Plot
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.
Release Year: 2008
Rating: 6.1/10 (38,972 voted)
Critic's Score: 37/100
Director:
Andy Wachowski
Stars: Emile Hirsch, Matthew Fox, Christina Ricci
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.
Writers: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Cast: Emile Hirsch
-
Speed
Nicholas Elia
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Young Speed Racer
Susan Sarandon
-
Mom
Melissa Holroyd
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Speed's Teacher
Ariel Winter
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Young Trixie Shimura
Scott Porter
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Rex Racer
Gian Ganziano
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Everyman Announcer
Peter Fernandez
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Local Announcer
Harvey Friedman
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Harold Ledermann Announcer
Sadao Ueda
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Japanese Announcer
Valery Tscheplanowa
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Russian Announcer
Sami Loris
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Italian Announcer
Olivier Marlo
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French Announcer
Sean McDonagh
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Celtic Announcer
Kick Gurry
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Sparky
Opening Weekend: $18,561,337
(USA)
(11 May 2008)
(3606 Screens)
Gross: $93,945,766
(Worldwide)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
In December 1997, Alfonso Cuarón was briefly hired to direct the film.
Goofs:
Continuity:
After the fight in the passage of Casa Christo 2, when Spritle says "Take 'em away, boys", Speed and Horuko are lowering down their weapon. But when you see Cruncher Block being taken away, Speed and Horuko still have their weapons up. After Pops says "Spritle!!" the two have their weapons lowered again.
Quotes:
[first lines]
Race Announcer:
All drivers to your cars, please. All drivers to your cars.
User Review
I Don't Know What Haters Were Expecting But It Did Exactly What It Set Out To Do
Rating: 10/10
and that would be, entertain.
I can't describe how many times I thought 'whoah!' it's one of those
moments that could only ever happen in cartoons or 'whoa!' that was
anime level crazy! This film set out to create a literal live action
adaptation of a lovable & cheesy retro cartoon anime. That's exactly
what it did.
Let's start with the PG rating, this was appropriate not because this
film is 'aimed' at kids (which it wasn't clearly, as box office
disconnect showed) but because it's a 'family' film for all ages based
on a cartoon that most of the older generation watched when they were
kids, the source material barely even bordered a 12A and yet the film
managed to in fact surpass it's source material in maturity.
Fans of anime will seriously lap this up despite what the recent
comments have said. Not only has every care been taken to preserve
elements of the source material but it also has those cool retro and
also modern anime moments. Good and bad guys with crazy cartoon anime
hairstyles, crazy over-the-top kung fu, elaborate motion line effects
just like in mangas, crazy death defying races, cheesy as hell dialogue
which fits perfectly in context! Performances were quite impressive
given it's a predominantly 'kids' PG film and that they were filming
against green screen.
I also commend the Wachowski's use of such a strong colour palette.They
didn't tone it down or diverge from the theme and each scene had a
contextual wash of colour.Serious or more intimate moments had darker
shadows while remaining colourfully vibrant. They were bold and not shy
about what this film was going to look like.
To the haters again i say ,'what exactly where you expecting? The
Matrix with cars?, people getting there throats slit?, symbolic
commentary on capitalism,corruption, religion or the new world order?
Go into this movie expecting high adrenaline scenes and all campy fun
that only a 60's anime adaptation can provide, but don't just to go and
watch it just to 'see what the fuss is about' until you actually
understand what the source material was like. That way the movie will
exceed your expectations.
I don't have complete praise for this movie however, in that towards
the end of the film they got a little overboard with the editing and i
was really let down by the final antagonist type drivers. Speed seemed
to have a harder time in the casa cristo race in the film where the
other drivers were far more menacing. It seemed like 'Cannonball
Taylor', 'Gray Ghost' and especially the bad ass, white haired yakuza
driver (for musha motors by the way) were just a flash gone by and
Speed just beat them without any problems at all. Let's hope they make
more of a presence in any semblance of an extended/directors cut
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