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Speed Racer (film)
Encyclopedia
Speed Racer is a 2008 American live action
film adaptation
of Tatsuo Yoshida
's 1960s Japan
ese anime
series of the same name
, produced by Tatsunoko Productions. The film is written and directed by the Wachowskis. The film had been in development since 1992, changing writers and directors until producer Joel Silver
and the Wachowski brothers collaborated to begin production on Speed Racer as a family film.
Actor Emile Hirsch
was cast as Speed, the hero of the animated series, and Christina Ricci
portrays Speed's girlfriend, Trixie. Speed Racer was shot between early June and late August 2007, at Studios Babelsberg in Potsdam
, and in and around Potsdam and Berlin
, Germany
at an estimated budget of $120,000,000. Speed Racer premiered on May 3, 2008 as the closing film at the Tribeca Film Festival
, and was released on May 9, 2008. The film has earned $17,968,063 in DVD sales making $114,997,404 in its total film gross. In September 2011, TIME
magazine included the film on its list of The All-TIME 25 Best Sports Movies.
(Emile Hirsch
) is an 18-year-old whose life and love has always been automobile racing. His parents Pops (John Goodman
) and Mom (Susan Sarandon
) run the independent Racer Motors, in which his brother Spritle (Paulie Litt), mechanic Sparky (Kick Gurry
), and girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci
) are also involved. As a child Speed idolized his record-setting older brother, Rex Racer (Scott Porter
), but Rex was disowned by Pops for his decision to join a corporate racing team and was publicly defamed for appearing to cheat in a race. He was then killed while racing in the Casa Cristo 5000, an intense cross-country racing rally
notorious for rough and foul play. Now embarking on his own career, Speed Racer is quickly sweeping the racing world with his skill behind the wheel of his brother's car the Mach 5 and his own Formula One
car the Mach 6, but remains primarily interested in the art of the race and the well-being of his family.
E.P. Arnold Royalton (Roger Allam
), owner of conglomerate Royalton Industries, offers Speed an astoundingly luxurious lifestyle in exchange for signing to race with him. Speed is tempted but declines due to his father's distrust of power-hungry corporations. Angered, Royalton reveals that for many years the key races have been fixed
by corporate interests, including Royalton himself, to gain profits. He threatens Speed's career and family, making good on these threats by having his drivers force Speed into a crash that destroys the Mach 6 and suing Racer Motors for intellectual property infringement
. Speed decides that he must do something to stop Royalton and save the Racer business, and an opportunity to do so arises in the form of Inspector Detector (Benno Fürmann
), head of a corporate crimes division. Racer Taejo Togokahn (Rain) claims to have evidence that could indict Royalton but will only offer it up if Speed and the mysterious masked Racer X
(Matthew Fox
) agree to race on his team in the Casa Cristo 5000. Taejo claims that a win could substantially raise the stock price of his family's racing business, blocking a Royalton-arranged buyout. Speed agrees but keeps his decision secret from his family, and Inspector Detector's team makes several defensive modifications to the Mach 5 to assist Speed in the rally.
After they drive together and work naturally as a team, Speed begins to suspect that Racer X is actually his brother Rex in disguise. His family discovers that he has entered the race and agree to support him. With the help of his family and Trixie, Speed defeats many brutal racers who have been bribed by fixer Cruncher Block (John Benfield
) to stop him, and overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles to win the race. However, Taejo's arrangement is revealed to be a sham, as he was only interested in increasing the value of his family's company so that they could profit from Royalton's buyout. An angry Speed hits the track that he used to drive with his brother, and confronts Racer X with his suspicion that he is Rex. Racer X removes his mask, revealing an unfamiliar face, and tells Speed that Rex truly is dead. Speed returns home, where Taejo's sister Haruko (Yu Nan
) gives him Taejo's automatic invitation to the Grand Prix. The Racer family bands together and builds a new Mach 6 in 32 hours.
Speed enters the Grand Prix against great odds: Royalton has placed a bounty on his head that the other drivers are eager to collect, and he is pitted against legendary Hall of Fame driver Jack "Cannonball" Taylor (Ralph Herforth). Speed overcomes a slow start to catch up with Taylor, who uses a cheating device called a spearhook to latch the Mach 6 to his own car. Speed uses his jump jacks to expose the device to video cameras and cause Taylor to crash. Speed wins the race, having successfully exposed Royalton's crimes. Racer X, who is watching, reveals through a flashback
montage that he is indeed Rex, having faked his death and undergone plastic surgery
to change his appearance as part of his plan to save his family and the sport of racing. He chooses not to reveal his identity to his family, declaring that he must live with his decision. The Racer family celebrates Speed's victory as Speed and Trixie kiss, and Royalton is sent to jail.
announced that it held the option to create a live action
film adaptation
of Speed Racer
, in development at Silver Pictures
. In October 1994, singer Henry Rollins
was offered the role of Racer X in the film. In June 1995, actor Johnny Depp
was cast into the lead role for Speed Racer, with production slated to begin the coming October, with filming to take place in California
and Arizona
. The following August, Depp requested time off to the studio for personal business, delaying production. However, due to a high budget, the same August, director Julien Temple
, who was attached to direct Speed Racer, left the project. Depp, without a director, also departed from the project. The studio considered director Gus Van Sant
as a replacement for Temple, though it would not grant writing privileges to Van Sant. In December 1997, the studio briefly hired director Alfonso Cuarón
for Speed Racer. In the various incarnations of the project, screenwriters Marc Levin
, Jennifer Flackett, J. J. Abrams
, and Patrick Read Johnson had been hired to write scripts.
In September 2000, Warner Bros. and producer Lauren Shuler Donner
hired writer-director Hype Williams
to take the helm of Speed Racer. In October 2001, the studio hired screenwriters Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring
for $1.2 million split between them to write a script for the film. Eventually, without production getting under way, the director and the writers left the project. In June 2004, actor Vince Vaughn
spearheaded a revival of the project by presenting a take for the film that would develop the characters more strongly. Vaughn was cast as Racer X and was also attached to the project as an executive producer. With production never becoming active, Vaughn was eventually detached from the project.
In October 2006, directors Larry and Andy Wachowski were brought on board by the studio to write and direct Speed Racer. Producer Joel Silver
, who had collaborated with the Wachowski brothers for V for Vendetta
and The Matrix Trilogy, explained that the brothers were hoping to reach a broader audience with a film that would not be rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America
. Visual effects designer John Gaeta
, who won an Academy Award for Visual Effects
for the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix
, was brought in to help conceive making Speed Racer into a live-action adaptation. Production was set to begin in summer 2007 in European locations for a summer 2008 release. In November 2006, the release date for Speed Racer was set for May 23, 2008. Producer Joel Silver described Speed Racer as a family film
in line with the Wachowski brothers' goal to reach a wider audience.
