Speed Racer is pretty obviously intentionally funny and campy, both the cartoon and the film which tries very hard to duplicate that style of over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek humor.
It's not too different from Batman, which was also a show from the same time period aimed towards kids with low production values and intentionally campy dialogue.
Again, I just don't see the similarities, at all.
Yeah, there are jokes in Speed Racer, and they're supposed to be funny, but I don't think the Wachowskis wanted to the look and art of the movie to be funny.
You can either show/explain me, or let it go, repeating the same assertion over and over will achieve nothing.
But as I said, whatever, this is now a Starcrash gif thread -
Again, I just don't see the similarities, at all.
Yeah, there are jokes in Speed Racer, and they're supposed to be funny, but I don't think the Wachowskis wanted to the look and art of the movie to be funny.
You can either show/explain me, or let it go, repeating the same assertion over and over will achieve nothing.
Another good example would be any of the fight scenes. They were obviously aping the cartoon with how ridiculously over the top they were. It was all done for shits.
Speed Racer is a live-action cartoon. There is not a single frame within this entire movie that is present in any sort of real world reality. Everything about it, the way it moves, feels, talks, poses, looks, are created with that focus in mind. Colors burst from the screen, environments shift and change depending the wacky context, all sorts of goofy Saturday morning transitions and camera angles. Speed Racer is hyperreality incarnate.
You either down with that shit or you aint.
But regardless of your feelings about the film, it's makes one hell of a Blu-Ray showcase
Speed Racer is a live-action cartoon. There is not a single frame within this entire movie that is present in any sort of real world reality. Everything about it, the way it moves, feels, talks, poses, looks, are created with that focus in mind. Colors burst from the screen, environments shift and change depending the wacky context, all sorts of goofy Saturday morning transitions and camera angles. Speed Racer is hyperreality incarnate.
This movie *is* Speed Racer. If you went into this movie expecting Speed Racer, that is what you got.
If you went in expecting them to alter it to be more realistic or gritty like 1989 Batman(and further still in 2005 Batman Begins), you were going to be left disappointed.
Again, I just don't see the similarities, at all.
Yeah, there are jokes in Speed Racer, and they're supposed to be funny, but I don't think the Wachowskis wanted to the look and art of the movie to be funny.
You can either show/explain me, or let it go, repeating the same assertion over and over will achieve nothing.
Erm, you do know Wachowski's admitted on adapting the anime true to its form right? They know it's going to be funny and action-filled like in the anime.
Speed Racer is a live-action cartoon. There is not a single frame within this entire movie that is present in any sort of real world reality. Everything about it, the way it moves, feels, talks, poses, looks, are created with that focus in mind. Colors burst from the screen, environments shift and change depending the wacky context, all sorts of goofy Saturday morning transitions and camera angles. Speed Racer is hyperreality incarnate.
You either down with that shit or you aint.
But regardless of your feelings about the film, it's makes one hell of a Blu-Ray showcase
Another good example would be any of the fight scenes. They were obviously aping the cartoon with how ridiculously over the top they were. It was all done for shits.
I see the visual similarities, but that's just what most cartoon based movies do, from Scooby Doo to Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Not sure that makes it all that campy in my book.
I mean, I think Josie and the Pussycats was campier.
Speed Racer is a live-action cartoon. There is not a single frame within this entire movie that is present in any sort of real world reality. Everything about it, the way it moves, feels, talks, poses, looks, are created with that focus in mind. Colors burst from the screen, environments shift and change depending the wacky context, all sorts of goofy Saturday morning transitions and camera angles. Speed Racer is hyperreality incarnate.
Why?
Because you said so?
A person can't like Cactus Jack and hate Speed Racer (or vice versa)?
This shtick have been done many times on film, sometime it's successful, sometime it isn't.
In my mind, Speed Racer fits with the latter category.
I see the visual similarities, but that's just what most cartoon based movies do, from Scooby Doo to Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Not sure that makes it all that campy in my book.
I mean, I think Josie and the Pussycats was campier.
For one thing Speed Racer also gives its settings the same treatment by making them colorful and "out of this place" as opposed to the typical adaptations (simply juxtaposing them in a modern/present setting).
Why?
Because you said so?
A person can't like Cactus Jack and hate Speed Racer (or vice versa)?
This shtick have been done many times on film, sometime it's successful, sometime it isn't.
