

Elvis Presley is Speed Racer!

http://vimeo.com/92148544

[sentaison]

[lhb412]

[jellydonut25]

[lhb412]

[Xenorama]

the main problem with the movie is that it's TOO DAMN LONG.

http://xenorama.blogspot.com/2011/04/sp ... -2008.html

it's like 7 episodes of the show squeezed down into a movie, when it could have been a lot simpler.

having said that, I really do like the movie.

[lhb412]

I didn't find it too long at all, when you take out ten minutes of credits it's only two hours and five minutes and it manages to cram in an enormous amount of stuff in a satisfactory way, I especially liked how it handled fitting in the track races and cross-country rally races of the original cartoon. I think a bit over two hours is an okay length for an epic, action adventure-type film. When you begin to approach the two and a half mark is when you hit that threshold, I think.

... and speaking of the original cartoon: I love the Tatsunoko logo, that sea horse! I've spotted it a few times as an Easter Egg in the show.

[Benjamin Haines]

The Speed Racer movie is definitely an exercise in excess, but I'm glad for that. The producers at WB clearly intended their $120 million investment to be the start of a blockbuster franchise but I think the Wachowskis knew that this was probably the only chance they would ever get to make a Speed Racer movie with a live-action cast, so they went all-in. I would have liked to have seen a sequel with the Mammoth Car as the primary antagonist but that was never going to happen, so I'm glad it randomly appeared in this movie as Royalton's nefarious transport.