Get in the Race
"Wisdom is a circle. What you receive... you must give back."
—Dr. Tezla
Hot Wheels: World Race is a 2003 television film made by Mattel, Inc. and Mainframe Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television, based on Mattel's Hot Wheels line of toy cars. It was premiered on Cartoon Network on July 12th, 2003.
The plot involves 16-year-old Vert Wheeler and 34 other drivers racing for Dr. Tezla, who wants the Wheel of Power located in another dimension.
Hot Wheels World Race provides examples of:
- All of Them: When Tezla tries to use the Wheel Of Power to power his base, it overloads and shuts down the power instead, leading to this exchange:Vert: What happened?
Tezla: I'm not positive, but I think I just blew every fuse in North America. - All There in the Manual: The Racers not brought up by name and their backgrounds, their cars and their specs are revealed in non canon promo comics and dvd extras. It wasn't obvious Taro Kitano was supposed to be Asian until his redesign in Acceleracers.
- Always Save the Girl: When Lani says she needs help Taro immediately goes back to save her. Vert does the same, but only because he wasn't sure Taro could save her on his own.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Markie is this to Kurt Wylde
- Artistic License – Engineering: Tezla's comment about how he "blew every fuse in North America" is completely unfounded, as not only would that imply that the entire continent was connected by a single contiguous power grid, there's also smaller fuses throughout things that aren't reliant on mains power like cars, which would be unaffected unless the surging grid produced an EMP in the process.Plus...
- Artistic License – Physics: Vert's final Jump to return the Wheel. The rest of the stunts may be justified, given the fact that the materials for the cars is never given and they're racing in an alternate dimension where gravity might be slightly weaker.
- Ascended Extra: Dan Dresden, who goes from just a random name that Markie mentions to leader of the Street Breed and finishing in 3rd place.
- Bash Brothers: Though not of the team-up variety, Kurt and Markie frequently cause other drivers to experience collisions. At one point, they're even bashing each other.
- Broken Pedestal: After Kurt was found out to be a spy, Markie no longer looked up to him if not despised him. Luckily, after all that was said and done, the pedestal was rebuilt.Mark: "I always looked up to you, Kurt. That's why I wanted to be a driver and be like you. But I'm not you... I don't cheat to win!"
- Car Fu: When a driver really doesn't want let someone pass or just to make it harder on the other drivers.Banjee: "Give me some road, Kurt! You're not winning this race."
Kurt: "With my eyes closed, Banjee!"
*SMASH!*
Banjee: "With your mouth closed, the better!"
Kurt: "Actions speak louder than words!" - Cassandra Truth: Kurt quickly tries to warn Markie about the huge minefield he's driving towards. But after being outed as a spy, Markie decided to ignore him. And then he saw the mines...
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Too many times to count. It's become a staple of the series for this to happen.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Enforced, Zed-36 thinks he can win without cheating but Gelorum forces him to anyway, though this is just as much because Kurt doesn't want to actually hurt or kill the other drivers.
- Dramatic Irony: Trying to use the Wheel of Power as a high-efficiency power source results in the base (and, presumably, the entire continent) losing power instead.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The colourful skid-marks and frequent use of Split Screen are not carried through into Acceleracers.
- Enemy Mine: Of sorts. While Kadeem and Taro are still fighting for first, Alec suggests "giving the new guy (himself) a shot at first place". 2 quick nods and both drivers proceed to spin Alec out.
- Either/Or Title: The movie is also named Hot Wheels Highway 35. Or if you want the full title, Hot Wheels Highway 35 World Race.
- A Father to His Men: Banjee and Vert are the only team leaders who significantly interact with other drivers on their teams and are friendly, helpful, and protective toward their fellow drivers. Banjee defies Tezla's orders and takes newcomers Skeets and Esmeralda on a practice run before exposing them to the dangers of an actual race.
- Friendly Rivalry: Though some of them bicker with each other on occasion, each of the drivers get along surprisingly well with each other even while racing.
- Heel–Face Turn: Kurt Wylde (though he was never evil per-see, only misled.)
- Hufflepuff House: Five teams of racers (each with specialized cars) appear. All five team leaders (Vert Wheeler, Banjee Castillo, Brian Kadeem, Kurty Wylde, and Taro Kitano) are prominent, fleshed-out characters, but the same can't be said for all of their teams as a whole. Three of Vert's Wave Ripper teammates are prominent characters throughout the movie. The Roadbeasts, Dune Ratz, and Street Breed teams all have two of their lower-ranking members be mentioned by name, speak at least one line of dialogue, and receive some prominence during at least one leg of the race. Taro's fellow Scorcher drivers are all unnamed, voiceless background characters who don't do anything besides clear a few obstacles.
- Huge Holographic Head: Tezla likes to communicate using massive revolving screens that just show his face.
