Speed Racer

When I was growing up, I LOVED the Speed Racer cartoon.  I even built my own Mach 5 out of a cardboard box.  I coloured it red and white and I even had rotor blades that came out from the front on arms!  It was so cool.  Then I heard they were making a Speed Racer movie.  I was very excited, especially when I saw pictures of the Mach 5.  The Matrix's Wachowski Brothers were set to bring one of my favourite cartoons to life.  But as the movie got closer to release and then after release, the reviews were not favourable and so I didn't go see it at the cinemas.  I did by it on DVD back in 2009 and today, I cracked the plastic covering and popped the disc in my PS3.
First of all, the actors.  The Wachowski Brothers have put together some great actors for this movie: Emile Hirsch as Speed, John Goodman as Pops (he looks so much like I remember him!), Susan Sarandon as Mum, Ariel Winter (from Modern Family) and Christina Ricci both play Trixi, and Matthew Fox from Lost plays the mysterious Racer X.  Aussie Kick Gurry is Sparky the mechanic and the annoying child star award goes to Paulie Litt for playing Speed's younger brother Spritle (I know he was in the cartoon so he and his chimp had to be in this movie but I must say that every scene they were in was grating).
The story is that the Racer family love racing cars (lucky they had that name then!) but they lose their eldest son, Rex, in a race crash.  Speed wants to be just like him and is considered the best racer ever.  A big sponsor wants Speed on their team, Royalton Motors, but Speed turns then down and they show their true colours.  Speed, along with Racer X, agrees to help another racer win to boost their company so that they will turn over a file that has evidence to shut down Royalton. Of course, not everything goes to plan.
To portray the tactile feeling of being among the race cars, the Wachowski Brothers created a green screen gimble that is generally effective, but the CGI race scenes of the cars drifting, jumping, flying, rolling, and racing along unbelievable tracks are actually pretty damn good.  I found myself with a slight hold of my breath every now and then, and that's saying something.  You see, because of the poor reviews, I had very low expectations of this movie but as an exercise in bringing a Japanese cartoon to life, I think they have done a remarkable job.  The colour scheme is very cartoony with bright single colours like bold orange or purple, plus lots of neon, so it's a good looking movie.
I liked the story with it's timely hook on corporate corruption in sport, this time with the results of races being fixed.  I liked the way Pops dealt with Speed when he wants to leave like his older brother did.  I liked Trixie too!
This movie is a frenetic explosion of incredibly bright colours, movement, editing and sound (I had it turned right up!) but most of all it is FUN!  Forget what the critics write sometimes.  Once again, because the Wachowski's missed some great opportunities with the last two parts of the The Matrix Trilogy, it appears the media are going to treat them like M. Night Shyamalan.  It is not as bad as they were making it out to be.  In fact as I said before, it is a really good job of bringing the cartoon to life.  On the big screen it might have been too much to take in, but at home it was very enjoyable.  Take it for what it was meant to be, not too serious because it is a cartoon, right!
The DVD special features was a bit of a let down with a 17 minute walk around the sets with the annoying kid and a look at all the cars and what is under each hood. And that's it!  Mmm, a Matrix-style second disc may have won over some more fans.
I would watch this movie again, I'll just try to ignore the kids with the monkey!  I give it a 7/10.