Comments on: Oops! Speed Racer DVD Not as Promised

By: Dan Coyle

Dan Coyle — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:35:03 +0000

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.

By: Ralf Haring

Ralf Haring — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:46:35 +0000

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.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:18:39 +0000

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

By: Chris G.

Chris G. — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:14:32 +0000

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.

By: Paul Sizer

Paul Sizer — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:13:22 +0000

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!

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:01:19 +0000

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

By: Chris G.

Chris G. — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:49:18 +0000

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.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:29:35 +0000

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.

By: Nat Gertler

Nat Gertler — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 03:30:53 +0000

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)

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 03:11:05 +0000

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.