- Informed Ability: The cars; while the abilities of the numerous cars were given the chance to shine, other cars seem to have unique abilities that never got to be used. Examples include:
- Felix's Power Pipes' hover capabilities (completely different from the turbo jets).
- Wayne's Charger R/T's sonic cannons (designed to shatter rocks and boulders).
- Charlie's Sweet 16 II's ability to dig trenches and cause sand storms.
- Ricky's 24/Seven's chameleon stealth ability and night-vision.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kurt Wylde ... so very much. While not above sabotaging or possibly hurting the other drivers, he draws the line at killing them. And he doesn't want his younger brother Markie to get hurt.
- Made of Indestructium: The cars are extremely tough, taking high-speed crashes with no damage whatsoever. Vert lampshades it early on.Vert: "A wipeout like that
, and I hardly got dinged. Man, these cars can really take punishment!" - Made of Iron: The drivers are just as tough, with no explanation given.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Haziz. The old black man that Kadeem sees. It's unknown if it's a hallucination, if it's real, or what.
- Mundane Utility: One would think Banjee's buzzsaw could be used offensively in a race. When its actually put to use, its used to slice ice blocking the track.
- Mythology Gag: This isn't the first time the main character had the last name of Wheeler. (Writer Jeff Gomez intended to connect the characters, but this never made it into the final film.)
- Nitro Boost: Dr. Tezla provided all cars with a Nitrox-2 system, which allows any driver to reach the maximum speed of 300 mph. Also includes flaming trails and wheels, and as shown by Kurt (purposely) and Markie (accidentally) on several occasions, even just one container of the stuff can serve as an effective explosive if ruptured.
- Noodle Incident: How Markie was able to get to Tezla's Cube. When Kurt asks how, Markie said it wasn't important and quickly changed the subject.
- Older Than They Look: Markie, only in comparison to Vert. Markie constantly gives the impression that he's younger than Vert, which wouldn't be a problem if Vert wasn't more than a couple days older than sixteen. It doesn't help that the adjective that Markie evokes is "younger" due to being Kurt's younger brother. So either Markie is only a couple of days to a week younger than Vert (if the World Race started soon after Vert got the Deora II), or Markie is older than Vert.
- One-Liner: Multiple:
- "What's the matter, Banjee? Didn't you ever learn how to grind a half-pipe?"
- "Wisdom is a circle; what you receive you must give back."
- "I'm out of here." (said by Vert right before the Wheel of Power reopens the Portal.)
- "Some people just can't drive in traffic."
- "Let's see how well you drive...in HALF a car. "
- "I'm gonna pass you."
- "Nobody beats Kurt Wylde."
- "Nice shot, Slingshot."
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Esmeralda. Normally, she sounds vaguely Hispanic. But during the "Greatest Challenge", her voice lapsed into something that sounds... southern?
- Ordered to Cheat: Kurt Wylde by Gelorum.
- Out of Focus: The Scorchers team gets this sadly. Out of all their team members, the leader Taro is the only one who gets any lines.
- Plot Threads: Despite Vert being the main character, Taro and Banjee are placed center-stage on the track, and Kurt Wylde alternates sharing the non-racing spotlight with Kadeem and Markie.
- Ramming Always Works: While there's plenty of body contact, the Scorchers' cars take full advantage of this with their lava-plows, from opening doors to ramming CLYP cars aside to make a path.
- On the mechanical point of view, there's Chuvo's and Rekkas' attempt at taking a jump in their heavy trucks. Both fell short and promptly fell back to the bottom. Though one would point out that they did not use their Nitrox boosts, while racers after them did.
- The Reveal: Kurt Wylde is Zed-36. Though it's not particularly hard to figure out due to the fact that Slingshot and Zed-36 are the same shape and never appear together. The "Why is that surf rat prowling around?" scene almost cements it beforehand. Also, Gelorum isn't human.
- "That's pretty wild. Even for Kurt."
- Simple, yet Awesome: Vert's surfing and skateboarding skills, Sidedraft's Eye in the Sky, the Turbo Jets' on the Wave Ripper's cars (Vert relies on them for EVERYTHING.)
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Both played straight and possibly averted. When Vert's dad appears (Vert only left a note while his dad was away on duty), he promptly has Vert grounded for a month. Though you would think that if a parent discovered that their 16-year old had just prevented the most powerful known energy source from falling into evil hands, and donated his 5 million dollars from winning the race to help a group of Africans in desperate need, would probably not ground the kid.
- True Companions: Alec is this to Vert. Later on, Markie is as well to Vert.
- White Hair, Black Heart Looking sleek in all black, white-haired Gelorum is the primary villain and very evil, wanting the racers "eliminated".
- Vague Age: No one but Vert is given a confirmed age beyond "over sixteen." Though Alec and Markie are likely to be in the sixteen-seventeen range.
