DVD REVIEW: SPEED RACER – THE COMPLETE CLASSIC SERIES

STUDIO: Lions Gate
MSRP: $35.99
RATED: Not rated
RUNNING TIME: 1288 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• The History of Speed Racer
• Making The New Speed Racer: The Next Generation
• Speed Racer: The Next Generation Episode 4: Low Price of Fame
• Racer Profiles

The Pitch

Here he comes, here comes Speed Racer.  He’s a demon on wheels.  He’s a demon and he’s gonna be chasin’ after someone…with a monkey in the trunk usually.

The Humans

Peter Fernandez (Speed Racer, Racer X), Corinne Orr (Trixie, Spritle, Mom Racer), Jack Grimes (Chim-Chim, Sparky), Jack Curtis (Pops Racer).

The Nutshell

Speed Racer is about the titular hero who aspires to be a world-class race car driver and races all over the world in his one-of-a-kind hot rod, the Mach 5.  There’s danger at every turn and Speed needs to rely on his nerve, skill, and the Mach 5’s gadgets in order to survive.  With the help of his father, Pops Racer, friends Trixie, Spritle, Chim-Chim (who’s a monkey by the way), and the mysterious Racer X, Speed races for his life.

The Lowdown

There were two Anime cartoons I watched in my childhood: Speed Racer and Battle of the Planets.  One still fills me with that occasional feeling of wonder and excitement I had as a kid, and always nostalgia.  One has music that I’ve kept in my head for thirty years and is still possibly my all-time favorite cartoon.  Unfortunately, the other is Speed Racer.  I know I used to watch this cartoon.  I remember driving my mother crazy, running around singing the theme song till I collapsed in exhaustion.  I know I loved it.  But that was three decades ago.  I hadn’t seen a full episode in almost the entirety of that span.  Now when I try to recapture that feeling I had back in the day, it’s gone. 

I’m well aware of the fanbase this show has going for it, but Speed Racer is an incredibly childish toon that hasn’t held up well over the last 40 years.  Although the show is peppered with colorful villains and lots of racing action, its strictly a product of its time period.  It’s fraught with tiresome recapping dialogue, diversionary characters like Spritle and Chim-Chim, and plots that occasionally border on the asinine.  When
you can scarcely distinguish the intelligence level of Pops versus
Spritle as they’re written at times, that’s generally not a good sign.

As the hero, Speed was a sort of prototype for many Anime and toon heroes to follow.  He was a young man who loved racing and was achingly galant and kind-hearted, who cared deeply about his friends and family.  However, he wouldn’t hesitate to knock a dude out who threatened him, his friends or his car.  Although Speed generally didn’t go looking for danger, he would frequently make questionable decisions, such as needing to bring the evildoers to justice, even though he’s in the middle of a race. 

Speed is actually the most tolerable of the characters.  The rest of the supporting cast are frequently portrayed as characters of questionable judgment at best and sheer morons at worst.  Take for instance, Trixie, in the laughably bad episode, “The Car Hater,” who lets a girl, Janine, whom she just met, drive the Mach 5 without asking Speed nor even telling him.  Pops is frequently portrayed as a loudmouth and a hothead, yet occasionally mumbles like Popeye.  Of course this is nothing when measuring them against both Spritle and Chim Chim, both of whom are absolutely cringe-worthy.  Their buffoonish antics make you want to fast forward the second you see them.

Some
of Speed Racer’s hallmarks were the quick speaking, which writer Peter
Fernandez, who scripted the episodes, tried to accommodate the quick
mouth movements that the original Mach GoGoGo cartoon had when they
were in Japanese.  A typical episode would have speed in some perilous
race against an opponent with some kind of gimmick or upper hand.  One of the more memorable being the Mammoth Car, which was a snakelike 200-yard-long
behemoth used to smuggle stolen gold “The Race Against the Mammoth Car.”  Other episodes include “Challenge of the Masked Racer,” where Speed is determined to best a mysterious racer in a mask, who is of course Racer X. 

“The Most Dangerous Race” is a three-parter where Speed is involved in the Big Alpine Race with shoddy breaks and a slight loss of vision.  And the aforementioned “The Car Hater” has speed dealing with Janine’s father, Mr. Turner, who hates all cars since his son bought it in one.  He has a penchant for riding a horse and damaging cars, including the Mach 5 with his whip.  Later he hires three goons to sabotage people’s cars to cause accidents.  When one of those accidents claims Janine, he has to rely on Speed and Trixie to get her to a hospital (of course on a side note, Trixie and Janine should have been street pizza in the crash).  And speaking of crashes, I do have to give props for the copious lethal fender benders that are summarily dismissed each episode.

The animation of Speed Racer ranges from bad to innovative, with much of it recycled per episode.  Although there was that definitive style that surely influenced succeeding Anime and was at times almost cinematic in execution.  Speed Racer most certain to appeal to young kids or thirtysomethings who worship it for the nostalgia.  I remember as a kid wanting to own the Mach 5 almost as much as the Millennium Falcon.  Nevertheless, while the premise of Speed Racer is definitely original, in comparison to its contemporaries such as Johnny Quest, The Flintstones or even Scooby Doo, Where Are You, it comes up lacking. 

I will give credit that the show does look much better than I would have thought for a 40-year-old cartoon.  While there is noticeable grain, the episodes are much clearer than one would expect.  However, if they have been remastered, this is probably as good as they’re ever going to get.  By comparison, I can’t ever seem to find a good-looking copy of Battle of the Planets.  Sound is also mostly fine, but tends to drop out here and there.  This is a six-disc offering in a pretty snazzy heavy tin shaped like the Mach 5 with a sturdy cardboard booklet that holds the DVDs. 

All 52 episodes are on the first five discs, with the special features on Disc 6 and racer profiles on Disc 1.  The History of Speed Racer is a 10-minute retrospective of the show’s origins and how it was adapted from the Japanese Manga into Mach GoGoGo to Speed Racer.  Likewise, Making the New Speed Racer: The Next Generation runs 10 minutes and covers the production of the new 2-D / 3-D cartoon.  An episode of that show, “Low Price of Fame” is included also.  Doubtless that Speed Racer diehards would have wanted some commentaries by Peter Fernandez and probably the original Japanese language track.