In February 2007, the Wachowski brothers selected Babelsberg Studios
in Potsdam, Germany to film Speed Racer. In the following March, Warner Bros. moved the release date of Speed Racer two weeks earlier to May 9, 2008. The studio received a grant of $12.3 million from Germany's new Federal Film Fund, the largest yet from the organization, for production of Speed Racer in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. The amount was later increased to $13 million. Filming commenced on June 5, 2007 in Berlin
, and was shot entirely against greenscreen, lasting 60 days. The Wachowski brothers filmed in high-definition video
for the first time. With the camera, the Wachowskis used a layering approach that would put both the foreground and the background in focus to give it the appearance of real-life anime. The film has a "retro future" look, according to Silver. The Mach 5, the vehicle driven by the protagonist Speed, was a drivable vehicle. Filming completed by August 25, 2007. The Wachowskis purchased the rights to the sound effects and theme song of the television series for use in the film.
group PETA
made allegations of animal cruelty against the film, reporting that one of the two chimpanzees used in the production was allegedly beaten after biting an actor. The incident was confirmed by the American Humane
Animal Safety Representative on the set, who reported that the stand-in for the Spritle character portrayed by Litt had been bitten without provocation. The AHA representative also reported that "toward the end of filming, during a training session in the presence of the American Humane Representative, the trainer, in an uncontrolled impulse, hit the chimpanzee." The AHA Film Unit referred to this abuse as "completely inexcusable and unacceptable behavior in the use of any animal." The AHA has rated Speed Racer "Unacceptable" chiefly because of this incident, with American Humane noting "the aforementioned training incident tarnishes the excellent work of the rest of production" and that it "has no method of separating the actions of one individual in the employ of a production from the production as a whole."
, McDonald's
, Target
, Topps
, Esurance
, Mattel
, LEGO
and Petrobras
. The film also received support from companies outside of America in an attempt to attract international audiences. With early support before the film's release, the studio provided 3D computer models of the Speed Racer vehicle Mach 5 to the companies so they could accurately render the vehicle in their merchandise. Warner Bros. aimed to garner enough attention for Speed Racer so it would spawn sequels.
Mattel produced toys based on the film through several divisions. Hot Wheels
produced die-cast vehicles, race sets and track sets. Tyco
produced remote-controlled Mach 5s and racing sets. Radica Games
produced video games in which players can use a car wheel. The products became available in March 2008. Also, The LEGO Company produced four LEGO sets based on the movie. As part of the General Mills promotional tie-in, during the 2008 Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400
, part of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season
, the famous #43 Dodge Charger
of Petty Enterprises
was transformed into a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series version of the Mach 5, driven by Bobby Labonte
.
Warner Bros.
, through its Interactive Entertainment division, self-published a video game based on Speed Racer, which was released on May 6, 2008 on the Nintendo DS
and Wii
, and was released on September 16, 2008 for the PlayStation 2
. The original music for the Speed Racer video game was written by Winifred Phillips
and produced by Winnie Waldron
. The game was released on the Nintendo DS and Wii in May with the film's theatrical release and was released on the PS2 in the fall to accompany the film's DVD and Blu-ray release. Due to a short development schedule, the studio chose not to develop games for the PlayStation 3
and Xbox 360
.
In the United Kingdom
, Metro
newspaper ran a "Buy One Get One Free"
offer on tickets for Speed Racer showing at the Empire Cinema in London's Leicester Square
.
ranked the film as "rotten", with 36% of its selected critics giving the film positive reviews, based on 194 reviews (70 "fresh", 124 "rotten") with an average rating of 5.0/10, and it has an even worse rating of 30% from its top critics based on 37 reviews (11 "fresh", 26 "rotten") with an average rating of 4.6/10. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average
score of 37 out of 100, which indicates "generally negative reviews," based on 37 reviews.
Todd McCarthy of Variety
called the film "pure cotton candy too sweet and pretty for young people to resist." He said that the target audience of families and children should be amused, but that others might think the film "a cinematic pile-up," citing its implausibility and the lack of identifiable peril in the driving sequences. McCarthy noted that no expense had been spared on the effects, saying that viewers with an interest in CGI innovations would be "in a corner of heaven," but that the frame sometimes resembled "nothing so much as a kindergartner's art class collage." He had praise for the cinematography and the "playful and busy" musical score. He also said that even if not much was asked of them "other than to look alert and driven," the cast was "very good for this sort of thing," and Roger Allam
made "a delicious love-to-hate-him villain."
IGN gave the film 4.5/5 stars and stated: "Overall, this anime adaptation is not merely the best film that it could be, it's pretty much exactly what it should be: full of exciting, brilliantly-conceived races, primary-color characterizations and an irresistible sense of fun. Loud, fast and always in danger of veering out of control, Speed Racer is a masterpiece of its kind, and a definitive benchmark for film not only as a special effects extravaganza but as the moment when the Wachowskis went from wunderkind directors to true auteurs. In other words, as a summer distraction, a singular work of art or just as sensory overload, Speed Racer is a movie you absolutely must see."
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter
said that the visual effects were "stellar," but that unlike Pixar
films which are aimed at as broad an audience as possible, Speed Racer "plays very young" and "proudly denies entry into its ultra-bright world to all but gamers, fanboys and anime enthusiasts." He said that story and character were "tossed aside" to "focus obsessively" on the action sequences. He called the number of races "wearying," saying they "all look alike no matter what the backgrounds," though indicating that "each race happens in a completely different environment." He also notes the ineffectiveness of "chimpanzee tricks, kid-brother high jinks, Ninja martial arts by the whole family and a raft of vicious yet harmless villains" to make the long story sequences more bearable.
Michael Phillips
of the Chicago Tribune
described Speed Racer as "buoyant pop entertainment focused on three things: speed, racing and retina-splitting oceans of digitally captured color" that takes place in "a freshly conceived visual universe." He says that "the Wachowskis respect the dynamism of the original drawings, while carving out their own middle ground between computer animation and live action. They respect also the themes of honor, dishonor, family loyalty and Visigoth-inspired barbarism behind the wheel." The cast is praised as being "earnest" and "gently playful." However, he notes that "the film runs an overgenerous two hours and 15 minutes, and it sags in its midsection" with unnecessary dialogue.
