USA Today ran the first stills from the Wachowski Brothers adaptation of anime series Speed Racer yesterday and now the first trailer has arrived online. It's brash, colorful, energetic, and - in a refreshing change - chooses to exploit the possibilities of the digital backlot as fully as possible rather than aiming for realism. Sure, there are live actors in it - and good ones, too - but the world the Wachowski's have digitally created is far more important ...
Humbug. I'm off to watch Tron.
Am I the only one who sees Spy Kids going on here? Have to admit that, as much as I admire the Wachowski bros., it's hard to get behind this video game look. Seriously, what's with video games trying to look like movies and movies trying to look like video games?
We're through the looking glass here people...
I also got a bit of a "Casshern" vibe from some of the shots in the trailer, though that could just be the way the trailer was edited.
well, i'm not exactly jumping up and down with anticipation after seeeing that trailer. maybe i'll see it if i have nothing better to do.
WOW, that looks like total crap.
"He's going to be the best if they don't destroy him first." *snerk*
Mindless eye-candy. In other words: if done well I'll love it!
I think that looks like garbage...
I don't know much about Speed Racer - most I know I deducted from the parody episode from Dexter's Lab - but this trailer makes it seems like they are actually making a live action version of Speed Racer.
I see a lot of negative comments on film sites to this trailer, and I noticed they all sound very much alike. Something like "this looks like shit", "what's with all the bright colors?" or "videogames look better". To be honest, it all sounds to me like: "Eek! An original approach! Please Hollywood, give me something I've seen before, this scares me!"
I'm not saying this will be good, but at least it looks fun! At least it's not yet another cartoon or comic movie that they feel they need to make more realistic. Yes, taking a more realistic approach can work - I'm thinking X-Men 1 and 2 - but hey, maybe it would be fun to try and make a live action movie that is just as over the top as it's cartoon source (Cutie Honey anyone?). You disagree? You think this movie will bomb? Maybe, but the guys (or guy/gal I guess it is now) that made The Matrix trilogy wanted to give it a shot, so I guess the producers couldn't refuse. I for one am glad they went this direction, even if it does turn out to be shitty.
Geert Jan raises a good point, and "Cutie Honey" is an interesting point of comparison. Seems to me that the Wachowskis are taking the same approach as Anno, namely taking all of the anime flourishes and actually giving them flesh and form. Not so much adapting them as realizing them. It worked for Anno -- I thought "Cutie Honey" was a blast to watch -- so it could very well work for the Wachowskis.
The problem with Cutey Honey was how redundant and tedious it became, films that are going to live just for their looks need to know better about how to use said looks.
Ironic that this looks like Casheern, considering both series were created by the same author, Tatsuo Yoshida, and it seems it's going to be now two flashy but very crappy films based in the work of the man. Now it's up to Takashi Miike to make a decent film from one of Yoshida's series (that case being Yatter Man)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrrIRcCbo9M
Saw this a few days ago - and I wish it looked more like Cutie Honey!
What I loved about the Speed Racer anime was how much it did with almost no animation! The bulk of the show was just still pictures with these ultra simple backgrounds, and yet it was still really gripping in engaging (well, I found it to be so, anyway).
If they used some of the cost-saving experiments that Anno used - the composited layers of sequenced still shots especially - but did it with a budget (by which I mean time=money, so that more time could be spent to craft the film for an overall consistency of using innovative effects) then I think it could have been pretty stylish.
Meh, well, if anything, this film just still looks TOO real to me. If you're going to push away from realism, why limit it to just the racing scenes?
That said, that lead guy has a surprisingly fitting countenance, considering he's not Japanese... and those racing scenes ought to be pretty engaging in the cinema.
I have only one comment: where's Speed and Pop's super fast talking? :p
What bugs me about this trailer is how the actors seem to take it so seriously and the racing scenes and all the rest is poppy, colorful and happy. Doesn't mix well and makes it look like trailers for two different movies cut together.