In my mind, Speed Racer fits with the latter category.
I see the visual similarities, but that's just what most cartoon based movies do, from Scooby Doo to Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Not sure that makes it all that campy in my book.
I mean, I think Josie and the Pussycats was campier.
Not really, no.
I guess there's something campy about filming a cartoon in live action, but I don't know, every fucking cartoon movie do it (as do many comics movies), and regardless of the semantics of what constitutes 'camp', what the movie does visually is not enough to make it interesting to me.
And I think you'll agree there's nothing much there outside the visuals.
Not really, no.
I guess there's something campy about filming a cartoon in live action, but I don't know, every fucking cartoon movie do it (as do many comics movies), and regardless of the semantics of what constitutes 'camp', what the movie does visually is not enough to make it interesting to me.
And I think you'll agree there's nothing much there outside the visuals.
Unless people actually, you know, like how over the top and campy it is? I'd say that if you were a fan of the style of the original show, the movie has plenty to offer outside of the visuals. The movie could be low budget and I'd still enjoy it for what it is. The tremendous visuals are just some really nice icing on an already tasty cake.
And yes, there is something very campy about trying to take a pretty outrageous cartoon and recreating it using live actors.
Not really, no.
I guess there's something campy about filming a cartoon in live action, but I don't know, every fucking cartoon movie do it (as do many comics movies), and regardless of the semantics of what constitutes 'camp', what the movie does visually is not enough to make it interesting to me.
And I think you'll agree there's nothing much there outside the visuals.
Camp isn't something subjective though. It definitely IS camp.
And there's much more to it than visuals. The action scenes for one. Oh and the heart. This is one of the few movies who actually manages to have this feeling that the whole thing is made out of pure love.
Camp isn't something subjective though. It definitely IS camp.
And there's much more to it than visuals. The action scenes for one. Oh and the heart. This is one of the few movies who actually manages to have this feeling that the whole thing is made out of pure love.
Very true. You could tell the Wachowskis adored the original show. It was a risky labor of love, and they did whatever they could to do justice to the original, even if it didn't pay off financially for Warner Bros.
I'd say that if you were a fan of the style of the original show, the movie has plenty to offer outside of the visuals. The movie could be low budget and I'd still enjoy it for what it is. The tremendous visuals are just some really nice icing on an already tasty cake.
Yes, if you like the cartoon, you will like the movie. That's exactly what it all boils down to.
That's exactly what everybody has been saying.
Also, nobody said anything about art. We're talking about a movie that pays tribute to a cartoon many of us watched as kids. It's just entertainment, nothing to build monuments over, nor should it be.
I know I'm preaching to the choir by posting this at GAF, but I decided to write something up to distil my thoughts.
There are a few minor spoilers, and for the sake of anyone who hasn't yet watched it, I'll try and mark them.
--------
The movie opens with a young Speed Racer sitting tests in class, too pre-occupied with fantasies of race cars, triumph and explosions. It's a young boy dreaming of becoming something great, the way any young boy might dream of becoming a fireman or an astronaut. As an opening scene, I felt this was a good start. When he escapes the classroom to meet his brother Rex for the first time, I have to admit, my eyes really struggled to adjust. Skies of vivid blue, fluffy clouds of clearest white -- it looked like the desktop to Windows 95. I remember my internal monologue right there and then becoming - "I really hope this film isn't shit". Over the course of the rest of the movie, I came to feel like a fool for ever thinking it would be.
The colour and imagination on display is the film's greatest and most obvious strength. After the first half an hour, I actually felt what I can only describe as my mind concluding it was high on drugs. This is what Dick Tracy might have looked like with a crazier palette. It's what the original Willy Wonka might have looked like if it were made today in crisp, vivid, and beautiful HD. Only, it's nothing like those movies. Speed Racer wows you on it's own merits. It's awesomeness is predicated upon insane stunt races that are straight out of the most hyper-active F-Zero or Wipeout videogame. It's an amazing cartoon world come to life, and one of the most visually creative and entertaining things I have ever seen.