Anthony Lane of The New Yorker
said the film was "of no conceivable interest to anyone over the age of ten" and that the convoluted plot was "barely worth unpicking." Noting the "lollipop hues," Lane questioned how the film could still end up "bleached of fun," and concluded that the answer was with the theme first mooted by Wachowskis' in The Matrix
that "all of us, whether we know it or not, are squirming under the thumb of dark controlling forces." In Speed Racer, Lane argues, this comes in the form of villain Royalton, who "vows to crush [Speed] with 'the unassailable might of money.'" Citing the Wachowskis' involvement in V for Vendetta
(2005), Lane said Speed Racer was not as "criminally poor" as that film, but that it was "more insidious." He concluded: "There's something about the ululating crowds who line the action in color-coordinated rows; the desperate skirting of ordinary feelings in favor of the trumped-up variety; the confidence in technology as a spectacle in itself; and, above all, the sense of master manipulators posing as champions of the little people. What does that remind you of? You could call it entertainment, and use it to wow your children for a couple of hours. To me, it felt like Pop fascism, and I would keep them well away."
Glenn Kenny of Premiere
describes Speed Racer as "one of the most genuinely confounding films to come along in years." Depending upon the viewpoint, he said, it was either "the most headache-inducing" children's film of all, or the most expensive avant-garde
film ever made. He cited the film's time-shifting narrative and multiple storylines in the early stages as evidence of its "radicalization of film language" and said the movie was "likely to inspire even more heavy thinking on the part of cultural theorists than The Matrix did" because of its "blatantly anti-capitalist storylines" and being "a picture that changes the rules of its universe strictly according to its creators' whims." The radical techniques used to tie multiple storylines together, while "impressive to behold," Kenny said, "yields heretofore undreamed of levels of narrative incoherence, but hey, not every experiment succeeds." Kenny praised the film's look, saying the "cheez-whizziness" that others had criticised was "precisely the point." He also said the supporting characters in the race scenes were "brought to life by the Wachowskis with a cheeky relish."
Jim Emerson, editor at the Chicago Sun Times, gave the film 1 stars out of four and wrote that Speed Racer "is a manufactured widget, a packaged commodity that capitalizes on an anthropomorphized cartoon of Capitalist Evil in order to sell itself and its ancillary products."
and Canada
and ranking third at the box office behind Iron Man
and What Happens in Vegas.... In its second weekend it grossed $8,117,459 and ranked fourth at the box office. The film closed its run on August 1, 2008 with $43,945,766 domestically and $93,945,766 worldwide. The results were well below studio expectations, given that the production costs of Speed Racer were estimated to be over $120 million. Despite the low box office numbers, Warner Brothers remained optimistic about sales of associated products ranging from toys to tennis shoes. Brad Globe, president of Warner Brothers Consumer Products, expressed hope that "We're still going to do very well with Speed Racer", acknowledging that "a giant movie would have made it all a lot bigger."
of the film on the third disc— the last two being exclusive to the Blu-ray release.
As of September 2009, US DVD sales were $14 million.
Live action
In filmmaking, video production, and other media, the term live action refers to cinematography, videography not produced using animation...
film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of Tatsuo Yoshida
Tatsuo Yoshida
was a Japanese cartoonist, writer and anime pioneer who founded the anime studio Tatsunoko Productions.Born in 1932, Yoshida grew up in the hardship of war-torn Japan. A self-taught artist, his first job was as working for local newspapers in Kyoto...
's 1960s Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series of the same name
Speed Racer
Speed Racer is an English adaptation name of the Japanese manga and anime, which centered on automobile racing. Mach GoGoGo was originally serialized in print form in Shueisha's 1958 Shōnen Book, and was released in tankōbon book form by Sun Wide Comics, re-released in Japan by Fusosha...
, produced by Tatsunoko Productions. The film is written and directed by the Wachowskis. The film had been in development since 1992, changing writers and directors until producer Joel Silver
Joel Silver
Joel Silver is an American Hollywood film producer, co-creator of the sport of Ultimate, co-founder of Dark Castle Entertainment and owner of Silver Pictures.-Life and career:...
and the Wachowski brothers collaborated to begin production on Speed Racer as a family film.
Actor Emile Hirsch
Emile Hirsch
Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild. In...
was cast as Speed, the hero of the animated series, and Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
portrays Speed's girlfriend, Trixie. Speed Racer was shot between early June and late August 2007, at Studios Babelsberg in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
, and in and around Potsdam and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
at an estimated budget of $120,000,000. Speed Racer premiered on May 3, 2008 as the closing film at the Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
, and was released on May 9, 2008. The film has earned $17,968,063 in DVD sales making $114,997,404 in its total film gross. In September 2011, TIME
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
magazine included the film on its list of The All-TIME 25 Best Sports Movies.
Plot
Speed RacerSpeed Racer
Speed Racer is an English adaptation name of the Japanese manga and anime, which centered on automobile racing. Mach GoGoGo was originally serialized in print form in Shueisha's 1958 Shōnen Book, and was released in tankōbon book form by Sun Wide Comics, re-released in Japan by Fusosha...
(Emile Hirsch
Emile Hirsch
Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild. In...
) is an 18-year-old whose life and love has always been automobile racing. His parents Pops (John Goodman
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
) and Mom (Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
) run the independent Racer Motors, in which his brother Spritle (Paulie Litt), mechanic Sparky (Kick Gurry
Kick Gurry
Christopher "Kick" Gurry an Australian actor born in Melbourne, Australia.-Early life:Gurry got his nickname when his brother could not say Christopher so he said Kicker...
), and girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
) are also involved. As a child Speed idolized his record-setting older brother, Rex Racer (Scott Porter
Scott Porter
Matthew Scott Porter , better known as Scott Porter, is an American actor and occasional singer known for his role as Jason Street in the NBC television drama Friday Night Lights. His character was injured during a football game in the pilot episode and became a paraplegic...
), but Rex was disowned by Pops for his decision to join a corporate racing team and was publicly defamed for appearing to cheat in a race. He was then killed while racing in the Casa Cristo 5000, an intense cross-country racing rally
Rallying
Rallying, also known as rally racing, is a form of auto racing that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars...
notorious for rough and foul play. Now embarking on his own career, Speed Racer is quickly sweeping the racing world with his skill behind the wheel of his brother's car the Mach 5 and his own Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
car the Mach 6, but remains primarily interested in the art of the race and the well-being of his family.
E.P. Arnold Royalton (Roger Allam
Roger Allam
Roger Allam is an English actor, known primarily for his stage career, although he has performed in film and television. He played Inspector Javert in the original London production of the stage musical Les Misérables....
), owner of conglomerate Royalton Industries, offers Speed an astoundingly luxurious lifestyle in exchange for signing to race with him. Speed is tempted but declines due to his father's distrust of power-hungry corporations. Angered, Royalton reveals that for many years the key races have been fixed
Match fixing
In organised sports, match fixing, game fixing, race fixing, or sports fixing occurs as a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. Where the sporting competition in question is a race then the incident is referred to as...
by corporate interests, including Royalton himself, to gain profits. He threatens Speed's career and family, making good on these threats by having his drivers force Speed into a crash that destroys the Mach 6 and suing Racer Motors for intellectual property infringement
Intellectual property infringement
An intellectual property infringement is the infringement or violation of an intellectual property right. There are several types of intellectual property rights, such as copyrights, patents, and trademarks...
