An animated TV series centered on the child of the legendary Speed Racer – a young talent named after his father who enrolls in an academy for the fastest kids on Earth. This show had potential, but that was wasted. The pilot and a few of the first episodes were fine, but it went downhill from there. Some of the characters (Spritle, X, Speed, Lucy) were enjoyable, but the rest was either annoying, stupid or thought they could get away with idiotic plans. Another problem was the overall story arc, for Speed to build a gasless engine. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the idea, I think that it would be wonderful think to have vehicles that give out less pollution. The thing is, it doesn't make such a great TV show. The show quickly moves from the long-lost son of the best car racer in the world trying to find his way in a car racing school with building a gasless engine in the backdrop to the complete opposite.<br/><br/>There is also the main villain of the series; a sleazy man who made his fortune in oil, with his daughter that is dating X and willing to hurt Speed to help her father at anytime it suits him. You know, if my partner was trying to hurt my brother, I would break up with them. The villain also went from trying to stop the gasless engines from putting him out of business by preventing them from being built, which is not unreasonable, to an idiot to blind by greed and a desire to put his enemies down without anyone knowing. The show did not deliver on what I wanted to see. I wanted to see the characters growing, getting to know each other. I wanted to see more of X and Speed bonding, getting to know each other as brothers. I wanted them to spend time with their uncle Spritle. I wanted to see him trying his best to balance being principle and acting as a father to his brother's two children, who were tragically separated at a young age for their own safety. I would have liked to see X and Speed to have felt resentment at their father for abandoning them and when he finally does show up, that feeling wouldn't go away quickly or easily. I would have liked for Spritle to confront him, telling him "You lost seeing your children growing up; you forfeited the right to call them your sons when you left them. Don't come crawling to me about how little they trust you, that angry looks they give you, the way they refuse to call you father." I would have also liked to see less of Speed's and X's friends, who rage from annoying to crazy to stupid.<br/><br/>Now let's go into plot. Speed is the son of racer Speed Racer, brother of X and nephew Spritle, and his mother is never mentioned. Speed is trying to build a gasless engine with his roommate Connor and best friend Lucy. The basic formula for most episodes is this: somebody tries to gets Speed's gasless engine or the blueprints for it, whether it by being trickery of by theft, Speed races and pulls off a trick or two, the day is saved. Another setback is the animation. I know they were on a budget, but they could have tried to do something more with it, done something aesthetically more pleasing. They could have done something like in "Batman: The Animated Series," in that series, the animation was a bit choppy, but in my opinion a nicer style in general. Nothing says "I'm just in it to collect a paycheck" more than bad animation styles outside a pitiful budget or an amateur job where recourses are limited and one must take what they have. I would have been happy with flash animation. I feel as if the characters were ever hand drawn, they were highly altered for a bad 3D effect. The idea of Speed's own son going to a racing school work out nicely. If done correctly. Let's just list five of what I find disappointing from just seeing one episode.<br/><br/>1. The character designs, they look nothing like the original anime. If they weren't going to pay a Japanese animation company to do this series, they could of focused on how to draw anime books to make the characters of this and the predecessor look like they are in the same Speed Racer universe.<br/><br/>2. The animation, I'm guessing they had to make it as low budget as possible. Sure the original anime had stiffness but do that had to comply with this series as well. Cause it didn't look right for everyone to look like they have stiff joints.<br/><br/>3. Supporting cast, If they were going to include supporting characters, they can at least be more creative. Cause most of the racing students look like they came straight from a typical high school TV show.<br/><br/>4. lack of violence, that's what made the original so great to watch was the violence. But for this they removed all of the guns & heavy use of car crashes. I blame this on parents who think cartoons are better off without these.<br/><br/>5. lame villains, all we have is an almost evil business man who is after the gas-less engine of the Mach 6. The original had awesome villains including terrorists, mobs, assassins, & insane racers. Those guys made the anime a classic, you remove those from this show and then you're left with a boring segment with less appealing villains.<br/><br/>Peter Ferandaz appears as an Older Spritle, which is cool they actually got him to do the voice of an original character. But not even he was able to save the show.<br/><br/>Cause in the end they fail to make this a true sequel to the original anime. Those who want to see a sequel to original Speed Racer will be disappointed with this one.
Vojtjarr replied
293 weeks ago