Speed Racer (2008) (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Sep 12, 2008
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Larry & Andy WachowskiRelease Date(s)
2008 (September 16, 2008)Studio(s)
Village Roadshow Pictures/Silver Pictures/Anarchos Productions/Warner Bros. Pictures (Warner Home Video)- Film/Program Grade: B+
- Video Grade: B-
- Audio Grade: B-
- Extras Grade: B-
Review
It should come as no surprise to any of you that I really love the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer, especially if you’ve been reading this site over the last few months. As a kid, I was just a humongous fan of the 1960s Japanese animated series—so much so, that I ran home daily after school to catch it on UHF TV (3:30 PM on Channel 56 in Boston). This was my first experience with anything from the gadget-crazy island nation, and I ate it up eagerly. Speed Racer was essentially my first fandom, alongside the original Star Trek. So when a live-action film was finally announced by Warner Bros., after many previous failed attempts to bring it to the big screen over the years, I was more than a little leery. How in the world could any filmmaker do the series justice? Then, when I heard the Wachowskis were involved, that worry lessened substantially. If anyone could get it right, it was them. And get it right they have.
The story of their big screen Speed Racer will be familiar to anyone who’s seen that original anime. Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is a wunderkind driver with the coolest race car in the world, the Mach 5. His father, Pops (John Goodman), is a genius car designer with racing in his blood. He’s got a supportive Mom (Susan Sarandon), a fun kid brother (with a pet chimp) and his gal pal Trixie (Christina Ricci) is always at his side. Speed lives in the shadow of his older brother Rex (played here by Scott Porter from Friday Night Lights), who was killed in a car crash years before. Speed’s exploits at the local track earn him a lucrative offer from the head of Royalton Industries, who wants Speed to join his World Racing League team—the best of the best. But Speed prefers to stay loyal to his father instead, and soon learns that Royalton and other companies are fixing all the races. His offer refused, Royalton sets out to ruin Pops and make sure Speed never finishes another race. But just when all looks lost, the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox from Lost) and Inspector Detector arrive at the family’s doorstep with an offer Speed can’t refuse: A chance not only to race, but to bring down Royalton and his cronies once and for all.
I should say right now, up front, that this movie isn’t going to be for everyone. Like the original Star Wars back in 1977, high-minded critics are going to pan this as representing everything they’ve come to hate in the cinema, all flash and no substance. But I’m here to tell you, just as they did back then, most of the critics are getting it wrong. Speed Racer is a gas! Unabashed fun. Over the top, trip you out, goofy, blow your mind fun. The fact is, sometimes as a moviegoer you just want to strap in and hold on tight. You want to take the ride, feel the thrill and enjoy it for all its worth, every penny’s worth. And you know what? There’s nothing wrong with that, critics be damned. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But the thing is, this film is way more sophisticated than it appears to be on first viewing. I mean way more. First and foremost though, the Wachowskis were trying to make the best damn Speed Racer film they possibly could, with all that entails... and they’ve succeeded brilliantly. In the process, they’ve managed to push the visual language of film another big leap forward.
To say that the Wachowskis have done something different here is massive understatement. Nearly every effects house in the business was involved in the making of this film (led by James Cameron’s Digital Domain), and it shows—it’s two hours of straight eye candy (it’s also no coincidence that the DP is David Tattersall, who shot Star Wars: Episodes I-III). Speed Racer is as visually revolutionary as The Matrix films were before it, except this experience is the opposite of The Matrix in almost every other way. Whereas Matrix was dark, gritty, and Byzantine in its complexity, Speed Racer is bright, glossy and unashamedly simple. It combines the pop art sensibilities of Roy Lichtenstein with a touch of Cubism (no, I’m not kidding), and especially a relentless determination to shoot and edit live action in the same way traditional cel animation is done—with multi-planar 2-D “plates” and horizontal movement, matched with the raw, anime-style kineticism of both real and virtual cameras.
Yet this is also a pure popcorn family film, through and through. In fact, kids are going to go bat-s--t crazy for it. Not just boys who love Hot Wheels cars either, but I think girls will get a charge out of this as well. In terms of suitability, there are two or three curse words (one of which is beeped) and one of the characters flips a bad guy the bird. And that’s it. There are a couple of fight scenes, but they’re very stylized and no one dies. Even the car crashes (and there are dozens) are tame—the drivers all bounce free of the explosions to safety in balls of rubbery “Kwik-Save” foam. This is pretty safe PG material, so don’t be afraid to take your kids. They’ll have a blast.
