We've looked at a few shows throughout our glorious run thus far, and a surprising number of them have film counterparts so I may do a few of these in the future because I personally think it's interesting to see how a film adaptation stands up to its TV show counterpart... and so do you. Just kidding. Well, if you're reading this article, then maybe you do, and you just never knew that you did. At any rate, we'll start it off with an underrated film that's based on a show that has managed to win the hearts of many for over fifty years!
Speed Racer the show was one of the first anime shows to be brought over from Japan to the US. Astroboy and a couple of other came around in 1964, but then Mach GoGoGo was brought to the US as Speed Racer in 1966, putting on the front end of a wave that's still going strong today. The show features the Racer family, consisting of Pops, Spritle, Speed and Mrs. They're joined by Trixie, Speed's girlfriend, and spotter during races, as well as Sparky, who serves an assistant mechanic to Pops. Together, the team get into hi jinx, win races all over the world and thwart the diabolical schemes of the evil men of the world. And that's Speed Racer in a nutshell. There are a few stand out episodes that I'll talk about in a bit more depth in a minute, but you now know the basic formula of the show.
Before I get into highlight episodes, let's talk about some technical stuff. I know, I know, it's kind of boring, but I think it deserves a little time. I have not seen any of the Mach GoGoGo series as it was broadcast in Japan. I've looked kind of halfheartedly, but I've not found a viable means by which to view it so we'll just stick to the Americanized Speed Racer. There were a few animating techniques that I found interesting and effective. One that stands out a lot because you see it so often is the use of looping animation, especially on backgrounds. It looks like the animators would animate whatever they needed in the foreground, and then plate that over the backgrounds, which they would often loop in order to suggest that the things in the foreground are moving. So you'll often see things like roads, mountains, and desert mesas moving in a particular way for a few seconds, and then doing that same thing over again on a loop. It was most likely a cost and time saving measure, and it's really not too noticeable unless you're looking for it, but it speaks volumes to the ingenuity of the people making the show at the time. They also did a lot of this with the race cars. Obviously, it would take a lot of man hours to animate each car in every frame by hand so they would animate a block of cars, and then loop it to give the illusion that there were a lot more cars than there actually were.
Another neat technique that I noticed was the use of abstract backgrounds. This is something that you see in a lot of US shows from the 70s, and into the 80s, but Speed Racer is the oldest show that I've seen that does this. You'll notice that when there are more organic landscapes that the detail will trail off toward the background to abstract shapes with complimentary color pallets to add contrast. It's simple, but effective, and it really adds to the style of the show.
Finally, I want to talk about the acting. The voice acting overall is really good. The inflection usually reflects the emotion needed for the scenes, the pronunciation is clear and easy to understand, and each character's voice fits the image that you're seeing on the screen. I really enjoy the show primarily because of the voice acting. Yes, it can be cheesy, but on the whole, it really helps to set the tone for the show and as a result, you just know when the show is on because it's very distinctive. The one minor gripe I could bring up is that the producers here in the US chose one guy to voice pretty much every villain in the show and so episode to episode you hear the same voice representing the villain. As an adult, I find that it's unnecessary, but having discovered the show as a kid, I can say that it actually helps younger audience members to keep up with the narrative more easily. As a result, it becomes a facet of the style for the show, and because of that, I really can't knock it too hard.
I said that I would talk about a few of the more notable episodes. Just realize that that's kind of hard to do as there were only 52 episodes, and most of them do something for the meta plot. However, most people remember the Race Against the Mammoth Car episodes. In these episodes, Speed joins a race against a mammoth vehicle that has been designed to kill the most talented racers in the world. It's got a huge power plant, a vast arsenal of gadgets, and it's manned by ruthless thugs. Of course, Speed manages to beat it, but it's a fun ride, and it's become such a staple of the franchise that the episode has been rehashed at least once in other iterations of the show. The Great Plan, being the first two episodes, sets the stage for the entire show. Pops was working at a plant building cars for another company, but decides to leave his job in order to pursue building the iconic Mach 5. Lastly, The Trick Race is kind of a big deal because it's the episode where we finally find out the truth of Racer X's real identity. He is, of course, Speed's older brother Rex. Just about every episode is more than a little entertaining, but those three stand out just a little bit above the rest.
Let me preface by saying that I've not watched any other Wachowski films that have really impressed me. Also, this was the first one I ever saw, and yes, I've seen the original Matrix, but that's a conversation for a different day. I'm really glad that this was my introduction to the Wachowski sisters as this is a seriously good film! It's imaginative, it's well cast, it's well directed, and it's just fun to watch from start to finish. It chock full of excitement while taking just enough time to fill you in on the story elements that you need to know about. It's quirky, and at times a bit goofy, and it captures the spirit of the show perfectly. Just take a look at this:
The movie is so colorful! And it just exudes character. I'm not usually one to gush over special effects, especially digital special effects, but these are used so well! Also, it knows its source material exceptionally well so you can probably guess what the plot is all about. Here's a recap anyway. Pops leaves a job at a car company to focus on building his own race cars. His son, Rex, disappears and is presumed dead. His son, Speed, takes over driving the family car in order to win prize money to keep things rolling. Speed has a girlfriend, Trixie, who spots for him during races, and wants to have his babies. They all get mixed up in a kerfuffle when a rival company tries unsuccessfully to recruit Speed. At that point, the rival needs to take the Racer family out in order to pad the bottom line. There's Inspector Detector, who is investigating claims of some pretty serious, and deadly cheating within the racing community, and he enlists the Racer family to aid in that investigation. Speed and company have some hi jinx, win some races, and thwart the plans of the bad guy.
What I really love about this movie is how well the characters are fleshed out. They could simply have been carbon copies of their animated counterparts, but time was taken to make them just a little bit more robust. Pops feels the weight of ditching a sure thing for self-employment. Speed in turn feels the pressure of being really good at what he does. Mrs worries about everyone and serves to play peacemaker within the family. We get a lot more depth to the relationship between Rex and Speed because Rex mentored Speed and taught Speed how to race until he, Rex, disappeared. Speed has to disobey his dad in order to pursue the truth behind his brother's disappearance, and there are parallels there that weren't drawn in the show that just add a great layer to the film adaptation. As with Space Battleship Yamato, wish more anime movie adaptations could be this good. And yet, for as great as this movie was, we don't hear much about it. I wonder why that could be. Oh yeah... This happened:
Iron Man was also a really good movie, and it had so much hype behind it, that even with a week's buffer, Speed Racer just couldn't steal away the audience from Iron Man. It's kind of tragic really because I would have loved to see some more of that world, but like Firefly, I kind of feel like what we got was the perfect amount, and any attempt to add to it would run a high risk of upsetting that homeostasis that's been painstakingly created. I can't recommend either of these enough! Both are extremely fun to watch, and both are just terribly entertaining. They're also friendly for family members off all ages. Give them a watch and stick around to see what we drum up to look at next week!
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