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[filkertom]

And now for something absolutely frivolous, something I didn't even care about... something for which I'm now champing at the bit.

See, next May there's going to be a Speed Racer movie.

Bad enough that John Fucking Yes Goodman is playing Pops. Bad enough that Christina Jayzus There's A Few Childhood Fantasies Fulfilled Ricci is playing Trixie.

Oh, no. They had to crank it.

Check out the trailer.

I am fucking there.

(Thanks to hughcasey for the reminder.)

Comments

[hughcasey.livejournal.com]

Any movie that's got Racer X in da house, and Spridle and Chim-chim in da trunk... I'm so there!

And Ms. Ricci as Trixie? *Turns into gibbering heap*

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

OMG.

Tim.

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

Yup. That gaurantees I'll be there.

[sydb42.livejournal.com]

I'd heard about that and was a little frightened at the concept of live-action Speed Racer, but it looks promising. I was surprised there was no mention of Racer X who is secretly Speed's older brother Rex since they have to remind you of that in every single episode of the cartoon. ;)

Racer X?

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

He's in the trailer, 1:10 (I think), 1:19 and a longer shot of him stopping a punch at 1:26. He's played by Matthew Fox (the Doctor from Lost)

Re: Racer X?

[sydb42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he's in the trailer, what I was talking about was that there was no voice-over letting us know that he was secretly Speed's older brother Rex. Every episode of Speed Racer has that reminder, on the off-chance that we forgot somehow. ;)

Re: Racer X?

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's going to be a surprise to those film goers who never got to see the original series :-)

Re: Racer X?

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

Wait! Are you telling me that Racer X is actually Speed Racer's brother Rex, who disguises himself as the mysterious Racer X so nobody will know he is the brother of Speed Racer?

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Is it sad that when I read your comment in my mind it sounded like it came out in a breathless rush?

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Is it sad that when I read an comment at all in this thread about Racer X secretly being Speed Racer's older brother that in my mind it comes out in a breathless rush and I think it is more effective if it is a long, run-on sentence without any contractions?

[kosaginolegion.livejournal.com]

Definitely going to see it.

John Goodman is going to be a fine Pops. Not sure about the young man playing Speed, but I'm enough of a purist that I wish they could have used someone who looks a bit more Asian.

And what is the Midnighter doing in Racer X's outfit?

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Shh! You weren't supposed to be geeky enough to notice that in the trailer! ;-)

I too will see this one in the theater even though I'm not so sure about the kid. Like I told somebody today - even if it's bad I just _gotta_ see what they did with it! :D

[kosaginolegion.livejournal.com]

You mean the Midnighter? I was able to find a photo of that shot where he stops the Chi Hair Day racer from hitting speed. Man's got a horrid case of five o'clock shadow. I don't remember Racer X being gritty, damnit.

Kids today. *mumble*

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Yes I was referring to the Midnighter.

Just for reference the picture is number 7 out of 8 in this set which redaxe posted below:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-12-05-speed-racer_N.htm?csp=34

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned last night, USAToday had some stills, as well. Absolutely gorgeous. (And Susan Sarandon, too. What more could a man ask?)

[mouser.livejournal.com]

You had me at "John Fucking Yes Goodman is playing Pops"

Holey crap - That's the Mach *6*!

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Quiet, you!! I figure that most people reading this would not have heard about the change yet. So no spoilers, please. Or just send them to me privately :-)

[mouser.livejournal.com]

It's got a big 6 on the side. Kind of a giveaway...

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Only the one at the end -- it's distinctly a 5 in the earlier side view shot.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

I missed the 6 in the trailer itself. I only saw it in the USA Today screen shot pic.

[knitmeapony.livejournal.com]

You know, when Susan Sarandon was chit-chatting about how they had new technology for the visuals for this movie, I was like, well, they say that for every animation-gone-live. But that.... holy gorgeous effects, Batman.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

It reminds me of Sin City - the effects are unrealistic, but they're deliberately so in order to better serve the type of story being told. With luck, this won't be an effects-driven movie, where cool stuff is thrown in unnecessarily simply because it looks snazzy now but will be outdated in six months.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Chris Waffle came into #dementia last night and posted that link. I watched it at 12:30 last night before I went to bed. I knew that a Speed Racer movie was coming out, and had seen a still of the Mach 5 on display. This was the first time I had seen any footage. WOW!! I was praying they would get the look of the movie right, and I think they will be pulling it off. They even had the right sound effect for the auto-jacks. I've been a Speed Racer fan since it first came over to the U.S. I was going to see the movie anyways, but now I am actually excited about it.

[eleri.livejournal.com]

fuck, yeah.

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

What you said. I'm there.

I've been a Speed Racer fan since I was about 3. One of my parent's favorite "blackmail" stories is the story about my playing with my imaginary companions and suddenly from the back playroom my mom hears "OH, SPEED! What are we gonna do?!"

This looks good. At the very least, it looks good enough to survive on coolness merit, ala Transformers.