. Speed decides that he must do something to stop Royalton and save the Racer business, and an opportunity to do so arises in the form of Inspector Detector (Benno Fürmann
Benno Fürmann
Benjamin "Benno" Fürmann is a German film and television actor.-Life and work:Fürmann was born in Berlin-Kreuzberg. By the age of 15 he had lost both his parents. At 17, he had a serious accident while train surfing, and had to spend six weeks in the hospital as a result...
), head of a corporate crimes division. Racer Taejo Togokahn (Rain) claims to have evidence that could indict Royalton but will only offer it up if Speed and the mysterious masked Racer X
Racer X (Speed Racer character)
is a recurring fictional character in the manga and anime series Speed Racer.-Role in the series:Racer X is a heroic, mysterious, flamboyant, selfless, sympathetic and often brooding soldier of fortune. His true identity is , the eldest son of Mom and Pops Racer and the older brother of Speed and...
(Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox (actor)
Matthew Chandler Fox is an American actor. He is mostly known for his role as Charlie Salinger on Party of Five, and for portraying Jack Shephard on the supernatural drama television series Lost.- Early life :...
) agree to race on his team in the Casa Cristo 5000. Taejo claims that a win could substantially raise the stock price of his family's racing business, blocking a Royalton-arranged buyout. Speed agrees but keeps his decision secret from his family, and Inspector Detector's team makes several defensive modifications to the Mach 5 to assist Speed in the rally.
After they drive together and work naturally as a team, Speed begins to suspect that Racer X is actually his brother Rex in disguise. His family discovers that he has entered the race and agree to support him. With the help of his family and Trixie, Speed defeats many brutal racers who have been bribed by fixer Cruncher Block (John Benfield
John Benfield
John Benfield is a British actor, who has appeared in 75 TV episodes or films starting in 1981. He lives in Oxford with his wife, Lillian, and son, Fred.-Selected filmography:*Sharpe*The Worst Week of My Life*Cassandra's Dream...
) to stop him, and overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles to win the race. However, Taejo's arrangement is revealed to be a sham, as he was only interested in increasing the value of his family's company so that they could profit from Royalton's buyout. An angry Speed hits the track that he used to drive with his brother, and confronts Racer X with his suspicion that he is Rex. Racer X removes his mask, revealing an unfamiliar face, and tells Speed that Rex truly is dead. Speed returns home, where Taejo's sister Haruko (Yu Nan
Yu Nan
Yu Nan is a Chinese actress. Born in Dalian, Yu Nan studied at the Beijing Film Academy, where she graduated in 1999.-In China:...
) gives him Taejo's automatic invitation to the Grand Prix. The Racer family bands together and builds a new Mach 6 in 32 hours.
Speed enters the Grand Prix against great odds: Royalton has placed a bounty on his head that the other drivers are eager to collect, and he is pitted against legendary Hall of Fame driver Jack "Cannonball" Taylor (Ralph Herforth). Speed overcomes a slow start to catch up with Taylor, who uses a cheating device called a spearhook to latch the Mach 6 to his own car. Speed uses his jump jacks to expose the device to video cameras and cause Taylor to crash. Speed wins the race, having successfully exposed Royalton's crimes. Racer X, who is watching, reveals through a flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
montage that he is indeed Rex, having faked his death and undergone plastic surgery
Plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. Though cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is the best-known kind of plastic surgery, most plastic surgery is not cosmetic: plastic surgery includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand...
to change his appearance as part of his plan to save his family and the sport of racing. He chooses not to reveal his identity to his family, declaring that he must live with his decision. The Racer family celebrates Speed's victory as Speed and Trixie kiss, and Royalton is sent to jail.
Cast
- Emile HirschEmile HirschEmile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild. In...
as Speed Racer. Actors Joseph Gordon-LevittJoseph Gordon-LevittJoseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt is an American actor whose career as both a child and adult has included television series and theatrical films....
, Zac EfronZac EfronZachary David Alexander "Zac" Efron is an American actor. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s and became known with his lead roles in the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, the WB series Summerland, and the 2007 film version of the Broadway musical Hairspray...
, and Shia LaBeoufShia LaBeoufShia Saide LaBeouf is an American actor who became known among younger audiences for his part in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens and made his film debut in Holes . In 2007, he starred as the leads in Disturbia and Transformers...
were previously considered for the role. To prepare for the role, Hirsch watched every Speed RacerSpeed RacerSpeed Racer is an English adaptation name of the Japanese manga and anime, which centered on automobile racing. Mach GoGoGo was originally serialized in print form in Shueisha's 1958 Shōnen Book, and was released in tankōbon book form by Sun Wide Comics, re-released in Japan by Fusosha...
episode and visited Lowe's Motor SpeedwayLowe's Motor SpeedwayCharlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, United States 13 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The complex features a quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend and the Sprint All-Star Race...
, where he met with driver Jimmie JohnsonJimmie JohnsonJimmie Kenneth Johnson is an American NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race car driver. He currently drives the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports....
.- Nicholas EliaNicholas EliaNicholas Elia is a Canadian film and television actor.- Filmography :-Supernatural:Nicholas Elia appeared as a guest star in Supernatural Season 3 episode The Kids Are Alright, he returned to the show in season 6. Elia was reluctant to reprise his role as Ben Braedon...
as young Speed Racer.
- Nicholas Elia
- Christina RicciChristina RicciChristina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
as Trixie, Speed's girlfriend. Ricci was chosen over Elisha CuthbertElisha CuthbertElisha Ann Cuthbert is a Canadian film and television actress. Cuthbert is known as the former co-host of the Canadian children's television series Popular Mechanics for Kids. In 1998, she had her first film role in Airspeed. She followed this in 2003 with a role in Old School...
and Kate MaraKate MaraKate Mara is an American television and film actress. Beginning acting in her hometown of Bedford, New York, she moved from the stage to her first film, Random Hearts...
.- Ariel WinterAriel WinterAriel Winter Workman , known in television shows and films as Ariel Winter, is an American teen actress and singer. Winter is best known for her current role as Alex Dunphy in the TV series Modern Family, for which she has won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series, along...
as young Trixie.
- Ariel Winter
- Matthew FoxMatthew Fox (actor)Matthew Chandler Fox is an American actor. He is mostly known for his role as Charlie Salinger on Party of Five, and for portraying Jack Shephard on the supernatural drama television series Lost.- Early life :...
as Racer X. Keanu ReevesKeanu ReevesKeanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix...
turned down the role. - Rain (Bi/Jeong Ji-hoon) as Taejo Togokahn, a rookie racer.
