DVD Review: Speed Racer The Next Generation – The Beginning

Posted by Kevin Carr (kevin@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 5, 2008

We all know about the upcoming live-action Speed Racer adaptation. Or, at least we should, unless you’re living in a cave (and considering how pervasive movie news is nowadays, I think that even Osama bin Ladin knows about the summer releases).

With what looks like a sure-fire hit, everyone is jumping on the Speed Racer bandwagon. Included in this is Lionsgate Home Entertainment and Nicktoons. These two companies have launched a new Speed Racer animated series that will run every Friday at 7 p.m. on Nicktoons. A DVD of the pilot episodes, dubbed “The Beginning,” is available on DVD from Lionsgate on Tuesday, May 6.

The new series follows an orphaned boy named Speed who has joined the elite Racing Academy. There, he meets the new Racer X, who is the original Speed Racer’s son. He also teams up with an engineer named Lucy and a whiz mechanic named Conor. Spritle from the old series is the headmaster of the school, and the evil billionaire Zile Zazic tries to trip up Speed and get his hands on the plans for the new and improved Mach 6.

I’ve never been a huge Speed Racer fan and have only seen the original series in passing, so a series like Speed Racer The Next Generation isn’t trampling on any of my childhood memories. Still, there is a certain level of endorsement for the show, considering Peter Fernandez (who voiced the original Speed Racer and Racer X as well as wrote the classic theme song) is lending his voice to the adult Spritle in the new series.

Coming at the new show without the baggage of the original cartoon, I enjoyed the one-hour introduction to a degree. My kids watched it with me, and they definitely enjoyed the racing moments.

The DVD is just a taste of what is to come, and the movie has a definite origin feel. There isn’t the level of wacky high-tech villains you saw in the original series, and hopefully that will be rectified in upcoming episodes.

Animation levels are mediocre, similar to the short-lived CGI Spider-Man series on MTV a few years back. It’s nice to see an animated series that doesn’t look like a souped up Powerpuff Girls episode, but it still doesn’t hold a candle to traditional hand-drawn animation. Still, considering the original Speed Racer was the early Anime version of Hanna-Barbera, substandard animation is a bit of a tradition with the series.

I give the filmmakers an A for effort in that they are really trying to bridge the generation gap between the two series. They give an inside nod to the original show by making Speed Racer a legend, but they are updating things for a new audience. Other additions to the series, including a robotic Chim Chim and a virtual reality race track, give it a modern tone.

After watching the film, and even after watching the making-of documentary in the special features, I realize that this was made for kids of today rather than the adult fans of the original series. In that respect, it’s watchable and a warm diversion from Pokemon and other insane children’s programs. However, the original fans are probably going to cringe when watching it.

The DVD comes with the movie and a making-of featurette. There’s also a virtual race track set-top game as well as dossiers on all the main characters in the new series.

THE UPSIDE: Better than Pokemon.

THE DOWNSIDE: This isn’t really made for the original Speed Racer fans.

ON THE SIDE: Preview clips of the new movie here.

Read more articles by Kevin Carr