The New Adventures of Speed Racer was a 1993 American adaptation of the classic Speed Racer. Produced by Fred Wolf, the man who helped adapt the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, this Speed Racer series ran for one 13 episode season. While it has most of the same characters as the original Speed Racer, it's a Continuity Reboot instead of a Sequel Series, since Speed is introduced to the brand new Mach 5 in the first episode. The series has a story arc that involves Time Travel and mutants from the future interfering in present day affairs.
Tropes used in this incarnation of ‘’Speed Racer’’ include:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: The original Mach 5 was almost completely white, but in this series it's mostly blue. Also, Trixie was originally a brunette but is now blonde.
- Adapted Out: Mom Racer is absent from this version, with Pops being a single father.
- Bad Future: The second half of the show deals with preventing a future where the world is reduced to a poisonous wasteland, with what is left of humanity mostly mutated and serving as second class citizens and slaves in a Mega City ruled by Caligula P. Barnum.
- Brain in a Jar: In "B.O.S.S." the titular computer is revealed to be the disembodied brain of inventor Pavel Masterson.
- Broken Pedestal: In the first episode where Racer X appears, Speed's also competing with a racer who happens to be an old idol of his. Who unfortunately turns out to be a double agent working for a hostile country.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Largo Sludge is a deformed man whose first scene has him ranting about how he will poison the whole world because the government tries to regulate his pollution. He would fit right in as a Captain Planet villain.
- Cool Car: Mach 5 of course. It has been completely redesigned for this show and looks much more like a street race car, sporting a primarily white and blue color scheme, a variety of gadgets and is constructed out of an alloy that makes it Nigh-Invulnerable.
- Darker and Edgier: While definitely not without humor, the show is both visually and vocally far less over the top than the original. And that is not even getting into the Bad Future stuff.
- Fantastic Ghetto: In the future, people mutated by toxic waste are relegated to living in ghettos, while "Norms" live far away from the toxic waste spills.
- Hollywood Cyborg: Professor Tick-Tock. He has some robot parts on the right side of his face and, below the neck, the entire left side of his body is robotic.
- Law Enforcement, Inc.: Racer X works for a crime-fighting organization called InterNet. As the show was created in the early 90s, the word internet hadn't yet taken on its current meaning.
- Mad Scientist: The series has two examples.
- Dr. Norbius, a competitor of Pops Racer who sells his inventions to terrorists.
- Dr. Brainbiter travels back in time to the Jurassic to acquire a rare mineral that would allow him to Mind Control the human race.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Whenever Sprittle has something important to say, the adults all tell him to shut up.
- Tagalong Kid: Sprittle and Chim-Chim, not unlike in the original series.
- The Rival: The first episode of the series introduces the amoral Axel Ripley as a rival Speed has been in contention with for some time. He would not appear in any subsequent episodes.
- Repulsive Ringmaster: Caligula P. Barnum, a wealthy businessman from the future, oversees the deadly battle races, which he wants Speed to compete in.
- Reused Character Design: Speed's design is similar to Dave Seville from the 1980's Chipmunks series, as it was another show that Fred Wolf worked on.
- Ruritania: Fredonia and Sylvania, two Eastern European countries that appear in "The Race Against X," have a centuries of hostility between them.
- Stable Time Loop: The only reason Largo Sludge is able to create his mutagens is because Caligula P. Barnum handed him the correct formulae, with the final episode revealing Barnum was also responsible for the explosion that created the toxic wastelands in the first place. Speed and Racer X are ultimately able to Screw Destiny and send the mutagen across time 20 million years into the future.
- Time Travel: The later half of the series features a story arc about mutants from the year 2078 traveling back in time to the present day.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Pleasantville, where the townsfolk are robots who kidnapped and impersonated the locals.
- The Unreveal: The show never actually flat-out says that Racer X is Speed’s brother Rex, thought Speed himself highly suspects it and the show gives many hints towards that being the case.
- Unrobotic Reveal: In one episode, the heroes buy a Master Computer for their house. Turns out the salvaged brain of a deceased criminal mastermind needed their workshop's facilities to build himself a new body.