Who else is this movie for? Well, if you enjoy the Wachowskis’ unique cinematic perspective, you’ll appreciate this film. If you want to see something truly new, here it is. If you love racing and ever played with Matchbox cars, buy your tickets now. If you’re young and/or young at heart, I think you’ll dig it. Most importantly, if you’re a Gen-Xer who thrilled to the original animated Speed Racer (or an older Millennial who caught it in the 1990s on MTV), you will love this. The Wachowskis absolutely nail the tone and spirit of that pioneering anime. There are so many little touches right out of the cartoon. All of the family relationships are here, but the great thing is that they’ve been expanded and fleshed out in a lot more detail. And you believe them—there’s real heart here, genuine emotion (decent values are on display here too, like choosing family over fame and fortune, and standing up for what’s right, even when it’s difficult). Remember the Mammoth Car? It’s here—Racer X duels it in the Shooting Star! Remember all those bad guys from the toon—Cruncher Block, Snake Oiler, The Grey Ghost? They’re here too. There’s even a moment when Speed finishes a race, where he leaps out of the Mach 5 and strikes the classic pose right out of the cartoon’s opening credits (the original Bullet Time shot).
I’ll tell you when the movie got me: For about the first half of the film, I’m sitting there just trying to absorb it all (this film is massive visual input, almost to the point of overload). Then there’s this scene where Ninjas burst into the hotel suite where Speed and his family are staying, hoping to put Speed out of action (and thus out of the race). One of them backs up into Pops, who grabs the guy with his beefy hands. Suddenly, there’s this quick shot of the ring on Pop’s hand. I’ll be damned if it didn’t say Greco-Roman Wrestling State Champion! Pops picks the guy up and spins him over his head... and that was it for me. I almost fell out of my seat laughing. That’s a moment straight out of the cartoon, just for the fans, and it’s perfect. (The only difference being that in the original show, Pops was a member of the “Westside Grunters and Groaners”—same difference.) Even composer Michael Giacchino’s score nails the mark, taking dozens of cues from the original show and expanding them into full-blown orchestrations that are a perfect match to the visuals. In a nice nod, the closing portions of the score even include samples not just from the animated show’s theme song, but also from the original Japanese theme (so whenever you hear “Mach a-go-go!” you’ll know why). By the way, original Speed voice actors Peter Fernandez and Corinne Orr do have brief cameos in the film, so be sure to watch/listen for them. (Fernandez appears in a plaid hat as an announcer for the film’s opening race at Thunderhead, where he introduces “the tragic story of Rex Racer,” while Orr’s voice announces Speed’s surprise participation in the final WRL Grand Prix race: “Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please: Now driving in the fortieth and final position for Racer Motors in the Mach 6—Speed Racer!”)
The 1080p widescreen video quality here is very good. But this film has only been released on a BD-25 disc (instead of a double-layered BD-50), which simply can’t accommodate the bitrates needed to really do this film justice. Now, I first saw this film projected digitally in 2K resolution in the Ross Theatre on the Warner backlot, and no screening I saw thereafter ever came close to that dazzling level of presentation quality. This film is eye-popping in its hues, movement and detail, and it’s tailor made for digital presentation. Photochemical film just doesn’t do it justice, even in large-format IMAX. And let me tell you, Speed Racer has never looked so good to me since that first digital screening... and it still doesn’t here unfortunately. There are just too many compression artifacts. But the colors absolutely do burst off the screen, contrast is outstanding, and while the detail is not exactly refined it is exactly as it’s meant to be. You’re going to notice that some DNR has been used here and there—you’ll notice it on faces, in particular Mom and Pops Racer—but that’s not something that was done for Blu-ray. I noticed it in that original screening too. This is a stylistic choice on the part of the filmmakers, to help the live action imagery seem more glossy and cartoon-like. In any case, Speed Racer on Blu-ray is still a very good visual experience, just not quite as good as it could or should be.