"When I watch you do some of the things you do... you just take my breath away"
The film is brazen in its disregard for dull imagery and scientific reality. The Wachowski's have defied physics before, in The Matrix - but here, they do it without transforming the protagonists into cyberspace supermen. The cars have about five pedals instead of three, the moon is oversized purely to facilitate silhouettes of ninjas scaling castle walls, and cars flip around the scene, choreographed like a high-octane dance. In one moment of memorable genius, Racer X and his vehicle
defy gravity just so he can punch a guy in the fucking face
. It's honest, unrelenting and silly - but it almost never steps too far, and it never seems too un-cool. Any slapstick that does exist is purely incidental: the rest is just fun. All of this is punctuated by moments of beautiful artistry, such as the red and black silhouette of
Racer X attacking a mobster's truck as he drives backwards through a rural freeway
. I appreciate this movie in the same way I appreciated Sin City's comic-book noir. It's gorgeous. Beautifully mental.
At the core of the movie is the Racer family: their romanticism and love of motorsport. This romanticism is challenged through the story's chief antagonists; the film painting a picture of a sport managed as a money-making industry, manipulated by foppish, rich, Eccleston-esque super-villains and their henchmen. Were this movie just about that, and Speed's struggle to overturn it, it wouldn't be half as affecting as it actually is.
Instead, the story triumphs in how it treats the relationships within the Racer family and the way in which Speed chooses to follow the footsteps of his brother, Rex. The scene that conveys Speed's love for his older brother, and
tells the tragic tale of his demise
is skilfully woven. Speed chases
the ghost of his brother around a track, similar to the premise behind a Mario Kart time trial,
and events on-screen flash back and forth through time. This is an extreme level of narrative sophistication for what is otherwise, quite clearly, kid-friendly family entertainment. When the scene reaches its crescendo, you see
the numbed shock in Goodman's eyes
, you feel for
Speed weeping into his mothers arms
. It's disarmingly powerful.
Having seen my own
family in mourning, and struggling to have a verve for life and the things they love - I was particularly moved by the scene in which Speed explains how he and his father got back into racing
. The thing holding any family together is their love for one another, their collected experience, their memories and their most beautiful, shared moments together... in depicting a world of ridiculous colour and outlandish physics, this film was still able to reach inside me and make me acknowledge something about real life. Family is important. It might be the only important thing there is.
"Are you ready to put away your toys and grow up? Are you ready to become a real racecar driver?!"
What about the other side of things? The action packed thrill ride? I'll touch on it briefly:
The villains are toon-like caricatures, shaking their fists at other drivers, or asking that their underlings make ridiculous sacrifices. There is something truly daring about the fight scenes at Casa Cristo -- clashes that are full of colour and crazy camera work, layered with pop-art special effects and composite imagery...
It could have transformed this whole film into a weird little B-Movie. Instead, I found the film consistently delighting me. It was doing things on film that few film-makers would have the balls to do. The ninja
nonja
fight scene between Matthew Fox and a shadowy assailant was a much more conventional showcase of what the Wachowski's stunt team are capable of, and that too, is simply brilliant.
There are a few moments where the film casually over-blows things to obscene levels of stupidity, and these are usually in scenes involving Spridle and Chim Chim. However, they also have moments of anime-style psychedelia that probably add more to the over-all feel of the movie than they do take anything away. Any negativity I felt towards those characters was easily brushed aside by reminding myself that this is a film for families and small children.
"You don't climb into a T180 to be a driver, you do it because you're driven!"
If ever there is a case for ending a movie strongly, this one could champion the cause single handedly. As Speed reboots his car during the final race, and the film
flashes back to conversations between Speed, Racer X and the Racer Family
- you feel Speed's epiphany yourself. You feel his confidence. You feel the glory of silly, fictional, competitive super-car racing. As his car takes off and spins against a beautiful backdrop of camera flash-bulbs, and Giachanno's amazing choral score ebbs in the background, I defy the hairs on the back of your neck to withstand priapism. Lost fans will melt with whimsy as Racer X talks over Giachanno's strings. Viewers will move to the edge of their seat as Speed
despatches his competitors
... they will be powerless to resist as the editing gets faster and slicker, and faster and slicker - until finally,
the final cars explode
in front of that Mach 6, and it thunders through the explosion like triumphant ejaculate... They'll be unable to blink as the chequered pattern of victory lane envelops the screen like a hyperspace transition from this life to the next, a synergy of audio-visual bombast. It is an utterly blissful conclusion to an epic and emotional ride... the race of your life, in incredible, imaginative, beautiful HD.
I realise that not everybody can feel the same way about this movie. For those who were not won over as I was, I can feel only pity.
