Speed Racer (DVD)

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Speed's Mach 5 racing car should impress fans. It resembles the one in the cartoon, but the filmmakers bring it to life in full scale and in animation. The races themselves appear very cartoonish, intentionally cartoonish, with the tracks simulating not only today's video games but older slot-car layouts, especially the elaborate ones so popular in the Sixties. (I had an old friend whose father once owned a slot-car operation back then in a building that formerly had been a grocery store. It was a massive arrangement of tracks, overpasses, scenery, and accessories, and the movie reminded me of it a lot.) The filmmakers light everything in glowing colors and pump up the sound to the threshold of pain to ensure we don't take our eyes off the screen for a moment.

I admit the racing sections are fun to watch. There's the opening race; then the centerpiece Casa Cristo Classic, where it's not so much a race as a demolition derby in the desert; followed at the end by the World Racing League Grand Prix. These three races take up maybe half the film, and they are really the only parts I felt I needed to watch. Otherwise, the film is way too long. At 135 minutes, it's at least twice as long as it should be.

Most of "Speed Racer" is remarkably silly, and other parts are almost indecipherable, but forget all that. It's the graphics and lights and crashes and bells and whistles and little else that count. What's more, there's the music. Even though I've practically never seen the old TV show, I instantly recognized the "Speed Racer" theme song. Amazing, and kind of fun in itself.

Video:
The Wachowskis shot the movie digitally, using various types of digital cameras and, of course, they use a good deal of CGI animation. It all shows up quite intensely in this 2.40:1 ratio anamorphic widescreen picture. The colors are particularly bright and intense, maybe too bright and intense even for a cartoon movie. Black levels are equally strong, setting off everything else a bit glaringly but appropriately. And definition is also pretty good for a standard-def digital release, with only a very small and expected degree of blur.

Audio:
The best part of the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is its surround characteristics. Cars race around the room at full throttle and fireworks explode from literally all directions. The midrange and high end do their part as well, although I rather missed the bass being as deep as I would have liked. With strong dynamics and admirable clarity, the sound fulfills its function in creating as much excitement as the visuals do in the film.

Extras:
Along with the movie, we get two featurettes. The first is "Spritle in the Big Leagues," a fourteen-minute, behind-the-scenes tour of the movie set with actor Paulie Litt, who doesn't say much but lets screen inserts speak for him. The second featurette is "Speed Racer Supercharged," about fifteen minutes on the history of the cars and racetracks of the WRL.

In addition to the featurettes, the set includes instructions on how to download a Windows Media digital copy of the film; thirty scene selections; previews of other Warner Bros. products at start-up only; an attractive slipcover; and English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles.

Parting Shots:
"Speed Racer" seems to me a perfect movie for use with the "Next" button on your remote. It practically begs you to watch the racing sequences and skip over the stuff in between. In this regard, it's a low-octane version of "Grand Prix," where the competition was terrific but the connecting melodrama slowed everything down. So, if you just play the opening race, the Casa Cristo 5000, and the closing Grand Prix, you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of "Speed Racer."

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