Fanboys Not The Target Audience for ‘Speed Racer’?
Go Speed Racer Go Music Video
A new Speed Racer music video that riffs on the original theme song has been kicking around for a couple of days and the fanboys are grumbling about it. As you can see above, it’s corny as hell.
Is it possible that the creators of their beloved Matrix movies have truly made a movie for kids and families and not for the Internet crowd? It sure looks that way and I say: good. The people crying about it are the same ones for whom they keep making Alien vs. Predator movies. Suck it, losers. This is a corny cartoon, not holy scripture.
As soon as my brain finished forming, I realized the original cartoon was massively cheesy. Has everyone forgotten that? I thought that was one of the cartoon’s appeals and all indications are that the movie is going to remain incredibly true to that spirit, even with a few modern musical touches.
If Speed turns out to be a nostalgia trip for adults and a treat for their spawn, I think it’s a good thing. It still looks decidedly retro and I have to admit, the more I see, the more interested I am. As I’ve said before, it could turn out to to be a total disaster, but its heart seems to be in the right place. I’m just surprised people are expecting it to be any different.
Am I misreading the irritation over this video?
Filed under: Opinion
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Fanboys can be deluded. SPEED RACER is for kids, tho I’d point out there was nothing cheesy about the massive death and destruction of the cartoon. Remember, it’s Japanese. When cars crash, people die.
I’m glad the Wachowski’s are making this for children, not jaded man-children needing fart jokes. I’m on record as saying in the 80’s that the minute somebody pumped up the SR theme, it would be a dance hit. This version, not so much.
Anyway, it’s a cartoon with a monkey fer gawd’s sake. A monkey in striped over-alls who hides in car trunks!
I think there are two camps who are going to be annoyed by this movie: the purists for whom the original is an untouchable property and then the ones who want it modernized with cell phone and myspace references and fart jokes.
Warners better hope there’s a large audience of people in between. There are already rumors it’s going to get clobbered by that hideous looking Kutcher/Diaz romantic comedy, and of course Box Office is everything….
I just don’t get the idea that Kutcher/Diaz is going to pull in fanboys and families. Makes no sense at all. Parents will almost de facto take their kids in droves to a film suitable for them all, and SR is the film.
I think SPEED RACER looks visually stunning, an Expressionist action picture for kids. Sign me up.
I love that footage. Love it. The visuals are amazing. When was the last time a huge summer “event” movie had that level of visual imagination? This is why I continue to admire the Wachowski’s. No matter what type of film they make, they insist on taking risks. Bound was a neo-noir with a sexy twist, The Matrix was intelligent sci-fi that used Eastern and Western influences to provoke audiences intellectually, and now Speed Racer is a family movie that looks to have some of the most stylized and outrageous visuals we’ve seen from a major, CGI-driven entertainment. Isn’t it a good thing when filmmakers take chances?
Also, I’ve read the screenplay. It’s quite good. It’s very sweet and funny and exciting. If people want something serious from a movie titled “Speed Racer”, then they should skip it. It’s not a character study. It’s not The Matrix. It’s not dark in any way. On the page it reads like a live version of a Pixar film. And I think if the Wachowski’s delivers on the promise of the script, then it could be something special like The Incredibles.
I wish the race scenes didn’t look quite so impossible — the Mach 5 bounced around a lot in the cartoons, but race tracks that involve LOOPS? Other than that, I’m good to go.
I don’t know Harvey, I haven’t seen the cartoon in years and years, but my memory of it is as crazy as those clips. I’m not saying it WAS…I’m just saying that’s how the kid inside of me remembers it.
I don’t know a thing about Speed Racer but I’m glad at this turn of events, too. My brother’s girlfriend is one of those militant fangirl purists that can’t enjoy anything that deviates at all from the original. I say if the Brothers Wachowski can take a cheese cartoon and make something fresh and salable and not too soul-crushing out of it, fantastic. You’re right; it’s not scripture. That purist crap really annoys the hell out of me. Let the kiddies and families enjoy it if they can. But jeez, I hope there are no fart jokes. I know kids don’t get tired of them, but the rest of us do.
Spare me the fart and barf jokes and pop-cultural references. I’m prepared for some good, innocent fun. The kind of thing where a character can say “gee whiz” and it sounds just right.