# Re Speed Racer -When a movie is panned by all critics, did we just not get it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775 "2008-05-10T03:12:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/41 "2008-05-11T20:49:59Z")
[QUOTE=Southern Yankee] I just came back from seeing Speed Racer with my 5 year old son. Growing up, I loved the cartoon and based on the trailer I was expecting it to be shite. I **loved** it. The Wachowskis somehow captured the essence of the cartoon in a live action movie. My son was bored when there was no racing on the screen, but I really enjoyed it. I can see why critics wouldn’t like it, but I would take a WAG that the Wachowskis were big fans of the anime series too. [/QUOTE] I’m with you. I just took my 6 and 2 year old sons to see it and we were ALL glued to the screen. I too loved the cartoon as a boy, and while the movie is quite faithful to the cartoon with nice retro touches, the movie itself, particularly the racing sequences, is visually sparkling. I mean really, REALLY stunning. What the original cartoon lacked in animation in the 1970’s is more than made up for by this flick. If you have a small boy, take him to see it. It’s utterly irresistable. They should have a warning for epileptics or something! ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/42 "2008-05-11T20:53:34Z")
gaffa, you’re wrong. You seem to be making the very foolish assumption that the Wright Brothers never did anything beyond their first flight. They set records for years, eventually making a plane which could do over 60 miles of flight, which was pretty good considering before them no one had done 60 feet. The fact that they did not invent ailerons hardly means they were meaningless. Edit: And they developed the principles of aerodynamic flight. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/43 "2008-05-11T21:10:31Z")
[QUOTE=Southern Yankee] The Wachowskis somehow captured the essence of the cartoon in a live action movie. [/QUOTE] Seems like a reason not to see it to me! I loathed the cartoon. (Not saying you shouldn’t have enjoyed the movie–you said you liked the cartoon, so that’s cool. This isn’t any sort of commentary on your enjoyment, simply an affirmation of my previous assumption that I probably wouldn’t like the movie.) ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/44 "2008-05-11T21:31:59Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] Seems like a reason not to see it to me! I loathed the cartoon. (Not saying you shouldn’t have enjoyed the movie–you said you liked the cartoon, so that’s cool. This isn’t any sort of commentary on your enjoyment, simply an affirmation of my previous assumption that I probably wouldn’t like the movie.) [/QUOTE] I liked the cartoon when I was seven, in the 1970’s. I wouldn’t like it today if I were seven against the current crop of technologically superior cartoons. I can’t bear to watch the cartoon much at the age of 38 and thought the movie was incredible, even if just from an eye-candy standpoint. My six year old agrees, and I’ve tried to get him into the original cartoon, but he isn’t biting. The lowest-tech cartoon that he (and I )likes is _Scooby Doo_. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/45 "2008-05-11T21:39:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by **FoieGrasIsEvil** > > I liked the cartoon when I was seven, in the 1970’s. I wouldn’t like it today if I were seven against the current crop of technologically superior cartoons. I can’t bear to watch the cartoon much at the age of 38 and thought the movie was incredible, even if just from an eye-candy standpoint. Exactly. I recently watched some of the original episodes on DVD and thought they didn’t hold up at all. The movie captured my memories of the cartoon in an updated way and made me remember why I loved the series so much. It’s not often you can get a journey back in time like that. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/46 "2008-05-11T21:41:51Z")
I’d just like to add that \*Last Action Hero \* was a snide, unpleasant, unfunny, umimaginative movie, starring a man who simply cannot do comedy and a truly awful child actor (Charles Dance was OK, though). And yeah, I “got” it. What’s not to get? It’s Post-Modernism 101. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/47 "2008-05-11T22:51:55Z")
[QUOTE=Southern Yankee] Exactly. I recently watched some of the original episodes on DVD and thought they didn’t hold up at all. **The movie captured my memories of the cartoon in an updated way and made me remember why I loved the series so much. It’s not often you can get a journey back in time like that**. [/QUOTE] That summed up my experience perfectly. And let’s not forget that eye candy! It was AMAZING!! /gushing ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/48 "2008-05-11T22:54:52Z")
