“Excuse me, guys. I think your bird is beating up your monkey.” – Racing Academy student to Speed, Conor, and Lucy as the Mach 5’s homing robot bird tussles with Chim Chim the robot chimp
Speed Racer: The Next Generation: The Beginning DVD Review
By Cary James
In the late 1960s, kids tuning in to their local television were treated to an animated series unlike any they had ever seen before—Speed Racer—a Japanese import (originally titled Mach 5 Go Go Go) re-dubbed and edited for American audiences. With its stylized visuals, catchy theme song, and endless reruns (only 52 episodes were produced) the series virtually became imprinted into its young viewers’ hearts and minds. Subsequent years brought a few new incarnations of Speed and the gang to television and toy stores, and the Wachowski brothers’ (The Matrix trilogy) live-action retelling zooms onto the big screen in just a few weeks. No doubt counting on children of the original fans to buckle in for a ride of their own, the owners of the Speed Racer brand are launching a new animated series on Nicktoons, and the DVD of the first episode, Speed Racer: The Next Generation: The Beginning, will cross the finish line days before the live action version hits theatres.
The new series is set approximately forty years after we last saw the Racer clan. Formerly a beanie-wearing, rambunctious goofball, Spritle Racer is now all grown up and serving as headmaster of Racing Academy, an elite school that trains adolescents in all things racecar driving. Speed disappeared years ago, but his son, X, is the academy’s top driver. X has his inherited his father’s racing skills and fortune, but has also developed a holier-than-thou attitude. He hangs out with top racers Annalise Zazic, a snotty rich girl, and twin teammates Jared and Jesse, who, in addition to looking alike, seem to share ½ of a normal IQ.
As the new semester begins, a new student arrives. He is an orphan named Speed. He doesn’t know anything about his parents, except that when his father dropped him off at the orphanage, he left behind a red bandana and a car key for his son. Speed’s new roommate, nerdy mechanic Conor, worships the legendary Speed Racer, even going so far as to dress like him. With the help of ultra-focused Lucy, the three jumpstart orphan Speed’s racing career, discovering the roots of his identity along the way.
This follow-up has semi-likeable characters, bite sized nuggets of humor, and an interesting premise (Annalise’s father, Zile, is the owner of a large conglomerate that would become worthless if the gasless engine designed by Speed Racer ever gets produced). It does not, however, have the original’s unique visual style. Animation for the 1960s Speed Racer was so minimalist it often looked like a flip book of individual drawings rather than a traditional cartoon. It was almost hypnotic in its no-frills execution. The Next Generation employs lifeless computer animation that shows very little of the original’s sophisticated simplicity.
Still, if the plots remain engaging, The Next Generation might become more than just a footnote in the Speed Racer canon.
