BigBoy is fanatical. He knows a lot of the lines. He talks about racing day and night. He knows all the cars, numbers of pedals, and all the drivers. He sleeps with the Mach 5 remote control car that he bought with his own money. BigBoy pretends that he’s Speed Racer racing against Racer X all the time. He’s been running laps through the kitchen into the living room through the dining area and back again. We’ve rented all the old cartoon episodes from the library. Yes, even I’ve watched the movie, Speed Racer, at least five times and I’m still enjoying it.
But what has cracked me up the most is hearing my five year old boy proclaim, “I LOVE him! I love Speed Racer!” while hugging his car. Wow. It’s neat to see him so passionate about something, but wow is really all I can say.
I tell you what, while I love going down memory lane and rewatching the vintage Speed Racer cartoons (my brother and I used to love that they would say, “Catch Speed in Part 2 of the Desert Race…”), the 2008 version by the Wachowski Brothers (of The Matrix trilogy) is totally awesome (yes, I said ‘totally awesome’ and probably said it like 100 times in the movie, because IT IS so totally awesome!). I love a good action flick, especially with great car races and international appeal. I’ve seen every James Bond movie with Sean Connery through Daniel Craig. One of my all time favorite movies is Heat and rounding out my top ten would probably include The Italian Job. So to be able to watch an action movie that’s fun, colorful, has a good moral story, kick ass special effects and graphics, and funny lines with my son is PRICELESS.
The Wachowski Brothers (guess you can’t really say that now, but the ‘Wachowski Siblings’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it) bring the same attention to detail that they do to all their movies. But this time the color palette isn’t black and grey. It looks like they had a great time bringing a late 1960’s Japan anime to the big screen. Everything from the sets (oh the wallpaper in the Racer house and the bakelite display in the kitchen), to the costumes, to the cars and the CG raceways were bright, colorful and whimsical. To me this movie is done in the way a cartoon to big screen movie should be (think 1990’s Dick Tracy).
The other thing that I particularly loved is that there is very little violence for both what you would think the Wachowski’s would do and what’s possible with a race car-action movie. When cars crash, the driver is ejected into an auto-foam bubble wrapped ball and bounced out of harms way (genius!). The few scenes where there are punches or fights there is very little blood. It’s enough to get the idea, but not too over the top. It’s clear that they had kids and families in mind while making this movie (thank you!). There are even ninjas (!) and the fighting scenes are well crafted, artistic, and sometimes even funny.
I love Speed’s relationship to his friends and family, and themes like respect, love and doing what’s right play heavily in the movie. There are certainly campy moments (“Holy Cannoli, Speed!”) and we laugh along with the family humor. Another thing I love is that the Racer family is participating in a world-wide sport. It’s not the Big Scary World, but the Cool, Interesting World outside of North America. The villains in this movie are the big worldwide corporations and the gangsters and drivers employed by them.
The casting for the main characters is very good and the actors bring the appropriate amount of heart, intensity and fun. 
Speed is played by Emile Hirsch (Lords of Dogtown, Into the Wild, Milk) who has the most excellent hair, innocence and coolness to carry the role. Susan Sarandon (Enchanted, Stepmom, Thelma & Louise) and John Goodman (Monsters Inc., The Big Lebowski, The Flintstones) play his parents in such a way that are both supportive and touching. 
Christina Ricci (Penelope, The Opposite of Sex, Sleepy Hollow) plays Speed’s best friend and wannabe girlfriend. She absolutely has the look and attitude for Trixie. And really, does the woman ever age? Matthew Fox (“Lost,” “Party of Five”) is excellent as Racer X, bringing the right combination of dark, mysterious and sexy.
However, they missed the boat with the secondary characters. Had they done better casting for those roles, this movie would have received much more publicity and favor. Some ideas for recasting include: David Arquette (Scream, but most well known as Courtney Cox’s husband) as the Grey Ghost, his friend Jason Lee (“My Name is Earl,” Alvin & The Chipmunks, and a ton of Kevin Smith films) as Snake Oiler and if any of the bad girl racers could have been Angelina Jolie, any of the Spice Girls or 2000’s Charlie’s Angels the movie could have uber kicked ass.
So I suppose I LOVE Speed too! Tell me, do you know of any other cool boy movies that you can watch together at least once, if not more, that has as much action and intrigue, heart and brains? I think I’m gonna shake myself up another martini and watch it again with BigBoy tonight. Cheers friends! I’d love to hear your recommendations…
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We love Cars around here. Even my daughter loves it, though not as much as the almost 4 year old boy. We tried watching Speed Racer, but I think the kids were too little. We’ll have to try it again, because most of the time my boy picks Hot Wheels movies, which suck.
We’ve over done Cars, which is what let us to Speed Racer. Mmmm…even though they suck, maybe I’ll have to look into those Hot Wheel movies. Thanks for stopping by JerseyGirl!
I will definitely check out speed racer with my 4.5′er. We love the old Super friends cartoons from the 70’s (late 70’s are better). Also, not sure if it’s as good, but we LOVE Doogal (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0763304/) . It’s a very good story with a great cast and soundtrack. My son watched all the time when he was very young, but if your boy is 4-5 I am sure he may still like it (might be too tame for him depending on his tastes). It’s no heavy-duty action movie, but I say give it a try.
James, thanks so much for reading and posting. I love your recommendations and I will absolutely look up both. THANK YOU!