From the evening news: Iron Man does $50.5 mil in second weekend. Speed Racer does $20.2 mil, barely edging out What Happens in Vegas at $20 mil, even though it was in more theaters. Could be a record bomb for a $150 mil movie. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/49 "2008-05-11T23:07:42Z")
[QUOTE=DrFidelius] A critic’s job is to say whether a given movie is good. This does not equate with being “fun,” “enjoyable,” or “popular.” [/QUOTE] With a movie like Speed Racer, those are the important criteria. Expecting There Will Be Blood is myopic. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/50 "2008-05-11T23:09:57Z")
[Here’s some total love for Speed Racer](http://www.aintitcool.com/node/36695) from the Ain’t it cool website. > [@](#): > > The Wachowski’s SPEED RACER is more than just a movie – it is a cinematic adrenal experience. The film is edited like a racer changes gears… suddenly, abruptly and constantly moving forward faster and with a sense of aggressive purpose. If you watched the opening 7 minutes that have appeared online… well… that’s nothing. What we have here is the first anime brought to life. Of all the anime’s they could have adapted – SPEED RACER is one of the most simplistic. It’s ultimately about a hero that’s childhood hero was a big brother that raced and “died” – and now, that younger brother is driven to succeed where his “deceased” brother failed. > > The visual look of the film is an adult replication of that anime insanity – and it is astonishing to behold. If you ever played with Hot Wheels and dreamt of crazy insane racing… this film is the dream that the 5-7 year old that built those tracks, ran those absurd races – and improvised new terrors for those cars to attempt. > > At the same time – SPEED RACER represents the single greatest “TRIP” on screen since Kubrick’s stargate sequence at the end of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY – only… this sequence isn’t a few minutes long… nearly the entire film is a brightly colored swirling bit of lysergic acidic goodness. And I say that – purely on speculation – as I have always been fearful of the possible “brown acid” and have never taken that journey. But my father has described it – and as I sat in the theater watching SPEED RACER – with a growing sense of euphoric bliss and happiness – eyes transfixed – dancing with the images on the screen I realized… I no longer have even the slightest desire to try LSD – because all I need do is watch this movie – and I’ll have a thrillingly euphoric blissful audio and visual pleasurably assaultive experience. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/51 "2008-05-11T23:14:29Z")
[QUOTE=Yookeroo] That’s what I was thinking. Could be fun. [/QUOTE] Sounds like a waste of acid to me. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/52 "2008-05-11T23:57:22Z")
> [@](#): > > If you ever played with Hot Wheels and dreamt of crazy insane racing… this film is the dream that the 5-7 year old that built those tracks, ran those absurd races – and improvised new terrors for those cars to attempt. Whomever wrote this on **AICN** nailed it perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/53 "2008-05-12T00:13:40Z")
I grew up in the 80s and used to watch Speed Racer on cable. Although i never understood the plot, it never kept me away from the tv at 6:30pm. I saw it Friday evening in a mostly empty theatre. Me and lots of others thoroughly enjoyed it. 🙂 The movie really brought the cartoon to life. But i can definitely see that anyone who didn’t watch the cartoon is going into the theatre and expecting it to be crap, thinking it is crap the whole time, and denounce it even more after they see it. It’s pretty lame that people make up their minds based on the opinions of so many others. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/54 "2008-05-12T01:38:04Z")
[QUOTE=Alessan] I’d just like to add that \*Last Action Hero \* was a snide, unpleasant, unfunny, umimaginative movie, [/QUOTE] Wow, I would say the opposite to every one of those. I thought it was clever, very funny and lots of fun. As a movie, better than Speed Racer, but nowhere near as pretty and dazzling. About Speed Racer… Even though I was never a 5-7 year old boy who played with Hot Wheels (and never watched the cartoon) I’d also say that AICN guy got it right. It’s total eye candy. Perhaps it’s just a nutritious and long-lasting as candy (that is, not at all and not for very long) but it tasted fine to me while it lasted. Most of all, I’m glad I didn’t wait to see it on DVD. It’s a theater experience, kinda like Transformers. Neither are great movies, but both are so spectacular-looking (SR X1000) that if they’re going to be seen, they should be seen on the big screen. I totally understand why the critics didn’t like it, and can’t really blame