Anyone notice Royalton's assitant is wearing a seahorse around her neck (the Tatsunoko logo)? I totally forgot if I posted that in this thread already.
And the original voice of Speed Racer (Peter Fernandez) is the announcer at the Thunderhead race! Pretty sure everyone knows that one.
Yea and Redline is awesome. Looks stunning on BR too. Wish I can pause the movie and print the screen, I'd wallpaper my dining room in that shit.
You're making me want to watch it again. This is honestly, probably my favorite movie of all time. If I ever get bonkers rich I will pay whatever it costs to get this post converted to 3D.
Best real live action, based on a cartoon, anime or videogame, movie.
Its amazing, its incredible, its F-Zero and Speed Racer mixed, its colorful and spectacular, it has an awesome edge of your seat and then cheer in excitement ending,
and it has some of the best tributal music Giacchinno has done ever.
I FUCKING LOVE IT!
Oh shit, if it was not for Vampire the Masquerade playthorugh I would watch it again tonight in bluray.
EDIT:
Lol, im one of the guys who recommends it in the OP!
Watched the trailer of Redline while reading the thread, I want to watch it now.
BTW no one talked about the amazing past, present and future storytelling during the Big Blue type race. Yep, its was not the most entertaining race in the movie, but the transitions of Royalton while hes talking about what really happens at the end it really is priceless. You think you were watching a race happening at that moment but you were really watching a flasback, or are the rest of the scenes flashbacks and fastforwards? So amazing.
I did a final paper about Speed Racer, and one of the sections was about the storytelling of that part, for my Modern Film class at university. Got an 8 out of 10
If I were Matthew Fox, I'd have this on a motion detection picture/video frame in every room of my house, so I and my guests could see myself doing this ALL THE TIME.
Watched the trailer of Redline while reading the thread, I want to watch it now.
BTW no one talked about the amazing past, present and future storytelling during the Big Blue type race. Yep, its was not the most entertaining race in the movie, but the transitions of Royalton while hes talking about what really happens at the end it really is priceless. You think you were watching a race happening at that moment but you were really watching a flasback, or are the rest of the scenes flashbacks and fastforwards? So amazing.
I did a final paper about Speed Racer, and one of the sections was about the storytelling of that part, for my Modern Film class at university. Got an 8 out of 10
Never taked drugs, much less during watching this movie (o any movie for that matter).
That was actually pretty cool, but I am not feeling the amazing part as you saw it. We are simply seeing the events happen as Royalton describes it to Speed. The scene ends with him losing the race, just as Royalton said he would. This whole movie have simply masterful storytelling.
If I were Matthew Fox, I'd have this on a motion detection picture/video frame in every room of my house, so I and my guests could see myself doing this ALL THE TIME.
The first 30 minutes are an absolute bore and can't believe they didn't think to cut some parts for time (as some of my friends who I forced to watch it can attest as they left the room as they couldn't hold out any longer).... But everything else... my oh my!
This needs a blu-ray re-release because those special features included suck! I need features on special effects, set dressing, costume designing, etc.
It's such a visual splendor and I really want to have a house styled after the Racer house brimming with colors to burn the retinas and outfitted with retro 60's mod flair.
It's absolutely retro-obnoxious and over the top and as if somebody puked color on the walls, I love it.
I love this film with all of my heart, but I can definitely see why people would think it's stupid. But they should think it's stupid because they don't like the direction, not because they think it isn't well put together.
Just watched this again last night after my initial viewing about 4 years ago.
This movie is amazing. I love how they cut from scene to scene (guy is talking in a room, someone he's talking about pans across the screen and suddenly you are in the middle of an action packed race)
They crammed as much story as they could and still had room for tons of action. At the start of the movie they tell you the whole story of Speed's brother and his growing up while a race is going on. They tied it all together very well. I also loved how they introduced the villain racers in short 10 second clips in the middle of the race.
The visuals are amazing. The colors and vibrant, the effects work very well and the tracks and locations are very imaginitive. At one point I turned to my wife and said "dude this is amazing looking! How do they do this!?"
The characters hit all their spots from the cheesy 60s cartoon.
The movie had really good emotional scenes and was a lot deeper than just racing to win. Very funny as well "I'm gonna send him some Chim Chim cookies!"
They did an amazing job with Speed Racer and I can't imagine anyone doing it better. To those who don't like this movie, what were you expecting from it? And you have no soul.
