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The Skids Are Alright

In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I was not a loyal viewer of the 60s animated series "Speed Racer". Nevertheless, I do appreciate its pop cultural influences, particularly when it comes to the introduction of anime - and that catchy "Go Speed Racer Go" theme song - to Western audiences. So it was with fresh eyes that I sat down to watch the Wachowski brothers' candy-colored, CGI-laden visualization of the series, their first feature film since the end of the "Matrix" trilogy. "Speed Racer" originated in Japan as a manga comic by Tatsuo Yoshida. It was adapted as an anime series called "Mach GoGoGo" which came to American audiences in the late 60s with a new name and Western voices. Now that the Wachowskis have adapted the story for the big screen (and even bigger budget), I can't help but feel that something has gotten lost in translation.

The film is set in an unspecified futuristic landscape that appears to be made of nothing but shiny, primary-colored structures (it's as if Dr. Seuss designed the sets for "Blade Runner"). The brothers use the now-familiar digital technique of filming their cast against a green screen and filling in the scenery later. The primary color trick has been tried before, perhaps most famously in Warren Beatty's own comic adaptation, 1990's lethargic "Dick Tracy". "Speed" looks more like the kind of glossy, CGI world that Robert Rodriguez churned out in his "Spy Kids" trilogy, with a little "Tron" thrown in during the racing scenes.

Like the cartoon, the film follows young Speed Racer, a budding car enthusiast who's an artist behind the wheel. In a bravura opening sequence, the Wachowskis cross-cut between young Speed (Nicholas Elia) getting his first driving lessons from older brother Rex, and teen Speed (Emile Hirsch, so good in "Into the Wild") zipping along a racetrack while haunted by the memory of Rex's fatal car crash. It's a bit of a change from the plot of the cartoon, and a nifty bit of storytelling that the rest of the film can't live up to.

Speed is surrounded by the support group familiar to fans of the series. Susan Sarandon and John Goodman have a ball playing Mom and Pops Racer. While youngest son Spritle (Paulie Litt) and his monkey Chim Chim are every bit as annoying as they were in the animated series. Christina Ricci, perhaps cast solely for having a face that appears to have been molded in anime style, fares well as Speed's g.f. Trixie, though she, like most of the cast, is given nothing of note to do.

Once you get over the fact that the family is actually named Racer, the plot revolves around Speed facing off against the evil Royalton Industries, whose CEO is played with malevolent relish by Roger Allam (taking big bites out of the CGI scenery). As he does in the series, Speed must join forces with the mysterious, masked Racer X, played by an oddly-cast Matthew Fox. As fans of TV's "Lost" already know, Mr. Fox doesn't do "mysterious". Looking a bit like Ben Affleck in "Daredevil", Mr. Fox stifles his usual grin and adopts his lowest growl, making it clear that the Wachowskis surely would have given this role to Hugo Weaving twenty years ago.

As was apparent in the more recent "Matrix" movies, the Wachowski's considerable visual flair does not translate to the written word. Even working in a comic milieu there are a few groan-inducing scenes in their script - most notably a painful flirtation between Speed and Trixie that's second only to the Anakin and Padme affair in "Attack of the Clones". But the Wachowskis know that audiences are coming to see Speed race, and they create eye-popping racing scenes that are as unique and thrilling as anything they've done. While it might not be as life-changing as the first time you saw "bullet time" in "The Matrix", it's still a visual feast.

If only there were anything at all at stake in the film. There is plenty of balletic car-on-car action, which is completely bloodless thanks to some kind of life-saving foam called "kwik-save". Cars flip and fly around (in a technique the brothers have named "car-fu") with the kind of grace that would have made Neo proud. But since virtually the entire film is...well...virtual, there's almost no sense of depth or gravity to the proceedings. After a while, the whole thing feels like an extended pod-race scenes from "The Phantom Menace". "Extended" is the key word, since "Speed" is too long by about a half hour. For something called "Speed Racer", it sure takes a while to cross the finish line.