Oops! Speed Racer DVD Not as Promised

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September 23, 2008

Speed Racer came out on DVD last week, and one of the promised bonus features on the Blu-Ray version was a digital copy of the film. The box packaging said that it was Mac-compatible and would work with iTunes, but somewhere along the line, a mistake was made, and the disc only had a Windows Media version on it.

Now, Warner Bros. has set up a form for users to request an iTunes redemption code. It’s a shame the mistake was made in the first place, but good for them for making it easy for customers to get what they were promised.

As for the movie, I really like Emile Hirsch, but it sounded as though the fast-paced visuals in this entry would give me a headache.

10 Responses

Adam writes:

September 23, 2008 at 11:11 pm

Add this issue to the one hardcore Blu-Ray users have with Warner Bros opting to not include a lossless TrueHD audio track (i.e. the audio is not up to snuff with the crisp video).

As for the movie itself, I actually enjoyed it. It’s clear why the movie didn’t do well… it’s 2 hours and 15 min long and it’s too talky for a children’s movie. But it’s worth checking out. The racing visuals remind me of the old Nintendo 64 game F-Zero 64.

Nat Gertler writes:

September 23, 2008 at 11:30 pm

I thought the film was exactly what a feature film-length live action Speed Racer should be. Very Speed Racery.

Whether that was a good idea for an expensive, mass-market film, that’s another question. It probably wasn’t worth spending hundreds of millions on… but it was worth the $8 I spent!

–Nat (childhood Speed Racer fan, and former writer of Speed Racer comics and English script writer for Speed Racer manga)

Johanna writes:

September 24, 2008 at 7:29 am

That’s quite a recommendation, Nat. I probably should see it at some point. Just to see Susan Sarandon’s hairstyles, if nothing else. It was something of an odd choice for the marketing they used and the money they threw at it.

Chris G. writes:

September 24, 2008 at 8:49 am

My only real complaint with Speed Racer was its length — it’s about 25 minutes or so too long.

We let our eight-month-old daughter watch one of the race sequences. I think it blew her mind in the best sense of the phrase.

Johanna writes:

September 24, 2008 at 9:01 am

8 months old? Are they even seeing color at that age? Wowzers!

Paul Sizer writes:

September 24, 2008 at 10:13 am

SPEED RACER came in this summer as my “surprise hit”; I went in also expecting a headache and came out jazzed like an 8 year old! Yes, there is a lot to see, and the film could benefit from a good editing, but I loved it. The story was hokey and cartoony, but there were some nice “no bull/this is good, this is evil moments” that were really fun in a simple, kid like way without being dumbed down. In a summer with a hyper-emotionally complex film like “The Dark Knight”, SPEED RACER was a big dish of really good ice cream, with lots of CG sprinkles on top!

Chris G. writes:

September 24, 2008 at 8:14 pm

They can see color, but don’t distinguish shades or similar colors as well as they do once they’re older. They mostly respond to patterns and contrast, and there was plenty of that in the first race — at one point there’s an alternating black-and-white image pattern in the background that she really reacted to.

Johanna writes:

September 24, 2008 at 10:18 pm

Obviously, I’m going to have to check this movie out!

Ralf Haring writes:

September 24, 2008 at 10:46 pm

I was pleased with the movie. It was definitely a visual feast. The corniness felt honest and not hokey. The kid and the chimp could have been so very bad but were in it *just* enough.

Dan Coyle writes:

September 25, 2008 at 11:35 am

I’d recommend it as well. I’m not surprised it was a bomb, but it put a smile on my face, and a spring in my step, and it was better than the entirety of the Matrix trilogy.