My father kept a “Family Book” on me, ever since I was born – and in the first 3 years of my life… apparently my favorite thing in the world was SPEED RACER. I have zero recollection of this – but it’s been in that book as long as I have memory – but honestly, I haven’t really gone back to that series since the age of three. I’ve tried, but the animation was just too crude for my tastes – but I do love it’s addiction to speed, badass technology and stylized vehicular and physical violence. Oh… and the monkey.

That said – I never bought a Mach 5 toy, I don’t have any Speed Racer animation art and I can’t say I’m a real fan with any seriousness…

…until now!

The Wachowski’s SPEED RACER is more than just a movie – it is a cinematic adrenal experience. The film is edited like a racer changes gears… suddenly, abruptly and constantly moving forward faster and with a sense of aggressive purpose. If you watched the opening 7 minutes that have appeared online… well… that’s nothing. What we have here is the first anime brought to life. Of all the anime’s they could have adapted – SPEED RACER is one of the most simplistic. It’s ultimately about a hero that’s childhood hero was a big brother that raced and “died” – and now, that younger brother is driven to succeed where his “deceased” brother failed.

The visual look of the film is an adult replication of that anime insanity – and it is astonishing to behold. If you ever played with Hot Wheels and dreamt of crazy insane racing… this film is the dream that the 5-7 year old that built those tracks, ran those absurd races – and improvised new terrors for those cars to attempt.

At the same time – SPEED RACER represents the single greatest “TRIP” on screen since Kubrick’s stargate sequence at the end of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY – only… this sequence isn’t a few minutes long… nearly the entire film is a brightly colored swirling bit of lysergic acidic goodness. And I say that – purely on speculation – as I have always been fearful of the possible “brown acid” and have never taken that journey. But my father has described it – and as I sat in the theater watching SPEED RACER – with a growing sense of euphoric bliss and happiness – eyes transfixed – dancing with the images on the screen I realized… I no longer have even the slightest desire to try LSD – because all I need do is watch this movie – and I’ll have a thrillingly euphoric blissful audio and visual pleasurably assaultive experience.

Does this mean the film has no story, no characters of worth and no emotional worth beyond giving one a euphoric sense of happiness?

Actually – it does have a story – essentially the same story that you see in every Speed Racer cartoon. There’s a plot against the sanctity of racing by corporate and evil powers, and it is only through Speed and his father’s financial independence and purity that said evil powers can be overthrown.. via technological advancement and the person skill of SPEED RACER as aided by the mysterious Racer X.

And ya know what? That’s exactly the story that I wanted to see.

As for the characters? The Racer family is awesome. Emile Hirsch is dead on as Speed Racer. Young Paulie Litt as Spritle is perfection – his hilarious obsessions, comments and interactions with Chim Chim (played by a fantastic real life Chimp) are ridiculously funny. Susan Sarandon as Mom Racer is pretty great – but everyone in the entire film is overshadowed by the great John Goodman as Pops Racer. He booms – and when he fights – he’s a God. A flat out God. Forget NEO or MORPHEUS or TRINITY… POPS RACER is the Action God of the Wachowskis.

Then there’s Christina Ricci’s Trixie. There’s a scene of Speed and Trixie in the Mach 5… looking out over the city – having a romantic conversation – the conversation is sublimely awesome – it’s the sort of cotton candy romance that was reserved for Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland back in the day… but here’s the thing… I never had a crush on Judy – Christina is a dream as Trixie… a wholesome fetishistic dream babe that kicks ass and is a stand by her Speed Racer kinda girl. And that’s HOT! So HOT!

Matthew Fox’s RACER X is exactly right – I love Fox on LOST – and I kinda hate that we ever saw his face – simply because every moment that I saw it, I was thinking about LOST… but when he’s in his RACER X get up… he’s amazing. He’s got that menace, supportive badassness that was absolutely necessary for that character. Fox’s voice and his grin when he’s having fun doing what he’s doing… it is just fantastic.

Now I want to be clear here… There will be people that will not be able to handle and digest the visual intensity of this film. No – there’s no gore, no nudity… rather, I’m talking about the intensity and the motion of the film itself. If you have trouble with motion and swirling lights – or have a medical condition that is visually triggered… you may want to skip the film. However, the film is bliss for everyone else.

I was witness to many kids – ages 12 and under who were driven to the point of childhood happy reenactments after the film – and the children under 4 in the theater were seen to actually be dancing to the movie they were so happy by it.

The film is primarily an experience. If you have the opportunity to see it at an IMAX – I can only barely conceive of the joy it would convey. But I saw this film on a week that began with IRON MAN – went to PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (the next review I’m writing) and then this… and that trajectory was stratospheric. So far – My Summer Film Experience is 3-0 – and I’m very very happy about that!

And remember – this isn’t a realistic film – and was never intended to be. This is an alternate universe driven by phenomenal alternate fueled vehicles of such breathtaking advancement to give every gearhead on the planet a tire iron in their pants! Enjoy it thusly!