Speed Racer Trailer...

[somunny]

Not good, IMO.  It's got that "Tim Burton's Charlie and The Chocolate Factory" look and I despised that movie.

http://www.cinematical.com/2007/12/06/first-look-speed-racer-trailer/

[boykster]

I don't mind the look, and actually liked Tim Burtons re-imagination of the Choco factory, but I'm not sure this is going to be pretty......live action Speed Racer movie?.......

[RTSDaddy2]

Never really a fan of the series, I can only say "Hmmmmmmmmmmm...." about the trailer.

I like the idea of John Goodman as the father though -excellent casting there.  While I never liked "Roseanne,"  Goodman has proven himself to be a great character actor, IMHO.

The first few seconds had me thinking it looks like a turkey waiting to flop - yet I can see why the directors would have gone with the bright, solid color backgrounds (it was a cartoon, after all).....and from that, now I'm kind of interested in seeing the whole thing.

Those backgrounds remind me of some other comic to movie translation, but for the life of me I've forgotten what it was - maybe Dick Tracy?

[shardian]

Holy hell that looks awful!

This picture below pretty much sums up how BAD this will be:


Yes, that is Matthew Fox in the Retarded Racer X costume (It's like the Daredevil costume...but worse). Yes, that is a horrible makeup job on the Speed Racer guy. And finally yes, Speed Racer is actually wearing a MF ascot.

[CCM]

hmmm, looks like a live action version of the cartoon.  I'm guessing if you liked the cartoon, you'll probably like the movie.

[AtomSmasher]

hmmm, looks like a live action version of the cartoon.  I'm guessing if you liked the cartoon, you'll probably like the movie.

One thing thats pretty neat that they did to help it look more like a cartoon is they developed (or at least the first to use) a new type of camera that will keep everything on screen in focus.  So distant scenery should remain in focus even while their doing a closeup of something else.

[ahofle]

Wow, is it me or did those obviously CGI racing scenes look worse than the gamecube version of FZero? 

[shardian]

hmmm, looks like a live action version of the cartoon.  I'm guessing if you liked the cartoon, you'll probably like the movie.

One thing thats pretty neat that they did to help it look more like a cartoon is they developed (or at least the first to use) a new type of camera that will keep everything on screen in focus.  So distant scenery should remain in focus even while their doing a closeup of something else.

hehe, obviously you haven't seen the trailer or screen stills. The car is in focus, some random portion of a building and skyline is in focus, but the track is just a bunch of blurry ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

[AtomSmasher]

hmmm, looks like a live action version of the cartoon.  I'm guessing if you liked the cartoon, you'll probably like the movie.

One thing thats pretty neat that they did to help it look more like a cartoon is they developed (or at least the first to use) a new type of camera that will keep everything on screen in focus.  So distant scenery should remain in focus even while their doing a closeup of something else.

hehe, obviously you haven't seen the trailer or screen stills. The car is in focus, some random portion of a building and skyline is in focus, but the track is just a bunch of blurry ---Cleveland steamer---.

Well I think the majority of the car scenes are done in cgi, so that wouldn't take a new type of camera to put into focus.  I have watched the trailer and I didn't see any evidence of the new camera, but supposedly they did use it.

[Zero_Hour]

I was a HUGE Speed Racer fan when I was a kid (watched it on the local UHF station in the 70's). I cringed when I heard they were attempting a live action version of it. I just saw the trailer last night. If the whole movie compares to the trailer, I will absolutely love it.

Seriously, the over the top melodrama? The Cars that completely ignore the laws of physics and good design? The Nonsensical Race Tracks? The complete hokeyness of it all? This is what Speed Racer was all about. Hell even Racer X* is placing prominently in the story. I can't complain about much except it seems like Sparky got 86'd out of this go round. Looks like a good excuse to eat some popcorn and forget about the real world for an afternoon.

Your Mileage May Vary. 






*Unknown to Speed, Racer X is secretly his older brother, Rex, who ran away from home years ago!

[somunny]

hmmm, looks like a live action version of the cartoon.  I'm guessing if you liked the cartoon, you'll probably like the movie.

How do you explain Dick Tracy?

[TOK]

Even though I liked that they kept the look of the cartoon, I just have to say CGI has pretty much killed the car movie. Computer car stunts always look fake no matter how good the CGI models are. They just don't move right.
This looks like an extremely bad example, since the races appear to be cut scenes from a GameCube game. They should have used real cars done up to look like the MACH 5, etc.

[Zero_Hour]

hmmm, looks like a live action version of the cartoon.  I'm guessing if you liked the cartoon, you'll probably like the movie.

How do you explain Dick Tracy?

You Know someone who actually liked the comic?

[shardian]

hmmm, looks like a live action version of the cartoon.  I'm guessing if you liked the cartoon, you'll probably like the movie.

How do you explain Dick Tracy?

You Know someone who actually liked the comic?

I loved the Dick Tracy movie...but I was a little kid. I also had the totally badass Dick Tracy Game watch. I wish I still had that thing.

[somunny]

hmmm, looks like a live action version of the cartoon.  I'm guessing if you liked the cartoon, you'll probably like the movie.

