Based on the 1960s Japanese animated TV series, and brought to the screen in a primary-colors splash of live-action, CG, and green-screen effects by Andy and Larry Wachowski - in their first directing job since 2003's Matrix sequels - Speed Racer makes absolutely no effort to root itself in the real world.
Instead, the universe of Speed Racer offers futuro cityscapes and neon-limned architecture, and race arenas that look like Las Vegas gone wild.
Meanwhile, the suburban homestead of the Racer clan - Speed (Emile Hirsch), little brother Spritle (Paulie Litt), Mom (Susan Sarandon), and Dad (John Goodman) - is a populuxe pastiche of midcentury modern and 21st-century tech, with a paint chart that'll blow your head off.
I can't imagine what this thing does to your retinas in Imax - and Speed Racer opens on close to 100 such mega-format screens (including UA King of Prussia, locally).
Hirsch - last seen in the 180-degrees different Into the Wild - plays the talented young driver haunted by the memory of his older brother, Rex, a racing champ who went down in a blaze of crumpled metal and scandal. With the support of his parents (a father who designs race cars, a mother who makes PB&Js), the eager encouragement of his pipsqueak sibling and a pet chimp, and an assist or two from a trusty Aussie mechanic (Kick Gurry), Speed takes to the track, shunning a lucrative sponsorship deal from the yellow-toothed tycoon E.P. Arnold Royalton (Roger Allam).
While Royalton plots and schemes to defeat and humiliate Speed, Speed's girlfriend, Trixie (Christina Ricci), provides counsel - and go-get-'em grins and modelistic poses. And then there's Racer X (Matthew Fox), a masked figure who gives guru sound bites. For example: "You don't climb into a T-180 to be a driver. You do it because you're driven."
