DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Speed Racer the Next Generation: The Beginning

By Jeff Swindoll May 8, 2008, 11:29 GMT

With the big screen version coming out this summer, it’s not surprising that some people are trying to rev up the next generation’s motors for Speed Racer. However, this new series doesn’t seem to have the charm that original did and will probably leave fans of the show cold.

Speed Racer disappeared under mysterious circumstances years ago. However, a new kid named Speed (Kurt Csolak) shows up at Racing Academy. Speed is an orphan, but has dreamed about attending the famed academy for as long as he can remember. The academy was founded by the Speed family and Spritle (Peter Fernandez, the voice actor from the original series), Speed Racer’s brother, is the headmaster.

Speed arrives and finds that he’s lacking a car and the funds to get one up and running. He makes friends with the studious Lucy (Sahra Mellesse) and the Speed Racer obsessed mechanic Conor (Carter Jackson). Conor has even built a robot called Chim-Chim in honor of the chimp that Spritle used to have (in the original series). Speed faces competition from the school’s racing champ X (Robbie Sublett). When he finds the legendary Mach 5 disassembled in a junk yard and his team reassembles it he also gets the attention of the villainous Zile Zazic (Dave Skigen), the main sponsor of the academy. Ziles gets his daughter Annalise (Michal Friedman), who is also X’s girlfriend, to make sure that Speed faces some dangers on the track not only just the competition of X. Speed also discovers some secrets about his past and his connection to the Racer family. Speed Racer: The Next Generation is an attempt to introduce the new generation to Speed and I guess that the big screen movie opening soon didn’t hurt things either. I suppose the elder generation (aka the original show in the 60s) did have a certain charm about it. It was the first successful crossover of Japanese animation and we can thank it for opening that avenue up to American audiences.

However, this new version seems a little too juvenile and somewhat poorly computer animated. I thought the original show had more of a “soul” and this one seems really cookie cutter to me. I guess the poor animation was what offended me most. This version is definitely aimed at the very youngest generation (it did air in Nicktoons) and I think that only they might enjoy the show. I can’t see the generation that liked the 60s show (now all grown up) liking this one, even with the presence of Peter Fernandez. Speed Racer: The Next Generation is presented in fullscreen. Special features include the 10 minute “Making of Speed Racer: The Next Generation,” a rather simple “virtual track racing game,” text bios of the characters, and a trailer gallery. It will entertain the youngest race fans in your garage, but don’t expect much from it. The whole affair seems to have been greenlighted to cash in on the big screen version. It has the feel of being rushed into production to do so as well since the animation seemed pretty poor to me. This one stalled and I couldn’t get it to start again.

Speed Racer the Next Generation: The Beginning is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.

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