Just saw Speed Racer

[TV-VCR 15]

Man, if you've seen the original cartoons this is a must. I friggin' loved it. It's like they took the original series and put life into it. I also loved how they brought back a ton of stuff from the original series. Sure, the story is silly and there are the requisite two lessons for children. All the shots with the parents could have been replaced with a dialog card so far as I care. But this is highly cinematic in a fine-grained sense. The effects were amazing too. And, heck, they integrated them into the film so to speak... I can't describe it, you'd just have to watch the last part of the film with the grand prix.

 The Wachowski bros. nailed it, it was very loyal to the anime.

Anyone else seen it? If you haven't really seen the cartoons from the 1960's it won't make much sense though and also make you feel like you're taking drugs or something.

[Zelgadis 638]

I saw it too. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about it right now, but I am very pleased they didn't do it as a conventional Hollywood movie. It would definitely have been god-awful if they had done that.

How does one describe it? Well, it's a CG anime featuring live human characters. Definitely odd. But subject matter like Speed Racer demands odd. Did they do it right? Honestly, I don't know. But they didn't do it wrong, and that's saying something.

ISF

[Hamish 1,370]

I've only seen the trailers for it, but it reminded me of need for speed carbon. With the computer generated images and the real people. But set in a more futuristic setting.

[Duke87 1,070]

Haven't seen it, don't want to.

Why? Because I know from experience that anime is best left to the Japanese. You'd be hard pressed to find a dub of something anime that isn't in some way ruined. And that's just dubs. New stuff ("Amerime") is worse.... and now this is Hollywood going to theaters with such things. I completely shudder at the thought.

Somehow, I don't think it would be physically possible for that movie to not suck. It fails (dare I say, "phails") the instant it hits the drawing board because there is a fatal flaw in the concept: it's not coming from Japan.

Hollywood can't do Japanese anime any more than Sudan can do French wine. With anything cultural, production of it is best left to the culture it hails from, period. Otherwise, the result is never pleasant. (Consumption of it, on the other hand, can be done by anyone without negative impact.)

[Explodingsims 3]

I don't know about this one, It looks bad, but has a certain air of intrest about it....I'll probabbly just rent it.

There seems to be something sacreligious about remaking the horribly animated cartoon that we all loved....

[TV-VCR 15]

Originally posted by: Duke87 Haven't seen it, don't want to.

Why? Because I know from experience that anime is best left to the Japanese. You'd be hard pressed to find a dub of something anime that isn't in some way ruined. And that's just dubs. New stuff ("Amerime") is worse.... and now this is Hollywood going to theaters with such things. I completely shudder at the thought.

Somehow, I don't think it would be physically possible for that movie to not suck. It fails (dare I say, "phails") the instant it hits the drawing board because there is a fatal flaw in the concept: it's not coming from Japan.

Hollywood can't do Japanese anime any more than Sudan can do French wine. With anything cultural, production of it is best left to the culture it hails from, period. Otherwise, the result is never pleasant. (Consumption of it, on the other hand, can be done by anyone without negative impact.)quote>

It's not anime, it's not an anime turned into a live action, and it's certainly not dubbed. It does however, follow closely to the aspects of the original anime. It's kinda like an American remake of something from Japan so to say, like The Ring.

[Cornish terrorist 1]

The trailer made it look like BURNOUT THE MOVIE.

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

It's already being called the biggest bomb of the summer, and is expected to make only $50 million or so when it's tallied up. It cost $200 million to make, and further tarnishes the Wachowski Bros reputation in Hollywood. We probably won't hear much from them again soon.

To me, the original series was so impossibly bad, I couldn't imagine anyone making it into a big-budget movie (I admit, I am not an anime fan). They've been kicking this movie around in various incarnations for 20 years, and Johnny Depp was considered for the lead at one point. I'll bet they wish they had kicked it around a while longer, and maybe had Spielberg direct.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Looks way too much like a vidio game.

[Joetropian1 1]

So far, in the trailers at least, I don't like it.

JT1

[skyliner22 16]

I went in and sat for like 5 minutes after watching Ironman, and it looks really bad....Like DUKE says, anything created in Japan brought over here is bad news. I wish the Japanese created a Speed Racer live action movie instead...HK also does well with live action like it did for Initial D..I am not much of an anime person but yea American remakes suck!

[jacqulina 162]

i didnt like it at all

[Ded 30]

I've read the reviews... I'm staying well away until it airs for free on television...

[Explodingsims 3]

I saw, because my friend got us free tickets. It wasn't that great. It did have an easy to follow plot, mainly because it was a kids movie.

I would recommend waiting for it to be free on TV, or to come out on rental. It was very colorful though...

[Patricius Maximus 236]

Originally posted by: manticorefan It's already being called the biggest bomb of the summer, and is expected to make only $50 million or so when it's tallied up. It cost $200 million to make, and further tarnishes the Wachowski Bros reputation in Hollywood. We probably won't hear much from them again soon.

To me, the original series was so impossibly bad, I couldn't imagine anyone making it into a big-budget movie (I admit, I am not an anime fan). They've been kicking this movie around in various incarnations for 20 years, and Johnny Depp was considered for the lead at one point. I'll bet they wish they had kicked it around a while longer, and maybe had Spielberg direct.quote>

 

If it was a bomb, it certainly was a dud (although I can't see how they could waste $100,000,000 on this thing).

[Joesocwork 4]

The Magistrate took our son to see it and really liked it and thinks I would like it too. I shied away b/c of the reviews. My son apparently loved the racing scenes.