Speed Racer

By Adam Frazier

In a breathtaking whirlwind of light and sound the ‘60s Japanese anime, “Speed Racer,” blasts onto the big screen with a distinctive flourish of energy only the Wachowski brothers can deliver.

Emile Hirsch (“Into the Wild”) plays Speed, a kid with big, bright eyes focused solely on the checkered flag. Racing is in his blood, and before the little tyke could even talk he was making engine sounds with his mouth.

Speed’s passion for the racetrack is fueled further by his idolization of older brother Rex (Scott Porter), who dies in a mysterious accident, leaving the Racer family in a tragic, broken state. Following in his brother’s footsteps, Speed becomes the driver for his Mom (Susan Sarandon) and Pops’ (John Goodman) independent, family-owned racing company.

After making an exhilarating debut in the World Racing League, Speed Racer catches the attention of a ruthless industrialist named Royalton (the wonderfully venomous Roger Allam), who approaches Speed with a lucrative offer to buyout the family business. It is here that the true core of the film is presented. Speed must decide what matters more: the resources and financial backing of a big corporation, or the love and understanding only a family-owned business can provide.

As is the distinctive filmmaking style of the Wachowskis, “Speed Racer” uses weighty, exaggerated dialogue to elevate the stakes and push the story beyond its limits. It’s in this way that “Speed Racer” actually defies the conventional summer blockbuster. While the film is a pure adrenaline rush, packed with dazzling special effects, there is also a great amount of depth and heart to it.

Amid the hyper-stylized kitschy ‘60s atmosphere, the characters are warm and loveable. Speed’s girlfriend, Trixie (Christina Ricci), is perhaps one of the best translations from anime to live-action thanks in part to her big, beautiful eyes. Then there’s Speed’s little brother, Spritle (Paulie Litt), and his monkey Chim-Chim. They provide the comic relief in the film, which is sure to make children laugh to no end, but may turn off some older moviegoers. Then there are the villains, who are so over-the-top in their nastiness that you can’t help but cheer when they get what’s coming to them.

At its core, “Speed Racer” is a movie about fathers and sons. The film pushes a message of the ongoing struggle between the corporate world and family life. While children will get caught up in the frenetic race sequences and action pieces, older viewers will have an emotional anchor to latch on to, and some thought-provoking material to elevate the eye-popping goodness on screen.

With the help of director of photography David Tattersall (Star Wars Episodes I, II, III), the Wachowskis realize a completely absurd, sugarcoated universe that is somehow tangible and believable.

Tattersall takes the knowledge and experience of working on George Lucas’s predominantly computer-generated prequels and totally blows open the green screen subgenre, making films like “Sin City” and “300” look tame by comparison.

I can’t speak enough about the film’s visual vocabulary, which is so incredibly mind numbing, that it defies possibility. “Speed Racer” is full of escapist, rubber-burning astonishment, but there are a few things that hold it back.

The stigma of “good family fun” will no doubt make teen and young adult viewers hesitant, and the comic relief within will appeal mainly to children. The running time is a bit long, clocking in at 135 minutes. The Wachowskis could’ve no doubt created the same masterful adaptation with less weighty dialogue, but then it wouldn’t be a Wachowski brothers’ film, would it?

“Speed Racer” is an exhaustive onslaught on the senses. I left the theater with a huge grin on my face, like an awe-struck eight-year-old, dreaming of racing at breakneck speeds through loops and over jumps. The Wachowskis have captured the animated cells of the ‘60s cartoon world and transformed it into a living, breathing live-action experience.