- John GoodmanJohn GoodmanJohn Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
as Pops Racer, Speed's father. - Susan SarandonSusan SarandonSusan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
as Mom Racer, Speed's mother. - Scott PorterScott PorterMatthew Scott Porter , better known as Scott Porter, is an American actor and occasional singer known for his role as Jason Street in the NBC television drama Friday Night Lights. His character was injured during a football game in the pilot episode and became a paraplegic...
as Rex Racer, Speed's older brother. - Paulie LittPaul LitowskyPaul Litowsky , sometimes credited as Paulie Litowsky or Paulie Litt, is an American teen actor who is most known for playing Spritle Racer in the 2008 Speed Racer.-Filmography:...
as Spritle Racer, Speed's younger brother . - Kick GurryKick GurryChristopher "Kick" Gurry an Australian actor born in Melbourne, Australia.-Early life:Gurry got his nickname when his brother could not say Christopher so he said Kicker...
as Sparky, Speed's mechanic and best friend. - Chim Cham, Spritle's pet chimpanzeeChimpanzeeChimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
and best friend is portrayed by two chimpanzees in the film: "Kenzie" and Willy". - Nayo Wallace as Minx, a scientist and Racer X's girlfriend.
- Benno FürmannBenno FürmannBenjamin "Benno" Fürmann is a German film and television actor.-Life and work:Fürmann was born in Berlin-Kreuzberg. By the age of 15 he had lost both his parents. At 17, he had a serious accident while train surfing, and had to spend six weeks in the hospital as a result...
as Inspector Detector, head of the Corporate Crimes Division, Central Intelligence Bureau. - Togo IgawaTogo Igawa, born in Tokyo on 26 September 1946, is a Japanese actor who works primarily in British films and television.In recent years he has had roles in major motion pictures such as Revolver, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Last Samurai, and Sunshine...
as Tetsuo Togokahn, Taejo and Haruko's father, and a corporate rival to both Royalton and Musha. - Yu NanYu NanYu Nan is a Chinese actress. Born in Dalian, Yu Nan studied at the Beijing Film Academy, where she graduated in 1999.-In China:...
as Haruko Togokahn, Taejo Togokhan's sister. - Roger AllamRoger AllamRoger Allam is an English actor, known primarily for his stage career, although he has performed in film and television. He played Inspector Javert in the original London production of the stage musical Les Misérables....
as E.P. Arnold Royalton, the corrupt owner and CEO of Royalton Industries. TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine critic Richard CorlissRichard CorlissRichard Nelson Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports. Corliss is the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment...
claimed that Allam was "channeling Brit pundit Christopher HitchensChristopher HitchensChristopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
as his most pompestuous", a comparison made by several other reviews. - Hiroyuki SanadaHiroyuki Sanadais a Japanese actor.-Life and career:Sanada was born in Tokyo. Originally aiming to be an action star, starting with shorinji kempo, he eventually took up Kyokushin kaikan Sanada began training at age 11 with actor and martial arts star Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club where he developed good...
as Mr. Musha, president and CEO of Musha Motors. - John BenfieldJohn BenfieldJohn Benfield is a British actor, who has appeared in 75 TV episodes or films starting in 1981. He lives in Oxford with his wife, Lillian, and son, Fred.-Selected filmography:*Sharpe*The Worst Week of My Life*Cassandra's Dream...
as Cruncher Block, a gang leader. - Ralph Herforth as Jack 'Cannonball' Taylor, a superstar racer sponsored by Royalton Industries.
- Christian OliverChristian OliverChristian Oliver is a German actor.Oliver was born in Celle and grew up in Frankfurt am Main. He relocated to the US to work as a model and subsequently take acting lessons in New York and Los Angeles. In 2003 and 2004, Christian Oliver co-starred in 28 episodes of the German action TV series...
as Snake Oiler, a leading racer of Team Hydra-Cell. - Jana PallaskeJana PallaskeJana Pallaske is a German actress and singer in the rock band Spitting Off Tall Buildings.-Filmography:* Alaska.de , Sabine* Jeans , Nina* Engel & Joe , Joe* Baader , Karin...
as Delila, a leading racer of Team Flying Foxes. - Werner DaehnWerner DaehnWerner Daehn is a German/international actor, who has worked with Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson in xXx, with Jason Priestley in Colditz an ITV1 2005 miniseries, with Bill Pullman in Revelations and with Steven Seagal in Shadow Man...
as Colonel Colon, a leading racer of Team Sempre Fi-Ber. - Komi Togbonou as a leading racer of Team Thor-Axine.
- Moritz BleibtreuMoritz BleibtreuMoritz Bleibtreu is a German actor.Bleibtreu was born in Munich, the son of actors Monica Bleibtreu and Hans Brenner, and the great-grand-nephew of the actress Hedwig Bleibtreu.Bleibtreu grew up in Hamburg...
as Grey Ghost, another top racer. - Milka DunoMilka DunoMilka Duno is a Venezuelan race car driver who competed in the IndyCar Series, and competes in the ARCA Racing Series. She is best known for holding the record of highest finish for a female driver in the 24 Hours of Daytona....
as Gearbox, yet another top racer. - Joe Mazza as Nitro Venderhoss, still yet another top racer.
- Leila Rozario as another Team Hydra-cell Driver
- Richard RoundtreeRichard RoundtreeRichard Roundtree is an American actor and former fashion model. He is best known for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft and in its two sequels, Shaft's Big Score and Shaft in Africa .-Personal life:Born in New Rochelle, New York, Richard Roundtree graduated from...
as Ben Burns, a race commentator and former racing champion. - Melvil PoupaudMelvil PoupaudMelvil Poupaud is a French actor.He was named after Herman Melville by his screenwriter mother. At the age of ten, he launched into acting with a role in La Ville des Pirates , directed by Raul Ruiz. At the age of 15, he was nominated for a César...
as Johnny 'Goodboy' Jones, a race commentator at the Casa Cristo. - Peter FernandezPeter FernandezPeter Fernandez was an American actor, voice actor, and director. Despite a career extending from the 1930s, he is probably best known for his uncredited roles in the 1967 anime Speed Racer. Fernandez co-wrote the scripts, was the voice director, and translated the English language version of the...
as another race commentator. (Cameo, Original 1960s cartoon English voice dub of Speed) - Andres Cantor as a Spanish-speaking race commentator at the Grand Prix. (Cameo; famous soccer commentator, well-known for his scream "Gooooooooal!")