Yeah. I'm there.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

*chuckle*

My mother loves to blackmail me with the fact that I had quite a few Matchbox cars that would be worth quite a bit of money today. Unfortunately they all suffered the same horrible fate of a Matchbox track run out the window of a third-story apartment while watching Speed Racer on the tv. "All the other cars fell into the canyon! Only the Mach 5 survived!" ;-)

Of course that stopped about the time one of those landed a little too close to one of the little old ladies that lived downstairs...

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

oh. dear.
i really was trying to not see any first run movies....
sigh
start saving i guess, movies cost an arm and a leg these days.....

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Okay... why are they making Speed an anglo and Skull Duggery an asian?

[ddrussianinja.livejournal.com]

Speed isn't an asian because neither John Goodman nor Susan Sarandon are asian, Speed wasn't adopted, and Mrs. Racer was not unfaithful. Skull Duggery is asian because they probably felt bad about turning Speed and his family anglo and wanted to make up for it.

Why are you so hard to please? Lol.

[lukeski.livejournal.com]

Every once in a while Hollywood does something right. Which is why I am giving "Alvin and the Chimpunks" a chance, and I'm actually excited to see it.

Trippy but Cool!

[varseth.livejournal.com]

It puts me in mind of a live action film retaining the brightness of the anime classic. This is gonna be Hella cool. I am there. Well after Cloverfield of course!

[brigidsblest.livejournal.com]

...okay. I wasn't at all interested in this movie until I watched the trailer.

Damn you. Yeah, that looks pretty cool.

[fredhuggins.livejournal.com]

I dunno...the graphics look fucking sweet of course, reason enough to see it probably. But I just wish they didn't take the story so seriously. A featherweight concept like this, I think, would be better treated as a goofy comedy. (NOT, I hasten to add, a DUMB comedy. There's a difference.)

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

I saw the trailer on Entertainment Tonight. They put the automatic jacks in, but what about buttons B through G?

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Seeing that one of those race tracks in the trailer goes sideways, I can see button B (gripper tires) being used. The bullet-proof canopy (button C) will also be easy to do. If there is an overnight race, there's button E - the special headlights. Not sure about the underwater features (D) or the saw blades (F). Depending on the story, the robotic homing pigeon (G) may or may not appear.

By the way, I did that button list by memory. They are from the classic series (what this movie appears to be based on). I know the buttons were different in the two sequal series (New Adventures aka the American Speed Racer remake, and Further Adventures aka Speed & Trixie's kids).

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

I think you got a couple of the buttons mixed up. As I remember, this was what each button controlled:

A -- Automatic Jacks
B -- Gripper Tire Belts
C -- Buzzsaw (and why does a racecar need buzzsaws?)
D -- Canopy
E -- Headlights
F -- Underwater Equipment
G -- Homing Robot

And of course, there was Button H, which sent the robot to Speed's home.

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

I have been very curious about this since I learned that they were going to have an "infinite focus" on the cameras. (This means that unlike all previous movie shots, everything in the real shots is going to be sharp.)

This means that the non-CGI shots should be exactly like watching a live-action cartoon and the CGI shots should be exactly like watching a cartoon live-action movie.

I am also very, very psyched about going to see Golden Compass now that I've read Ebert's review. (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071206/REVIEWS/712060302)

And I'll save the subject of this trailer (http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=1355&dl=14478175) as a surprise for the audience.

TC

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

I dunno, maybe I'm defective in some way but, even as a member of this movie's core demographic (~GenXers who remember the cartoon fondly -- or at least remember being fond of the cartoon, if you get the distinction -- and find Christina Ricci insanely hot) I couldn't care less about this movie.

Still, I'm very happy for all of you. Hope it works out. Have fun storming the castle.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

It's disturbing how *perfect* Goodman is as Pops... I'm there. Opening night.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

*click*

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Oh, neat! A version with a Full Screen button... (http://video.aol.com/video/movies-speed-racer-trailer-no-1/2033773)

[salkryn.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I'm surprised at you, Tom. I mean, this looks awesome, but you forgot to mention that this is both the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, as well as the birthday of Harry Chapin.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

Yes! So looking forward to this. And, for your viewing pleasure, an interview with Christina Ricci: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1cokR6FrD0&feature=related

[moquif.livejournal.com]

Is it me or in the beginning did the racetrack do a corkscrew loop? I'm having flashbacks to that Nascar Unlimited cartoon from a few years back.

[mstrhypno.livejournal.com]

OMDFG! (note use of profanity for emphasis...!)

Even though I was not all that much of a Speed Racer fan (NASCAR-like sports just don't do it for me... "Oh look! Thay're making a left!... Oh, look! Thay're making another left!... Oh look! Thay're making another left!... I wonder what'll happen NEXT?!" )just isn't ME - and even cross country and road rally doesn't get my torque torqued... but the cast and the visuals should be fun.

Not to mention that if it bombs it's gonna be GREAT MST3King fodder!

"Look! It's Road Race of the Apes! - Chimp-ion of Chimp-ions!"

Lee

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Pfft. The guy playing Speed doesn't have eyelashes long enough.

"Speed Racer" was my introduction to Japanimation boys-who-look-like-girls, thank you -- the big eyes, the eyelashes, the bursting into tears if he couldn't crash the Mach 5 every 10 minutes.

I'm all messed up inside! If only an androgynous man would show up and talk to me about car racing...