them, but I’m glad I didn’t pay attention to them and saw it anyway. Well, I would have gone even if I had paid attention to them. Since The (original) Matrix is one of my all-time favorite films (I was obsessed by it and saw it in the theater over 30 times) there’s no way I would have missed seeing any film by those two. If The Matrix is a 10 (to me, on my personal scale) and Bound is a 9 and the Matrix sequels are a 7, Speed Racer would be a 4-5, but I’m STILL glad I saw it in the theater. I generally like critics. They’ve steered me toward good-to-great movies many many many many many times over the years, but there are some times, especially with Ebert (who I still can’t believe disliked Raising Arizona), where I just have to ignore/disregard them and their opinions. Sometimes I find out they’re right, sometimes I find out they’re wrong (to me). Some of my favorite films were lambasted by critics, such as Return To Oz, which got scathing reviews. IMO, Return to Oz is truly a truly good movie. Speed Racer isn’t, but I’m STILL glad I saw it in the theater, and want to see it again in either digital or IMAX. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/55 "2008-05-12T01:48:21Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit] gaffa, you’re wrong. You seem to be making the very foolish assumption that the Wright Brothers never did anything beyond their first flight. They set records for years, eventually making a plane which could do over 60 miles of flight, which was pretty good considering before them no one had done 60 feet. The fact that they did not invent ailerons hardly means they were meaningless. [/QUOTE] They refused to compete in open competitions with people they considered “patent infringers” - and they considered anyone who built an airplane and was not paying them for their patents, even those who did not use any of the Wrights inventions - an infringer. I’m away from my library and will be for a few weeks, but when I get back I’ll review my books on the subject and start a GD thread. It should be as lively as a Edison vs. Tesla debate. The Wrights were pioneers in one particular; they caused the first airplane passenger fatality, [Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Selfridge). ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/56 "2008-05-12T02:46:15Z")
Eh, it’s just a rip-off of, “Hot Wheels: World Race and Acceleracers” All of the properties are owned by Mattel after all. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/57 "2008-05-12T03:11:33Z")
[QUOTE=mswas] Eh, it’s just a rip-off of, “Hot Wheels: World Race and Acceleracers” All of the properties are owned by Mattel after all. 😉 [/QUOTE] It’s more that that, and if you’d seen it, you wouldn’t say that. and if you HAVE seen it and still deem it so, then I have to say you’re a stodgy old butt that seeks nothing but dialogue from your movies. That’s fine. THIS movie is an EXPERIENCE like a ride at Six Flags…love it or hate it ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/58 "2008-05-12T06:35:27Z")
My problem with the cartoon was that I couldn’t get past the voiceover actors. They read the script like it was their first run-through and their only direction was “read these words in this order as fast as possible.” There was never even natural inflection to indicate the type of sentence (declaration? question? exclamation?) that it was. Just a sort of nonstop diarrhea of words with no cadence or meaning. It infuriated me even as a child to the point where I couldn’t even try to pay attention to the plot. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/59 "2008-05-12T13:25:56Z")
In any event, “Speed Racer” ISN’T universally panned; the reviews aren’t good, but it’s getting at least a few props. Its Tomatometer rating was 32 as of last night, which is terrible, but certainly not even in the bottom 250 Tomato-rated films. Compare it to, say, “Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever.” ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775/60 "2008-05-12T14:48:06Z")
[QUOTE=MacTech] Yahoo dot com has the first seven minutes of the film up, on their video section, I watched it out of morbid curiosity… it was about six minutes and fifty-five seconds too long for me, it was all there, retina-melting colors, repetitive dialog, and snap-cuts quick enough to give you whiplash, it was also very repetitive, and to make matters worse it was even repetetive, when it wasn’t being repetetive, that is and yes, the editing looked like it was done by crack-addicted meth addicts on speed… and to make matters worse, it was repetetive, I don’t think I mentioned that yet… [/QUOTE] And it was redundant, too. A worse crime. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-speed-racer-when-a-movie-is-panned-by-all-critics-did-we-just-not-get-it/448775.md?page=4)