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So I went to see Speed Racer the other day. I left having come to the conclusion that all of the critics who reviewed it negatively totally missed the point. It was a totally faithful adaptation of the original Speed Racer cartoon's spirit (complete with annoying Spritle and Chim-chim and their stoopid G-rated comic relief that isn't) with a totally updated whizz-bang 50s space-age design style, reinterpreted by the 70s, filtered through 90s retro nostalgia, with 21st century technology.
In other words, this movie was made by people on drugs for people on drugs. To wit: if I had dropped acid or eaten shrooms or smoked some amazing sensemilla marijuana before seeing Speed Racer, I am sure I would have been deliriously entertained because it was cotton candy for the eye and brain. The casting was perfect. I love that they used Susan Sarandon--only someone her age could make it believable that Mrs. Racer would have a son as old as Rex/Racer X, a coming-of-age son Speed's age, and a pre-menopausal accident son Spritle's age. John Goodman was perfectly cast as Pops. Trixie was updated to the post-Title IX age in which we live (thank God) but she was almost as one-dimensional, and yet Christina Ricci was perfectly cast as Trixie (although she was looking a bit anorexic to me). Emile Hirsch was so earnest. Everyone played their parts so earnestly.
The actors who played Rex and Racer X were hot--especially the guy who played Racer X. Then again, it's pretty hard not to be hot, when you're covered head to toe in black leather and wearing what I didn't realize in childhood, but I know now, is pretty close to a BDSM master's half-mask.
But earnest is how the actors had to play it. If they'd gone over-the-top and campy, it wouldn't have felt like Speed Racer. That insane sincerity and belief that a young man, barely out of boyhood, could save the world (?) as a race car driver (??) participating in races and competing against evil race car drivers with villainous sponsors (???) with a seriously tricked out, ultra-modded car (?!?!) has to be integral to the characters; it's the basic premise necessary for all the rest of the implausibilities to be tolerated within suspension of disbelief. They were all very one dimensional characters because those characters always were one dimensional.
When I was really little, I had a crush on Speed. (Gimme a break, I was like four years old.) When I was a little older (around nine-ten years old), I realized Speed was lame and Racer X was hot and mysterious. (Kind of like how before puberty I though Ashley in Gone With The Wind was handsome, but after puberty, Rhett was the one I was hot for. Eh, live, learn.)
Everything I loved and hated about Speed Racer when I was a kid was present in the movie--which to me means it was a pretty damned faithful adaptation, complete with all (and I do mean all) the flaws of the original cartoon. That's why you should be on drugs when you go see it; you're much more likely to tolerate the schmaltzy stuff without gagging, because your eyes will still be seeing afterimages of the visuals that were burned into it by the previous scene.
OK, enough about Speed Racer.
I found this web site that lets you create a world map of all the places you've visited. Here I thought I was so world-traveled. Not! I've only been to about 8% of the world. Also, I clearly have a huge European bias going, an Ontario-heavy tourism perspective on Canada, and need to spend some time west of the Mississippi, south of the Mason-Dixon line, and in the third world.
In other words, this movie was made by people on drugs for people on drugs. To wit: if I had dropped acid or eaten shrooms or smoked some amazing sensemilla marijuana before seeing Speed Racer, I am sure I would have been deliriously entertained because it was cotton candy for the eye and brain. The casting was perfect. I love that they used Susan Sarandon--only someone her age could make it believable that Mrs. Racer would have a son as old as Rex/Racer X, a coming-of-age son Speed's age, and a pre-menopausal accident son Spritle's age. John Goodman was perfectly cast as Pops. Trixie was updated to the post-Title IX age in which we live (thank God) but she was almost as one-dimensional, and yet Christina Ricci was perfectly cast as Trixie (although she was looking a bit anorexic to me). Emile Hirsch was so earnest. Everyone played their parts so earnestly.
The actors who played Rex and Racer X were hot--especially the guy who played Racer X. Then again, it's pretty hard not to be hot, when you're covered head to toe in black leather and wearing what I didn't realize in childhood, but I know now, is pretty close to a BDSM master's half-mask.
But earnest is how the actors had to play it. If they'd gone over-the-top and campy, it wouldn't have felt like Speed Racer. That insane sincerity and belief that a young man, barely out of boyhood, could save the world (?) as a race car driver (??) participating in races and competing against evil race car drivers with villainous sponsors (???) with a seriously tricked out, ultra-modded car (?!?!) has to be integral to the characters; it's the basic premise necessary for all the rest of the implausibilities to be tolerated within suspension of disbelief. They were all very one dimensional characters because those characters always were one dimensional.
When I was really little, I had a crush on Speed. (Gimme a break, I was like four years old.) When I was a little older (around nine-ten years old), I realized Speed was lame and Racer X was hot and mysterious. (Kind of like how before puberty I though Ashley in Gone With The Wind was handsome, but after puberty, Rhett was the one I was hot for. Eh, live, learn.)
Everything I loved and hated about Speed Racer when I was a kid was present in the movie--which to me means it was a pretty damned faithful adaptation, complete with all (and I do mean all) the flaws of the original cartoon. That's why you should be on drugs when you go see it; you're much more likely to tolerate the schmaltzy stuff without gagging, because your eyes will still be seeing afterimages of the visuals that were burned into it by the previous scene.
OK, enough about Speed Racer.
I found this web site that lets you create a world map of all the places you've visited. Here I thought I was so world-traveled. Not! I've only been to about 8% of the world. Also, I clearly have a huge European bias going, an Ontario-heavy tourism perspective on Canada, and need to spend some time west of the Mississippi, south of the Mason-Dixon line, and in the third world.