- Art LaFleurArt LaFleur-Life and career:La Fleur was born in Gary, Indiana. He played football in 1962 as a redshirt at the University of Kentucky under Coach Charlie Bradshaw as chronicled in a 2007 book, The Thin Thirty....
as Fiji race commentator
Project history
In September 1992, Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
announced that it held the option to create a live action
Live action
In filmmaking, video production, and other media, the term live action refers to cinematography, videography not produced using animation...
film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of Speed Racer
Speed Racer
Speed Racer is an English adaptation name of the Japanese manga and anime, which centered on automobile racing. Mach GoGoGo was originally serialized in print form in Shueisha's 1958 Shōnen Book, and was released in tankōbon book form by Sun Wide Comics, re-released in Japan by Fusosha...
, in development at Silver Pictures
Silver Pictures
Silver Pictures is a film production company founded by Hollywood producer Joel Silver during 1985. All movies after Ricochet have been distributed by Warner Bros and its subsidiary New Line Cinema.-Films:-Television series:*Moonlight...
. In October 1994, singer Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, writer, comedian, publisher, actor, and radio DJ....
was offered the role of Racer X in the film. In June 1995, actor Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
was cast into the lead role for Speed Racer, with production slated to begin the coming October, with filming to take place in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. The following August, Depp requested time off to the studio for personal business, delaying production. However, due to a high budget, the same August, director Julien Temple
Julien Temple
Julien Temple is an English film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including The Great Rock And Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners and a documentary film about Glastonbury.-Temple...
, who was attached to direct Speed Racer, left the project. Depp, without a director, also departed from the project. The studio considered director Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...
as a replacement for Temple, though it would not grant writing privileges to Van Sant. In December 1997, the studio briefly hired director Alfonso Cuarón
Alfonso Cuarón
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco is a Mexican film director, screenwriter and film producer, best known for his films Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Y tu mamá también, and A Little Princess.- Early life :...
for Speed Racer. In the various incarnations of the project, screenwriters Marc Levin
Marc Levin
Marc Levin is an independent film producer and director. He is best known for his Brick City TV series, which won the 2010 Peabody award and was nominated for an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking and his dramatic feature film, SLAM, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance...
, Jennifer Flackett, J. J. Abrams
J. J. Abrams
Jeffrey Jacob "J. J." Abrams is an American film and television producer, screenwriter, director, actor, and composer. He wrote and produced feature films before co-creating the television series Felicity...
, and Patrick Read Johnson had been hired to write scripts.
In September 2000, Warner Bros. and producer Lauren Shuler Donner
Lauren Shuler Donner
Lauren Shuler Donner is an American film producer who specializes in mainstream youth and family-oriented entertainment.-Early life and career:...
hired writer-director Hype Williams
Hype Williams
Harold "Hype" Williams , previously known as HYPE, is an American music video and film director of African-American and Honduran descent. His nickname "Hype" comes from his hyperactive nature as a child....
to take the helm of Speed Racer. In October 2001, the studio hired screenwriters Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring
Paul Scheuring
Paul T. Scheuring is an American screenwriter and director for films and television shows. His work includes the 2003 film A Man Apart and, more notably, the creation of the television drama Prison Break, for which he is also credited as an executive producer and Head Writer.-Biography:Scheuring...
for $1.2 million split between them to write a script for the film. Eventually, without production getting under way, the director and the writers left the project. In June 2004, actor Vince Vaughn
Vince Vaughn
Vincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn is an American film actor, screenwriter, producer and comedian. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 movie Swingers...
spearheaded a revival of the project by presenting a take for the film that would develop the characters more strongly. Vaughn was cast as Racer X and was also attached to the project as an executive producer. With production never becoming active, Vaughn was eventually detached from the project.
Production
Joel Silver
Joel Silver is an American Hollywood film producer, co-creator of the sport of Ultimate, co-founder of Dark Castle Entertainment and owner of Silver Pictures.-Life and career:...
, who had collaborated with the Wachowski brothers for V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta (film)
V for Vendetta is a 2005 dystopian thriller film directed by James McTeigue and produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers, who also wrote the screenplay. It is an adaptation of the V for Vendetta comic book by Alan Moore and David Lloyd...
and The Matrix Trilogy, explained that the brothers were hoping to reach a broader audience with a film that would not be rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...
. Visual effects designer John Gaeta
John Gaeta
John Gaeta is an academy award winning visual effects designer best known for his work on the Matrix film trilogy and Speed Racer, where he explored and advanced the effects methods known as "Bullet Time", "Virtual Cinematography", and "Photo Anime".-Career:John C. Gaeta's career began in New York...
, who won an Academy Award for Visual Effects
Academy Award for Visual Effects
The Academy Award for Visual Effects is an Academy Award given for the best achievement in visual effects.-History of the award:The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first recognized the technical contributions of special effects to movies at its inaugural dinner in 1928, presenting a...
for the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
, was brought in to help conceive making Speed Racer into a live-action adaptation. Production was set to begin in summer 2007 in European locations for a summer 2008 release. In November 2006, the release date for Speed Racer was set for May 23, 2008. Producer Joel Silver described Speed Racer as a family film
Family film
A family film is a film genre that is designed to appeal to a variety of age groups and, thus, families.In December 2005, Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came first in a poll of the 100 Greatest Family Films. The genre today generates billions of dollars per annum.Family...
in line with the Wachowski brothers' goal to reach a wider audience.
In February 2007, the Wachowski brothers selected Babelsberg Studios
Babelsberg Studios
The Studio Babelsberg, located in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. Founded in 1912, it covers an area of about . Hundreds of films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel were filmed there...
in Potsdam, Germany to film Speed Racer. In the following March, Warner Bros. moved the release date of Speed Racer two weeks earlier to May 9, 2008. The studio received a grant of $12.3 million from Germany's new Federal Film Fund, the largest yet from the organization, for production of Speed Racer in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. The amount was later increased to $13 million. Filming commenced on June 5, 2007 in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and was shot entirely against greenscreen, lasting 60 days. The Wachowski brothers filmed in high-definition video
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
for the first time. With the camera, the Wachowskis used a layering approach that would put both the foreground and the background in focus to give it the appearance of real-life anime. The film has a "retro future" look, according to Silver. The Mach 5, the vehicle driven by the protagonist Speed, was a drivable vehicle. Filming completed by August 25, 2007. The Wachowskis purchased the rights to the sound effects and theme song of the television series for use in the film.
Animal cruelty
During the production of Speed Racer, animal rightsAnimal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
group PETA
Peta
Peta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Wilson, an Australian actress and model* Peta Todd, English glamour model...
made allegations of animal cruelty against the film, reporting that one of the two chimpanzees used in the production was allegedly beaten after biting an actor. The incident was confirmed by the American Humane
American Humane Association
The American Humane Association is an organization founded in 1877 dedicated to the welfare of animals and children.The AHA's Film and Television Unit has monitored the welfare of animals during the production of films and television programs since 1940. They are the source of the familiar...