Also, as most of you know by now, Speed Racer on Blu-ray Disc doesn’t include lossless audio—no TrueHD track. Unfortunately, the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio you do get just isn’t what it should be either. Now, don’t get me wrong... it’s a tremendous Dolby Digital track in its own right and, were this a standard DVD, the audio would rate top marks. Dialogue, music, and sound effects are well balanced, there’s good LFE, and the surrounds are lively. But the lossy track just doesn’t have the proper sonic scope—the big, wide, smoothly immersive clarity that a TrueHD mix would have provided. More than once I was pulled out of the presentation because of this, which is disappointing. For some, this alone will be enough reason not to buy Speed Racer on Blu-ray, and that’s a shame.
As for the extras on this Blu-ray Disc, there’s again good news and bad news. The good news is that they’re also a lot better than I expected. The bad news, of course, is that you don’t get much (about an hour’s worth of video material in all) and none of it is in high-definition. Included are three featurettes, only two of which are on the DVD. Spritle in the Big Leagues (15 mins) is a tour of the set and the various production departments, led by actor Paulie Litt, who plays Spritle. It’s definitely kid-centric, but you still do see a number of interesting things behind-the-scenes, including the costume, prop and art departments. Also here is Speed Racer: Supercharged! (16 mins), which I actually enjoyed quite a bit. It’s presented as if it’s a piece on the real World Racing League, and what it does is offer cool (and completely fictional) technical details about the twelve key teams and race cars seen in the movie (including Racer Motors), as well as the three major racetracks. You get to see rotating models of each car, as the narrator explains its various features. It’s extremely clever stuff. Here’s an example: “Sempre Fi-Ber made its name in cutting-edge digestive aids. It’s motto, First In, Last Out, has won over consumers of all ages...” The announcer goes on to talk about the non-regulation gear the team’s drivers have installed on their cars, including: “an Articulating Scissorator! And this titanium chopper ain’t for hedge clipping folks!” You get the idea. It’s pretty funny. My only real complaint about this, again, is that it’s not in high-def—I would really have appreciated the extra detail 1080p would have offered in seeing the CG car models. Finally, you get a featurette on the film’s CG effects, Speed Racer: Car-Fu Cinema (27 mins), that’s exclusive to the Blu-ray. This is actually pretty outstanding. You get extensive background on the conceptual philosophy and nuts-and-bolts production approach to the film. You get interview comments from tons of the technical folk involved in the effort (though not the Wachowskis themselves, per usual). You also see just loads of original concept artwork, previz video, wireframe animation, and layer-by-layer dissections of how the images were created. It’s very meaty for a half hour piece. All of that is included on Disc One—the Blu-ray. Note that international SKUs get one additional piece—Speed Racer: Ramping Up! (10 mins). Two additional DVD discs are also included in the package, one containing the Speed Racer: Crucible Challenge interactive game (which I’ll confess I haven’t looked at because I just don’t care) and the other a Digital Copy version of the film. I’m sure the game is cool, but I’m also sure that Speed Racer for the Wii and PS2 is better, so... you know.
The bottom line is that, even though this is a 3-disc set, you’re actually getting a lot less content than it seems. I happen to know that additional bonus material was produced, but hasn’t been used for this release. At the very least, there’s an additional featurette, The Amazing Racer Family, that was only available on an exclusive DVD at Target. But what I really miss more than anything here is an elaborate, packed gallery of conceptual artwork. It’s clear that hundreds of cool pieces of design art were created for this film, and it would be nice to have the chance to see them in really high resolution. Perhaps another day.
In the end, I have mixed feelings about Speed Racer on Blu-ray. I love the film, but the video quality is constrained, the audio lacks oomph, and the extras are also a bit of a mixed bag.
Even so, I’m betting that as a film, Speed Racer will find a much more welcoming audience in time. The original Japanese animated series was goofy, vibrantly colored, kinetic, and wore its heart on its sleeve. This new movie takes those very same things and (respectfully) runs wild with them. As a lifelong fan, I was not disappointed. If you’re looking for Masterpiece Theatre... you’re in the wrong movie. But if you check your skepticism at the door, and go in expecting to be dazzled and entertained... that’s exactly what you’ll get. This is pure, good-hearted fun. And you might even discover that this film really was better than all those critics said. Go Speed Go!
- Bill Hunt
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