Growing up, i lived in that magical age that let me watch Speed Racer.
i loved watching Speed, mostly because even at that young age, i could recognize the horrific amounts of cheese and gaffs lumped into every delicious episode. Watching Speed Racer was like watching a poorly dubbed acid trip.
Seriously, i think each episode cost $15 to make. There was more simple loops, limited animation and stock footage than any other cartoon made. Cars, objects, people would randomly change colors as someone forgot to check the last gel. And my favorite scene involved Speed getting into the predicted out of control spin fourteen minutes into the show. He'd spin the wheel while making excited, open mouth gasps and moans. This, of course, was only made worse when the animators forgot that Trixie was in the seat next to him and her head disappears to unviewable places.
So, watching the trailer for the new Speed Racer live action movie had me in stitches. Mostly because they were using million dollar blur effects to exactly duplicate the original animators meager budget. Seriously.
Here's the original opening sequence:
(made for about $30, possibly by the guy that invented the nitro-gylcerin powered astro-car that's able to fly for about a mile by driving at about 40MpH and ditching a wheel)
Now, go watch the movie trailer, paying particular attention to the driving sequences. Those are computer generated speed lines for god's sake.
The ONLY WAY that this movie would have ruled harder was if the actors were moved using stop motion.
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