Animal Safety Representative on the set, who reported that the stand-in for the Spritle character portrayed by Litt had been bitten without provocation. The AHA representative also reported that "toward the end of filming, during a training session in the presence of the American Humane Representative, the trainer, in an uncontrolled impulse, hit the chimpanzee." The AHA Film Unit referred to this abuse as "completely inexcusable and unacceptable behavior in the use of any animal." The AHA has rated Speed Racer "Unacceptable" chiefly because of this incident, with American Humane noting "the aforementioned training incident tarnishes the excellent work of the rest of production" and that it "has no method of separating the actions of one individual in the employ of a production from the production as a whole."
Marketing
The film was backed by multiple promotional partners with over $80 million in marketing support. The partners include General MillsGeneral Mills
General Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...
, McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
, Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
, Topps
Topps
The Topps Company, Inc., manufactures chewing gum, candy and collectibles. Based in New York, New York, Topps is best known as a leading producer of baseball cards, football cards, basketball cards, hockey cards and other sports and non-sports themed trading cards.-Company history:Topps itself was...
, Esurance
Esurance
Esurance Inc. is an American auto insurance provider headquartered in San Francisco, California. Esurance has 1,700 employees in 14 offices nationwide.-History:...
, Mattel
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. is the world's largest toy company based on revenue. The products it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. The company's name is derived from...
, LEGO
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
and Petrobras
Petrobras
Petróleo Brasileiro or Petrobras is a semi-public Brazilian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest company in Latin America by market capitalization and revenue, and the largest company headquartered in the Southern Hemisphere by market...
. The film also received support from companies outside of America in an attempt to attract international audiences. With early support before the film's release, the studio provided 3D computer models of the Speed Racer vehicle Mach 5 to the companies so they could accurately render the vehicle in their merchandise. Warner Bros. aimed to garner enough attention for Speed Racer so it would spawn sequels.
Mattel produced toys based on the film through several divisions. Hot Wheels
Hot Wheels
Hot Wheels is a brand of die cast toy car, introduced by American toymaker Mattel in 1968. It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until 1996, when Mattel acquired rights to the Matchbox brand from Tyco.-Models:...
produced die-cast vehicles, race sets and track sets. Tyco
Tyco International
Tyco International Ltd. is a highly diversified global manufacturing company incorporated in Switzerland, with United States operational headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey...
produced remote-controlled Mach 5s and racing sets. Radica Games
Radica Games
Radica Games Limited is a company that produces electronic games. On October 3, 2006, Mattel, Inc. announced the completion of their acquisition of Radica. Radica was originally founded in 1983. It began by producing electronic souvenir games for casinos. In the late 1990s, it became famous for...
produced video games in which players can use a car wheel. The products became available in March 2008. Also, The LEGO Company produced four LEGO sets based on the movie. As part of the General Mills promotional tie-in, during the 2008 Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400
2008 Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400
The 2008 Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400 is the tenth race on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule for the 2008 season, and was held Saturday, May 3 at Richmond International Raceway in Henrico County, Virginia, outside the state capital of Virginia. The race was telecast on Fox starting at 7:45...
, part of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season
2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
The 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season began on February 9, 2008 at Daytona International Speedway with the Budweiser Shootout, followed by pole qualifying on Sunday, February 10, 2008 for the 50th Daytona 500 on February 17...
, the famous #43 Dodge Charger
Dodge Charger
The Dodge Charger is an American automobile manufactured by the Dodge division of Chrysler. There have been several different Dodge vehicles, built on three different platforms and sizes, all bearing the Charger nameplate...
of Petty Enterprises
Petty Enterprises
Petty Enterprises was a NASCAR racing team based in Randleman, North Carolina, USA. The team was owned by Richard Petty, his son Kyle Petty, and Boston Ventures. At the time of its folding the team operated the #43 and #45 Dodge Chargers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Petty Enterprises ran from...
was transformed into a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series version of the Mach 5, driven by Bobby Labonte
Bobby Labonte
Robert Alan "Bobby" Labonte is an American race car driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. He currently drives the #47 Kroger/Clorox/Kimberly-Clark/Kingsford/Reese Towpower Hitches Toyota Camry for JTG Daugherty Racing. He currently resides in Trinity, North Carolina. He is married to his wife...
.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, through its Interactive Entertainment division, self-published a video game based on Speed Racer, which was released on May 6, 2008 on the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
and Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
, and was released on September 16, 2008 for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
. The original music for the Speed Racer video game was written by Winifred Phillips
Winifred Phillips
Winifred Phillips is an American music composer for video games and radio, a published fantasy author, and a radio producer and actress.-Video games:...
and produced by Winnie Waldron
Winnie Waldron
Winnie Waldron is an American music producer for video games, a producer for radio, a radio script editor / adapter and a radio host.- Radio :...
. The game was released on the Nintendo DS and Wii in May with the film's theatrical release and was released on the PS2 in the fall to accompany the film's DVD and Blu-ray release. Due to a short development schedule, the studio chose not to develop games for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
.
In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Metro
Metro (Associated Metro Limited)
Metro is a free daily newspaper in the United Kingdom published by Associated Newspapers Ltd . It is available from Monday to Friday each week on many public transport services across the United Kingdom.-History:The paper was launched in London in 1999, and can now be found in 14 UK urban centres...
newspaper ran a "Buy One Get One Free"
Buy one, get one free
"Buy one, get one free", or "Buy one, get one" is a common form of sales promotion. While rarely presented to customers in acronym form, this marketing technique is universally known in the marketing industry by the acronym BOGOF, and it is regarded as one of the most effective forms of special...
offer on tickets for Speed Racer showing at the Empire Cinema in London's Leicester Square
Leicester Square
Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...
.
New theme song
In addition to the orchestral score, WB added an updated version of the "Go, Speed Racer, Go" theme song which plays during the end credits. Produced by Ali Dee and Jason Gleed, performed by Ali Dee Theodore and the Deekompressors. The film version has sections in English, Japanese, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, in homage to the original 1967 anime being brought over to their respective countries outside Japan.Critical reception
Speed Racer has received generally negative reviews from film critics. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
ranked the film as "rotten", with 36% of its selected critics giving the film positive reviews, based on 194 reviews (70 "fresh", 124 "rotten") with an average rating of 5.0/10, and it has an even worse rating of 30% from its top critics based on 37 reviews (11 "fresh", 26 "rotten") with an average rating of 4.6/10. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 37 out of 100, which indicates "generally negative reviews," based on 37 reviews.
