I have always been a big fan of Speed Racer. For all intents and purposes, it was the first cartoon I ever saw when I was a child. Speed Racer was also the first time I was exposed to death and life and death drama. I remember Speed Racer being violent, but in a sublime way. Usually every other driver in the race (besides Speed) died in some horrible, yet offscreen fashion; like flying off a cliff, or being buried alive in a mountain, or consumed by lava. Although the deaths were rarely shown, my imagination filled in the gaps.

From what I have seen of the Speed Racer movie, via the showing of the first seven minutes free (on Yahoo), is that the Wachowski bros. (*now brother and sister) captured the spirit of Speed Racer. Ironically, the quirk I have with what I saw is with the CGI. Everything looks FAKE. It does not look “Hyper-real” as others have stated. It looks like if Speed Racer was made via a movie of the week special. More Specifically, look at the CGI for the “Spy Kids” movies and then look at Speed Racer again. You will notice that they look very similar, however ALL of the Spy Kids movies were made for less than 1/2 of the cost of Speed Racer (reported at $200 million).

Speed Racer’s biggest problem is that it’s too long (over two hours) and that the Speed Racer Cartoon originally aired in the SIXTIES. Yes, I know of the failed “re-imagining” Speed Racer t.v. series in the 90’s, but that also might as well have been in the sixties. It is obvious that this Speed Racer movie exists solely as a tribute/love film made by the Wachowski bros, and that’s fine, but why in the hell did it have to cost $200 million freakin’ dollars.

Iron Man Clobbered Speed Racer on Friday; Iron Man made $15 million just on Friday, to Speed Racer’s $6 million. Speed Racer has only one week before it’s forgotten when the new Indiana Jones movie comes out. After that, they might as well just release it on dvd immediately.