Genre: Adventure
Director: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Cast: Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Matthew Fox
Storyline: After the death of his daredevil racer brother, the second son of the Racer family decides to step into his shoes to take on evil corporates.
Bottomline: Go Kids Go
If you are a kid or a child at heart, this is possibly the best summer in recent times.
Your favourite cartoon hero Speed Racer is zipping through town.
A word of caution if you are a Wachowski Brothers fan or if you still have your Matrix trenchcoats and black shades on.
This one’s for kids. So do not expect anything more than just that.
But Speed Racer sports the Wachowski signature in its subtext.
Like Matrix and V for Vendetta (which the brothers wrote and produced), Speed Racer too is a story about how one man takes on those who control the system. The philosophy remains the same – only the genre is different. It is about the quintessential triumph of the human spirit against assembly-line odds stacked up against him by those who govern our lives.
Like the first two movies, Speed Racer too looks towards anime for inspiration and creates a never-seen-before spectacle of form in animation films from Hollywood.
We’re not talking about the quality of animation and visual effects alone, we’re talking about the inventiveness in storytelling and form. The background landscape seamlessly makes way for a series of comic panels detailing the flashback segments as the hero in the foreground broods over it in the present.
There’s even some non-linear storytelling thrown in at the start to let you figure out what’s going on.
Because of this start, chances are you either start loving the film or completely hating it.
If you can sit through the first 15 minutes unfazed, you’re going to be in for the ride of your life. Thrilling races with space-age cars on roller-coaster racetracks, edge-of-the-seat action, the comic subplot with the adventures of the adorable Spritle (Paulie Litt) and his chimp Chim Chim, Speed’s love story with his childhood sweetheart Trixie, the drama between Rex and his father, the villainous Mr.Royalton… To put it simply, there’s action, adventure, mischief, fantasy, romance, comedy, drama, revenge and awesome animation giving it a larger than life canvas… This is the Wachowski masala film.
Lost fans will be glad that good old Jack (Matthew Fox) has found his acting cells after a disastrous outing in Vantage Point.
Even if you have not seen the original cartoon series Mach GoGoGo (like yours truly), you are going to want to see it.
For fans of cinema, Speed Racer packs in the best of both worlds – real emotions through live action set against a backdrop of awe-inspiring animation and visual effects.
So machchi, go, go, go…
MADRAS INK. 