In either the future or a parallel universe present - it is never adequately explained - professional racing has gone beyond the usual loops around a track. Here, tracks are Hot Wheel-esque obstacle courses that loop, twist and flip, defying the very laws of gravity. Every race car is decked out with grappling hooks, tire shredders and extra legs that would put James Bond’s vehicle to shame. In this reality, there is a young man named Speed Racer who comes from a racing family. His father is a mechanic and makes Speed’s car in his own garage. A family tragedy in the past, which is alluded to in the opening racing sequence, weighs heavily on the whole family, but this can’t hamper the passion Speed has for the sport.
Most drivers are part of a corporation’s racing stable, and the corporations will do anything to win. Whose side will Speed Racer join - dare he go against the corporate interests and team with the investigative authorities who are trying to keep racing legit? The details behind who controls racing and how are unnecessarily complex and eventually glossed over, as the directors simply try to distract the audience away from a storyline they poorly explain. But the film is supposed to be for kids, so who cares, right? Well, kids may be initially entertained by the fast-paced racing scenes and the video game-like special effects, but they will likely be bored by the rest of the story, which explores family relationships and the corporate conspiracy. Even the racing begins to wear out near the end, as the backgrounds seem so intangible that there doesn’t appear to be any real danger to our hero.
A tongue-in-cheek, half-serious take on the story would have melded better with the out-of-this-world racing sequences and fight scenes. Instead, the actors play the story with an out-of-place seriousness, not letting on that they are walking around in a cartoonish world. “Speed Racer” simply throws us into a world beyond belief and hopes we can pick up what’s going on. Why does the family have a chimpanzee as a pet? What about the world outside the race track – or is the culture completely centered on automobile racing? There are too many questions left hanging. The directors tried to appeal to adults and children, but ended up pleasing neither.
Rated PG for action, some violence and language.
