Speed Racer (2008)

Bit of a random topic, but I just wanted to talk about one of my favorite underrated films:

No the film isn't perfect, but in terms of trying to be a colorful, zany, unrealistic over-the-top live action anime, there is no real parallel. And that's definitely not a bad thing. Which makes me happy to know that the film is starting to become Vindicated by History.

edited 6th May '16 3:09:46 PM by LDragon2

Speed Racer might be my current all-time favorite movie. I've seen it at least seven times, probably more. I never get tired of it.

edited 6th May '16 3:35:03 PM by FoxBoxKid

Definitely an underrated film. I love the scene with Speed walking to his car, with all the other racers pointing at him and giving him "I'm coming for you" glares.

I've only ever watched the first few episodes of the anime years ago and have only seen bits of the movie, but what little I have seen doesn't seem to match up. Namely, the movie looks way more colorful and trippy than the anime, and yet it is consistently hailed as a crowning achievement in anime-to-live-action conversion - "basically a live-action anime," the refrain goes. Did the anime become Denserand Wackier as it went along, or is there something else I'm missing?

Basically, the film sets out to achieve the same sort of over the top, unrealistic, and ultra colorful style of these sorts of anime. And from what I've heard, the later episodes of Speed Racer were like that, along with lots of Tatsunuko Productions from that era.

So they were? I recall those first few episodes to be relatively down to earth. I thought the Wachowskis were way off base when I first saw Speed driving through what looked like courses designed by an F-Zero developer tripping balls.

I might have to one day watch some later Speed Racer episodes to see how insane it got.

I loved Speed Racer. It was a pretty damn faithful adaptation of the anime, and I'm so sad that the movie killed several of the actors' careers. :/

Aside from the annoying little kid and monkey, as well as tsome nauseating visuals, I rather enjoy the movie. Race scenes are super badass (I think the death race is 200% awesomer than the Grand Prix). The family dynamic can be engaging at time.

edited 6th May '16 10:57:37 PM by flameboy21th

Spridle and Chim-Chim were always annoying. One can only imagine they were created to be so...

Oh, this movie. Where do I begin?

Well, the good start as any is:

the film is starting to become Vindicated by History. []

How, exactly?

So I checked the Vindicated by History, under both this movie's YMMV page and Vindicated by History/Film page for it. This is what I found:

Is any of these actually substantiated?

I especially question the claim that this film influenced that other movies mentioned above. This movie and those movies do have similarities in that they have anime influences, as revealed in the creator interviews and such. But how does that translate into those movies being influenced by Speed Racer, exactly?

And who are these "many", exactly?

edited 6th May '16 11:05:35 PM by dRoy

Kid-Appeal Character, that's how.

It's not exactly, officially, substantiated, but the fact that nobody ever try to edit the subject to state otherwise was a good proof as any.

Besides, those entries are on "Your Mileage May Vary" for a reason.

Also, while those films didn't exactly influenced by Speed Racer, the film is basically a pioneer that shows that crazy visual aesthetics from anime (admittedly, an 80's anime) can work. Flop in the beginning, yes, but it could argued that they don't get the audience right (most of them expecting something like The Matrix. They don't expect some wacky racing movie with 80's style aesthetics). Me, though, considering the movie to be awesome

edited 6th May '16 11:17:07 PM by RBomber

Oh, in that case I might as well call Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is Vindicated by History. Hey, there are people who liked the movie and think that it's underrated.

At least you have to admit that, if nothing else, Michael Bay know his cinematography. And his kablooey, of course.

Hopefully you two won't descend into bitterness.

Always a pleasure talking to you about this film dRoy.

Also, a movie being Vindicated by History doesn't automatically mean everyone now loves a film that flopped or was poorly recieved. It just means that, upon retrospect, a film that wasn't well recieved is starting to gain appreciation. Heck, films like the remake of The Thing were also savaged by critics and flopped at the box office before they were rediscovered years later.

edited 6th May '16 11:52:05 PM by LDragon2

@RB - It's not a pioneer of anything, by 2008 we already had th e Spiderman trilogy and Transformers.

Also, wouldn't it be far more logical to say that both critical and commercial failure of Speed Racer convinced directors and producers that such idea wouldn't work?

No really, where is this claim even coming from? Did any of the directors of the movies mentioned above said it in an interview or something?

@LD - Let's see, The Thing now stands at 80% at Rotten Tomatoes, made 19 million from 9-10 million budget. Look at that, it actually made more money than Speed Racer.

Oh, and I seek to please. I look forward to have our first intelligent argument on this matter.

Okay, you got me with the box office. But the point about the critical reception still stands.

And I tried to have a debate with you on this film before, which is part of the reason I made this thread. Why do you dislike this movie so much? Like, I know it is flawed, but I saw it as being highly experimental for a movie. Whether it worked or not is subjective.

edited 7th May '16 12:05:06 AM by LDragon2

Have you seen his signature LD? Especially the last line.

edited 7th May '16 12:07:50 AM by flameboy21th

Ah. That's not exactly encouraging.

I post here Nathan Rabin's article on the film.

Note that naturally I don't agree with every review of Rabin (he was wayyyyy too easy on Fant4stic.) And I haven't seen this film yet. I'm just posting this as a discussion topic.

edited 7th May '16 12:21:53 AM by Tuckerscreator

That's a fair critique, even if I found them both to work well together.

I don't think the film try very hard at the sober part, but the quirky parts does hurt the serious parts.

I'll admit that those elements don't congeal together as well as they could. Even so, I found the scenes where Speed was conversing with Pops, Trixie, and Racer X to all be heartfelt enough for me to care. Heck, the conversation between him and Pops before he received the invite to the Grand Prix was one of the highlights to me, believe it or not.

So I say give the film a shot Tuckerscreator. Whether you'll like it or not is all subjective. At the very least, you're in for a one-of-a-kind experience.

edited 7th May '16 12:43:31 AM by LDragon2

Beware if you have motion sickness. It's a racing movie on drug.

edited 7th May '16 12:52:18 AM by flameboy21th

Yeah, I should probably mention a dew things to keep note of before one sees the movie.

The film is trying to capture the same childish and silly tone of the anime, so it's not gonna be some sort of uber-serious flick, though there are heartfelt moments between Speed and his family in the film. Also, it's not trying at all to be realistic, instead going for an over-the-top cartoon look and feel so don't worry too much about the fact that all the actors are on a blue screen for most of the scenes.

That, and the one annoying thing that might turn you off is Spritle and the monkey Chim-Chim. Just a heads up.