Todd McCarthy of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called the film "pure cotton candy too sweet and pretty for young people to resist." He said that the target audience of families and children should be amused, but that others might think the film "a cinematic pile-up," citing its implausibility and the lack of identifiable peril in the driving sequences. McCarthy noted that no expense had been spared on the effects, saying that viewers with an interest in CGI innovations would be "in a corner of heaven," but that the frame sometimes resembled "nothing so much as a kindergartner's art class collage." He had praise for the cinematography and the "playful and busy" musical score. He also said that even if not much was asked of them "other than to look alert and driven," the cast was "very good for this sort of thing," and Roger Allam
Roger Allam
Roger Allam is an English actor, known primarily for his stage career, although he has performed in film and television. He played Inspector Javert in the original London production of the stage musical Les Misérables....
made "a delicious love-to-hate-him villain."
IGN gave the film 4.5/5 stars and stated: "Overall, this anime adaptation is not merely the best film that it could be, it's pretty much exactly what it should be: full of exciting, brilliantly-conceived races, primary-color characterizations and an irresistible sense of fun. Loud, fast and always in danger of veering out of control, Speed Racer is a masterpiece of its kind, and a definitive benchmark for film not only as a special effects extravaganza but as the moment when the Wachowskis went from wunderkind directors to true auteurs. In other words, as a summer distraction, a singular work of art or just as sensory overload, Speed Racer is a movie you absolutely must see."
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
said that the visual effects were "stellar," but that unlike Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
films which are aimed at as broad an audience as possible, Speed Racer "plays very young" and "proudly denies entry into its ultra-bright world to all but gamers, fanboys and anime enthusiasts." He said that story and character were "tossed aside" to "focus obsessively" on the action sequences. He called the number of races "wearying," saying they "all look alike no matter what the backgrounds," though indicating that "each race happens in a completely different environment." He also notes the ineffectiveness of "chimpanzee tricks, kid-brother high jinks, Ninja martial arts by the whole family and a raft of vicious yet harmless villains" to make the long story sequences more bearable.
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips (critic)
Michael Phillips is a film critic for the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Previously he was the drama critic of the Tribune; the Los Angeles Times; the St. Paul Pioneer Press; the San Diego Union-Tribune; and the Dallas Times Herald....
of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
described Speed Racer as "buoyant pop entertainment focused on three things: speed, racing and retina-splitting oceans of digitally captured color" that takes place in "a freshly conceived visual universe." He says that "the Wachowskis respect the dynamism of the original drawings, while carving out their own middle ground between computer animation and live action. They respect also the themes of honor, dishonor, family loyalty and Visigoth-inspired barbarism behind the wheel." The cast is praised as being "earnest" and "gently playful." However, he notes that "the film runs an overgenerous two hours and 15 minutes, and it sags in its midsection" with unnecessary dialogue.
Anthony Lane of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
said the film was "of no conceivable interest to anyone over the age of ten" and that the convoluted plot was "barely worth unpicking." Noting the "lollipop hues," Lane questioned how the film could still end up "bleached of fun," and concluded that the answer was with the theme first mooted by Wachowskis' in The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
that "all of us, whether we know it or not, are squirming under the thumb of dark controlling forces." In Speed Racer, Lane argues, this comes in the form of villain Royalton, who "vows to crush [Speed] with 'the unassailable might of money.'" Citing the Wachowskis' involvement in V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta (film)
V for Vendetta is a 2005 dystopian thriller film directed by James McTeigue and produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers, who also wrote the screenplay. It is an adaptation of the V for Vendetta comic book by Alan Moore and David Lloyd...
(2005), Lane said Speed Racer was not as "criminally poor" as that film, but that it was "more insidious." He concluded: "There's something about the ululating crowds who line the action in color-coordinated rows; the desperate skirting of ordinary feelings in favor of the trumped-up variety; the confidence in technology as a spectacle in itself; and, above all, the sense of master manipulators posing as champions of the little people. What does that remind you of? You could call it entertainment, and use it to wow your children for a couple of hours. To me, it felt like Pop fascism, and I would keep them well away."
Glenn Kenny of Premiere
Premiere (magazine)
Premiere was an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., published between the years 1987 and 2007. The original version of the magazine, Première , was started in France in 1976 and is still being published there.-History:The magazine originally...
describes Speed Racer as "one of the most genuinely confounding films to come along in years." Depending upon the viewpoint, he said, it was either "the most headache-inducing" children's film of all, or the most expensive avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
film ever made. He cited the film's time-shifting narrative and multiple storylines in the early stages as evidence of its "radicalization of film language" and said the movie was "likely to inspire even more heavy thinking on the part of cultural theorists than The Matrix did" because of its "blatantly anti-capitalist storylines" and being "a picture that changes the rules of its universe strictly according to its creators' whims." The radical techniques used to tie multiple storylines together, while "impressive to behold," Kenny said, "yields heretofore undreamed of levels of narrative incoherence, but hey, not every experiment succeeds." Kenny praised the film's look, saying the "cheez-whizziness" that others had criticised was "precisely the point." He also said the supporting characters in the race scenes were "brought to life by the Wachowskis with a cheeky relish."
Jim Emerson, editor at the Chicago Sun Times, gave the film 1 stars out of four and wrote that Speed Racer "is a manufactured widget, a packaged commodity that capitalizes on an anthropomorphized cartoon of Capitalist Evil in order to sell itself and its ancillary products."
Box office results
The film grossed $18,561,337 in its opening weekend from around 6,700 screens at 3,606 theaters in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and ranking third at the box office behind Iron Man
Iron Man (film)
Iron Man is a 2008 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, an industrialist and master engineer who builds a powered exoskeleton and becomes the technologically advanced superhero, Iron...
and What Happens in Vegas.... In its second weekend it grossed $8,117,459 and ranked fourth at the box office. The film closed its run on August 1, 2008 with $43,945,766 domestically and $93,945,766 worldwide. The results were well below studio expectations, given that the production costs of Speed Racer were estimated to be over $120 million. Despite the low box office numbers, Warner Brothers remained optimistic about sales of associated products ranging from toys to tennis shoes. Brad Globe, president of Warner Brothers Consumer Products, expressed hope that "We're still going to do very well with Speed Racer", acknowledging that "a giant movie would have made it all a lot bigger."
DVD and Blu-ray release
Warner Home Video released the Wachowski brothers film 'Speed Racer' to DVD and Blu-ray on September 16. The three-disc set features the main feature and supplemental features on the first disc, the DVD game "Speed Racer Crucible Challenge" on the second disc, and a digital copyDigital copy
Digital Copy provides consumers who purchase a film on DVD or Blu-ray Disc with an additional, digital copy of the movie for devices capable of operating with a file in contrast to a DVD.-Features:...
of the film on the third disc— the last two being exclusive to the Blu-ray release.
As of September 2009, US DVD sales were $14 million.