Wachowskis bring Speed to life

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures "Speed Racer" released in theaters May 9.

As the credits rolled at the end of "Speed Racer," a group of kids not much older than five stood as close as they could to the screen. They danced, jumped and ran races around each other, but they probably weren't celebrating who the second unit assistant director was.

Essentially this is the essence of film and its reason to be - to illicit responses and particularly wonder. People who hate cartoons will hate "Speed Racer." People who hate monkeys doing kung fu will hate "Speed Racer." People who hate being barraged by colors and sound will hate "Speed Racer."

But people who hate how computer-generated (CG) effects have been running rampant in blockbusters might not hate "Speed Racer."

This family-friendly movie comes from the Wachowski brothers, who previously gave us the lesbian noir "Bound" and the violent but visionary "Matrix" movies. "Speed Racer" didn't seem like the next logical step in their careers, but upon viewing it, makes sense. It was another visual challenge for them, and they delivered.

Again, they've created something we've never seen before, although it's not as heady as the philosophy of "The Matrix" or as revolutionary as that movie's bullet time scene. Even so, they've kept their taste for action and intensity filmed in the most manic of ways and still managed to make "Speed Racer" PG-rated.

Think of Speed (Emile Hirsch) as the chosen one of racing. He doesn't drive the car - he feels it. He also feels the corrupt greed of corporate fat cats breathing down on him, trying to kill him off before he steers the fixed racing industry straight. There's your plot, but the point is what Speed is racing through - a world of color that pops off the screen.

The look the Wachowski's aimed for is that of a real-life cartoon. They asked, essentially, "What if a cartoon was real?" It's hard to describe what this looks and feels like until you've seen it, but it's not as simple as putting John Goodman in a leopard skin and having him yell "yabba-dabba doo!"

Goodman is in this movie, playing Speed's dad. Everyone does a good job, but what they're doing isn't your typical acting. They too are living the cartoon, which explains Matthew Fox's (Racer X) unchanging voice. Even the monkey is impressive. Everything in this movie is bent to make the colors and sounds of Saturday mornings thoroughly real.

Whether Speed is racing through deserts and snowy mountains, or simply falling for his girl for the first time (Christina Ricci as Trixie), this movie is an experience. That's what all movies, summer movies especially, aim to be. "Speed Racer" takes that idea and runs with it.

This movie will be loved or hated, but at the end, people there might dance in front of the screen.

Josh Moorhead can be reached at moorhead.19@osu.edu.