Ok So I downloaded SpeedRacer from Xboxlive the other day.
I figured why not, at the very least I will grab a few animation tips from the overly cartoony cg Race scenes. What I got was a lesson in some of the most creative Directing, editing and film making to come in a long time. The cuts from scene to scene are artistic in thier own right, the zooming in, overlaying of characters, are all original, and unique. No question the editor of this movie had to have ha a background in animation just to keep up. Forget about, for a minute, the drama behind the Wachowskis, forget the weirdness, the claim that they didnt write the Matrix, forget any of that. These Guys are geniuses, and in my eyes, whether they wrote Matrix or not, they are the only ones who couldve pulled that off.
SpeedRacer as most of you guys know is an adaptation of the 60's anime of the same name. The show shocked kids and family alike for its unusually real consequences, but goofy dialogue. Mobsters ran the tracks, Corruption, dudes got shot. Its made for a weird cartoon, and even weirder live action movie adaption. The scenery and actors have this gleem to them, very robotic and fake, but I say that in realest way possible. Almost like the Duracell family commercials, but just like the show, they deal with these real world dilemmas.
Things like Speeds older brother dying, race drivers being tortured by the mob to lose races, and Giant corrupt Corporations that control and fix races so they can control the markets. All of this has this very surreal uneasy feeling it gives you, but it works! I have no doubt in my mind this was all intentional. Its the same surreal feeling you got when you watched the first Ninja Turtle movie.
Here comes the turtles all smiling and happy with their pizza, like the show, then BAM, Master Splinter is bloody ,sweaty, chained to a fence, and one of the turtles is dying in a tub. LIKE MAN.
what happened here!
The acting runs the gambit of grounded and heartfelt (John Goodman) to the incredibly stale and fail (Christina Ricci). Which was probably unintentional and does hurt the film a bit, but that's all immediately forgotten once a race starts. The intense colors will make your eyes bleed, and the imaginative way to which the drivers use their cars as weapons has never been done before till this movie. The whole movie has this incredibly fake feel to it, explosions are colorful, the dirt that kicks up is incredibly cartoony, but the magic here is not that they are making you believe this world looks real, but that it feels REAL.
The Wachowskis didn't just create a simple movie tie in, they created a work of art, and possibly the next cult classic that will no doubt be shown in film classes for years to come.
Lets make sure people keep funding these guys'/gals' visions and pick up the DVD.
To all the non-believers, I have this to say:
TAKE THAT WEAK SHIT OFF MY TRACK.
Word
BoMToons
I loved it also, I can't believe some of the bad reviews it got...seems like a lot of the intentional acting, directorial, and visual choices went over the heads of a lot of critics.
I also agree that Christina Ricci was bucketfulls of FAIL.