Speed Racer

By Christopher Wilde

I confess, when I was a child I watched and enjoyed Speed Racer.  It's a confession because watching the only episodes now I feel like I did when I caught my children watching Pokemon.  I didn't enjoy Speed Racer nearly as much as Marine Boy, but then he and I had the same hair and eyes.

After viewing this episode of Marine Boy (above) I still want gum lets me breath underwater and to sling an electric boomerang off my shoulder.  This also explains where my I picked up a love of Sailor hats and Laurel and Hardy.

We all have our own beloved childhood cartoons and apparently Speed Racer was the Wachowski brothers.  With the first play of the trailers I had no interest in seeing this film, but the more they show the more my interest is creeping.

The first snippets they showed us portrayed no storyline that was expected since the Wachowski brothers aren't strong on story (Matrix 2 & 3, Bound).  The original speed racer was weak on story too, mostly because they had a tendency to spread the relationships between the characters over multiple episodes.  However, just based on the revised trailers it's beginning to look like they have flushed out the family relationships.  If the film is going to be anything more than a slick piece of cinema-tech it's going to need to take us for more than laps.

The film is well positioned to grab children of NASCAR, but without a beer endorsement will their parents bring them?  I'm still undecided.

Christopher Wilde

With apologies to my speed racer brother!