Speed Racer (2008)

A young driver, Speed Racer, aspires to be champion of the racing world with the help of his family and his high-tech Mach 5 automobile.

Directors:

Lana Wachowski (as The Wachowski Brothers), Lilly Wachowski (as The Wachowski Brothers)

Writers:

Lilly Wachowski (as The Wachowski Brothers), Lana Wachowski (as The Wachowski Brothers)

Stars:

Emile Hirsch, Matthew Fox, Christina Ricci

13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Emile Hirsch	...	Speed
Nicholas Elia	...	Young Speed Racer
Susan Sarandon	...	Mom
Melissa Holroyd	...	Speed's Teacher
Ariel Winter	...	Young Trixie
Scott Porter	...	Rex Racer
Gian Ganziano	...	Everyman Announcer
Peter Fernandez	...	Local Announcer
Harvey Friedman	...	Harold Ledermann Announcer
Sadao Ueda	...	Japanese Announcer
Valery Tscheplanowa	...	Russian Announcer
Sami Loris	...	Italian Announcer
Olivier Marlo	...	French Announcer
Sean McDonagh	...	Celtic Announcer
Kick Gurry	...	Sparky

Storyline

The story begins with Speed Racer who is a young man with natural racing instincts whose goal is to win The Crucible, a cross-country car racing rally that took the life of his older brother, Rex Racer. Speed is loyal to the family business, run by his parents Pops and Mom. Pops designed Speed's car, the Mach 5. The owner of Royalton Industries makes Speed a lucrative offer, Speed rejects the offer, angering the owner. Speed also uncovers a secret that top corporate interests, including Royalton, are fixing races and cheating to gain profit. With the offer to Speed denied, Royalton wants to ensure that Speed will not win races. Speed finds support from his parents and his girlfriend Trixie and enters The Crucible in a partnership with his one-time rival, Racer X, seeking to rescue his family's business and the racing sport itself.

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Plot Keywords:

based on cartoon | gadget car | based on anime | speed | racer | 

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Taglines:

Go

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Genres:

Action | Family | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for sequences of action, some violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Brazil] Warner Bros [France]

Country:

USA Australia Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 May 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Race Chasers

Filming Locations:

Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

$120,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£362,102 (UK) (9 May 2008)

Gross:

$43,929,341 (USA) (1 August 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Silver Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was a first in many technical areas, but two stand-out: it was the first film to employ the Sony F23 digital film camera and also to record in parallel to Sony HDCAM SR for archive masters; and the first to employ Codex digital data recorders for on-set uncompressed HD playback, digital dailies and file generation for editing and VFX.

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Goofs

Any time a large of number of spectators are shown in the audience of a race, close inspection shows that they are the same extras shown over and over.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Race Announcer: All drivers to your cars, please. All drivers to your cars.

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Crazy Credits

Throughout the first half of the closing credits Japanese/English/French/Spanish/Portuguese dialogue from Speed Racer (1967) can be heard, depending on the language of the country the film released in.

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Connections

Referenced in Hewy's Animated Movie Reviews: Astro Boy (2009)

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Soundtracks

Go Speed Racer Go
Written by Nobuyoshi Koshibe and Yoshida Yoshiyuki
Performed by Ali Dee and The Deekompressors
Produced by Ali Dee and Jason Gleed
Ali Dee and The Deekompressors appear courtesy of DeeTown Entertainment
Contains samples from the "Speed Racer" classic television series (1966-1967)
Licensed courtesy of Speed Racer Enterprising, Inc.

User Reviews

120 minutes of annoying transitions

I saw SPEED RACER on a movie channel and the film was barely watchable. Anyone who says this film is good is seriously delusional, knows nothing about movies or needs to see a psychiatrist.

This "film" had two major flaws (three if you count the script):

The first major flaw is the way it was filmed. It wants to be an live action version of the classic Japanese animated series, which was mainly flat renditions of the animated characters in simple color schemes and yet for the film the actors and sets were filmed with deep shadows, gradients, etc. The cinematography should have been simple with a minimal of details. Such as it was though it overloaded every inch of the screen with gaudy effects or color with the humans lost in all of it. Visually, it's a disaster from start to finish.

The second major error was the extreme overuse of transitions throughout the 2 hour running time. Practically every second (yes, SECOND) the Wachowskis used fade ins, fade outs, overlaps, cross dissolve, etc, not to go from one scene to another but from one shot to another within the same scene. For two whole hours. It's mind boggling bad, boneheaded and really makes me question if the brothers even know how to direct. Transitions are cool and fun from time to time but supremely annoying if overused and in SPEED RACER they don't overuse it, they ABUSE it which makes for a painful viewing experience.

It's no wonder the film bombed. It's simply impossible to get into it with those two major flaws.