

I love to watch movies.  For today, as it is a special day, we watched Speed Racer the movie.

At first, I thought that it wasn’t a cool movie.  I really didn’t grow up watching the Speed Racer cartoons back in the early 80s.. but my honey was so fond of it that it made him curious as to how the movie would be presented.

How it put a blush in my cheeks

One thing is worth noting about the movie.  It was ultimately colorful!  Much like it was in 512bit color palette.. or maybe even more! :D I admired a lot about that movie, and it made me happy (maybe I was just soaked in frustration because I didn’t get much of my expectation from Iron Man the movie).

The cinematography captured a lot of the seventies lifestyle.  The clothing of the characters were not at all totally seventies (as there were no belly bottoms), but the ambiance, setting and even hair styles depict them all.  Everything was adjusted to high contrasting colors in that movie.  It was ridiculous looking at first, but somehow throughout the movie and towards the juiciest parts, you wouldn’t notice how your eyes were slowly adjusted to the colors.

It was fun.. almost like watching the cartoon version (as my honey said).  They were able to capture the distinct characteristic of the scene transitions as it were in the cartoon.  In my opinion, it was really great because even the "boring" story-telling parts of the scene didn’t become so boring at all!  Instead of a bland i-kinda-remember-this-part-of-my-life aspect, you get to see the overlapping of the scenes were the actual people and setting involved is in the same frame as the current scenario.  Somehow, it looked like one big cartoon, but I do believe it helped in the development of a story background without sacrificing the best parts of the show.

Christina Ricci was the leading lady of Speed Racer.  Did you know that without consulting Wikipedia?  Well, I didn’t.  It took us the whole stretch of the two and a half hour movie to find out that it was Christina!  Wouldn’t you have thought that the lady who usually starred in gloomy films would be a lead cast in a fun-filled movie like this?  I think it was a great turn of surprise for the casts themselves.

There was a monkey and a kid (their youngest) who provided with the cheap laughs that I bought.  It kinda had this cheap joke that was surprisingly amusing.  Even at the times when it almost appeared serious, and crucial for the family in the story, there would always be a twist of laugh in the end.  The monkey was really sleek in his stunts.  It was really hard to tell that he was just trained to do those things, imho. ;)

And last, but not the least of my favorite parts, was the fight along the undocumented area during their long crusade (together with Racer X).  The almost impossible slow motion, yet 3d effects of their fight was added some swoosh of colors to every move was one of the things that was really awesome.  Best for me was the wonderful play of colors in the tunnel.  Oh, I really love that scene!

Cinematography, effects, plot, casting and the whole story was great.  Except for a few kicks I just can’t brush off..

  • How come everyone in the movie knows how to create/fix cars?
  • All them too knew karate/kung fu.. funny
  • The racing cars were too advanced, yes, but how do you know that you can switch to the fifth gear at a certain time to boost the machine?  Whatever wikipedia source was used for that?! :P
Its a two thumbs up The whole movie was fun, actually.  Its going to be one of those I wanna buy as part of my collection.  Somehow, the factory reminded me of the pictures in the "Cat in a hat" and "Charlie  and the Chocolate factory".  :) So, if ever you’re doubting whether this movie would just cost you a few bucks, well I tell you, its worth the money and the time.  Take my word for it, then judge it for yourself.  You won’t regret it. :)