These are not typical references points for summer blockbusters. The co-directors cited as inspiration the Cubist art of Pablo Picasso and James Joyce’s Ulysses. And though the source material may have been a Beatles-era manga, Speed Racers’ ambitions went far beyond that. Speed Racer unfolds in a day-glo Neverland, informed by Japanese cartoons, Nintendo video games and, it is tempting to conclude, Teletubbies boxsets. This was more Weird and Wonky than Fast and Furious. Rest assured nothing could be further from the case. The kind that might star Vin Diesel or Dwayne Johnson. With a starting premise like that, Speed Racer could, in theory, have roared into cinemas as a flashy road movie. He is portrayed, slightly incongruously, by Roger Allam – aka Peter Mannion MP in The Thick of It and DI Fred Thursday from ITV’s Endeavour. There is naturally a villain, in venal businessman EP Arnold Royalton. He is supported by girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci, whose fringe may be the single best reason for watching), as well as “Pops” (Goodman) and “Mom” (Sarandon).
Speed Racer tells the story of a heroic young driver – named, with what-it-says-on-the-tin straightforwardness, “Speed Racer” – who is determined to carry on the legacy of an older brother who seemingly died on the race track. The studio’s more prosaic goal was to conjure up a new franchise.
However this ambition was not on the “to do” list of Warner Brothers when it approached the Wachowskis to adapt a comic book and TV series much beloved among Baby Boomers. With Speed Racer, Lana, who transitioned from Larry around 2010, and Lily, who transitioned from Andy circa 2016, were attempting to re-write the way in which cinema communicated with the audience. Unfortunately we work in a medium that is one of the most rigid aesthetically.” We’re often drawn to ideas that stimulate our imagination visually.
“We knew the movie was dangerous,” Lana would tell an interviewer years later.
One thing is certain: it will be remembered far longer long than Speed Racer. With critics split over the film – The Telegraph laments its lack of momentum, while Vanity Fair hailed its “triumphant defiance” – it remains to be seen where it ultimately ranks in the Matrix hierarchy. This may explain why, this week, Lana Wachowski returns to the duo’s original goldmine with a new Matrix sequel, The Matrix Resurrections. Nobody has taken Speed Racer and its failure more to heart than the Wachowskis themselves. Their next feature, a 2012 retelling of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, was financed largely in Europe. Released in May 2008, the same summer as Marvel’s Iron Man and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, it stalled on the starter grid, earning just $90 million despite a huge (and increasingly desperate) marking campaign.Īnd it permanently tarnished the Wachowskis in Hollywood. Proof of their feet of clay was smeared all over this $120 million adaptation of an obscure-ish manga featuring such odds ’n’ sods stars as Christina Ricci, Emile Hirsch, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and a chimpanzee named Kenny. making Matrix movies), they were less accomplished at others. But the real lesson of Speed Racer was that, if the Wachowskis were good at some things (i.e.
There have even been claims, in the more excitable corners of YouTube, that it helped advance the language of cinema. It shot straight off the track, too, creating a smoking wreckage from which the Wachowskis have arguably yet to recover.Īs is the way with extravagantly awful films, Speed Racer has since built a modest cult following. The result was 2008’s Speed Racer, a brain-bursting caper so infused with brightness that sitting through all 130 minutes was akin to having a party-pack of Skittles injected into your eyeballs.
So when it was time for the dystopian siblings to move on from Neo and Trinity, and red pills and blue pills, their first step was to bring in the decorators and swap out the Matrix’s distinctive blend of noirish cool and muggy emerald colours. The Wachowskis’ original Matrix trilogy was black and white and green all over.