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> Speed Racer ran so the Fast and the Furious sequels could walk.

Man, that is terrific line.

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Dec 22, 2021Liked by Scott Tobias

I'm so excited to revisit this that I timed a trip to New York City next month (apocalypse permitting) around a screening of it at Nitehawk Cinema, introduced by noted Wachowski champions Griffin Newman and David Sims. Couldn't be more psyched. I recall walking away from it in 2008 with a sort of awed-but-muted appreciation, but as you note a lot has changed.

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I love this movie so much; it's such a wholesome candy-colored piece of anti-capitalist entertainment. Everyone's emotions are so broad because they're so genuine. There are no layers to dissect because the Wachowskis are content to put everything on the surface and let you just absorb the fun and the love. And any list of best movie car chases/races that doesn't include something from this film is simply incomplete.

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American Beauty was another review Scott said he has since changed his mind on (in the opposite direction). Now I'd be interested in reading a whole "Reviews I got wrong" feature with other examples!

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This would be a perfect movie if they just got rid of all the Spritle scenes.

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The animated "Speed Racer" series was such an important part of my young childhood that I have never dared to rewatch it, and I never dared to watch this movie. Maybe I will have to try now.

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Dec 23, 2021Liked by Keith Phipps

After a revisit of the much maligned 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS earlier this year, I think the influence might run both ways. That film also imbibes from the same influences (mainly INITIAL D, and the original SPEED RACER cartoon) that the Wachowskis do here. You can particularly see it in the opening scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzN45Eg9XG4

Obviously SPEED RACER is 10x more in your face, but I wouldn't be surprised if they took some influence from Singleton on this one.

(BTW Happy Holidays Scott & Keith!)

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That paragraph about the adoption a different visual language & throwing away physics is key, both in highlighting Speed Racer's success and underlining the failure in live-action adaptations of so many other animated works. The standard approach seems to be to try to extract select animated concepts and then chain the whole thing to some form of "reality" and it just doesn't work. The Cartoon Canyon is a sibling to the Uncanny Valley, and things that seem amazingly cool when animated look more and more hokey when you try to present it with a straight face as "real". You have to lean way into the skid like Speed Racer did or just accept that it's never going to work and take the underlying themes and vibe, and then figure out some totally different way to present it that honors the intent, but not the literal presentation, of the original work.

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