How do you explain Dick Tracy?

You Know someone who actually liked the comic?

I'm assuming that *someone* liked it.

[RTSDaddy2]

You need to pick up the old serial comics and read a Tracy story through from beginning to end....the comic is classic.

I'll second Sharidan, though I've got a feeling I'm a bit older if he was just a kid when it came out....but I loved that movie also.  That's why I say, despite the hideous costumes, the movie itself MIGHT be ok in the long run.  Until release, still keeping an open mind....

[btp2k2]

There is a word that comes to mind.....what is that word I am thinking about....Hmmmmm......









Ah yes! I remember...


LAME!

[ErikRuud]

It appears (at least to me) that about half the racing scenes in the trailer are taking place in some sort of virtual reality race that Speed is competing in.  The car in those scenes is #6 not number 5.  It also appears to have Bat Mobile style turbine exhaust.

The rest appears to be an attempt to mimic the look of the original cartoon where a lot of the racing scenes had stylized backgrounds.


Possible Spoiler if you know nothing about Speed Racer
The Racer X costume does look bad in that shot.  At least he won't be running around with the great big red 'M' on his chest like he did in the cartoon.  I could never figure out why no one questioned why "the Mysterious racer X who is secretly Speed's older brother" would have the logo from the hood of the Mach 5 on his chest.
[/color]

[BobA]

Info on the Speed Racer vehicle being shown at the North American Auto Show in Detroit.

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9845203-1.html

[Ed_McCarron]

yes, Speed Racer is actually wearing a MF ascot.

It worked for Fred.  You know he was in the basement bonking Daphne while Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby were doing all the work.

[somunny]

I can't think of one cartoon series based, live-action movie that was worth a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.  Of course, like everything, it all boils down to one's personal opinion.

[Howard_Casto]

I think the main problem with this film is it looks like 70's anime, which in all honesty was pretty crappy and barely a step above astroboy from the 50's.  Of course if you were to change the visual style, then it wouldn't be speed racer anymore.  And then there's the fact that the show never had any plot.  Speed races, his dad yells at him, the little boy and monkey stow away in the trunk, racer X is his brother.... there I've saved you 7 bucks. 

[somunny]

I think the main problem with this film is it looks like 70's anime, which in all honesty was pretty crappy and barely a step above astroboy from the 50's.  Of course if you were to change the visual style, then it wouldn't be speed racer anymore.  And then there's the fact that the show never had any plot.  Speed races, his dad yells at him, the little boy and monkey stow away in the trunk, racer X is his brother.... there I've saved you 7 bucks. 

I completely agree.  Speed Racer is completely overrated in my opinion.  However, I do think there was some good anime from the 70's.  Starblazers had a pretty good ongoing plotline and Battle of the Planets (which I'm sure someone has in line for a live action movie adaptation) had some memorable episodes as far as I'm concerned.  Still, the animation for either of those shows doesn't hold up but, at this point, it's more about nostalgia anyway.

[Ed_McCarron]

racer X is his brother....

...


Racer X was Speed's brother?

Damn, that explains a lot.

[Howard_Casto]

I think the main problem with this film is it looks like 70's anime, which in all honesty was pretty crappy and barely a step above astroboy from the 50's.  Of course if you were to change the visual style, then it wouldn't be speed racer anymore.  And then there's the fact that the show never had any plot.  Speed races, his dad yells at him, the little boy and monkey stow away in the trunk, racer X is his brother.... there I've saved you 7 bucks. 

I completely agree.  Speed Racer is completely overrated in my opinion.  However, I do think there was some good anime from the 70's.  Starblazers had a pretty good ongoing plotline and Battle of the Planets (which I'm sure someone has in line for a live action movie adaptation) had some memorable episodes as far as I'm concerned.  Still, the animation for either of those shows doesn't hold up but, at this point, it's more about nostalgia anyway.

Battle of the Planets, smartly will have a cgi movie release sometime in 2009.  The creators of the film realized that the visual style wouldn't hold up to live action filming, so they intend to give the characters more realisim via hi-def cg, but maintain the over-all look of the show.  Also, because that show had a bit of a plot, they can get away with changing much more than they could on speedracer.  I doubt we are gonna see a little girl in a pink polyester dress and go-go boots wearing a duck helmet while flipping around and showing her grannie panties in the new film.  At least, dear god I hope we won't!

[ErikRuud]

I think the main problem with this film is it looks like 70's anime, which in all honesty was pretty crappy and barely a step above astroboy from the 50's.  Of course if you were to change the visual style, then it wouldn't be speed racer anymore.  And then there's the fact that the show never had any plot.  Speed races, his dad yells at him, the little boy and monkey stow away in the trunk, racer X is his brother.... there I've saved you 7 bucks. 

Part of the reason for this is that the American version of the show was dubbed by people that did not speak Japanese.  If I remember correctly, they did not have translations of the Japanese script.  I'll have to look at the documentary on the first DVD, but I think they got each episode with some sort of plot synopsis and then had a week to dub it in English.

By the way, Speed Racer was made in the 60's