Speed Racer
began as an animated Japanese series called Mach GoGoGo, it’s from the late
60s, when animation budgets were basically non-existent and you can tell, the
animation is cheaply done, shots are reused verbatim and dialogue often takes
place on a rolling background to give a sense of movement without actually needing
to animate the background beyond a few frames.
The show
followed the racing adventures of Gô Mifune, they needed a simpler name for the
character in the US, so for reasons I’m still scratching my head on, they
decided to call him, and the show Speed Racer. I’ve got all the jokes for that,
but I’ll save it for the actual review.
Speed Racer
(the show) was weird, it had cheap animation as previously mentioned but the
season finale had him driving vehicles like planes, submarines and, most
unbelievably of all, row-boats. I swear the villains only lost because they
were stopping every 5 minutes to set up traps. The show lasted 52 episodes, a
respectable run.
What’s
weirder is that to tie in with this movie, I think, they created an animated
show called Speed Racer: The Next Generation, starring the son of Speed Racer
who, for reasons I cannot fathom for the life of me, is also called Speed
Racer. This was released in 2008! I’ll say the animation’s better, but that’s
practically a given but the show is still weird, I think this one had races
that ventured into space.
But to the
movie, several major actors including Johnny Depp and Vince Vaughn were
attached to the project, but it wasn’t until the hiring of the Wachowskis that
this film really made it off the ground.
Now, this is based on animation from
the 1960s, they must’ve known this was a niche project, so why a $120m budget?
It was never going to make that money back and it didn’t, it made only $96m at
the box office, making it a box office bomb, and floundered with critics, with
a 40% Rotten Tomatoes Rating.
So, why am I
inspecting it with my new Praise4Media monacle? Well, strap yourselves in,
because this is going to be a very bumpy ride.
