Viva Speed Racer

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For those who like their movies full of thrills and spills, with their colors over-saturated, Speed Racer could be just the thing. This is one of those instances where Western culture influenced Japanese culture, which in turn has become an American film.

A quick reverse to the starting position: Speed Racer is based on a Japanese anime series from the ’60s called Mach GoGoGo, created by Tatsuo Yoshida. His inspiration was Elvis Presley playing a race car driver in Viva Las Vegas and the trick, gadget-laden Aston Martin DB5 from the early Bond films.

Computer-generated imagery has now progressed to such a point that a live-action version could be made that still embraces some of the crazier, trippier ideas of the original animation, but takes the whole thing to another level. The Wachowski Brothers, creators of The Matrix Trilogy are the brains behind this project that stars Emile (Into The Wild) Hirsch, Matthew (Lost) Fox and Christina Ricci (who seems to become more gorgeous as she gets older).

The film’s official website has just posted four minutes of footage, which looks and sounds a whole lot better than the YouTube trailer. To see the rest, it’s not long until the film’s May 9 release date.

-- Colin Ryan