Just in time for the holidays, the complete Speed Racer series has been re-released in a groovy collector’s set. If you’re a fan of the popular anime cartoon that came to the U.S. in the ’60s, you’ll totally dig what Lionsgate has done: All 52 episodes come packaged in a metal tin shaped like the Mach 5 (Speed Racer’s car, in case you’re not hip) and are housed in a classy softcover book (colorful and environmentally thoughtful!). As much as possible, the original filmed episodes have been cleaned up and the sound has been spruced up to make the show as fresh as possible
When we look back on entertainment from our childhood, whether it’s books, movies, or in this case, an animated series, you always run the risk of that beloved piece of entertainment losing its luster. That’s why some people warn about looking back on those visceral memories. Still, we can’t resist, can we? We want to feel young again. I’ll admit, the animation is still very limited, the pacing is a tad slow, and the lip assignment never matches the dialogue. But it never did when we were kids! Speed Racer was always a limiting experience when it came to its animation. But the stories were and remain fun and cool. Furthermore, there is a sincerity to the trust and love these characters have for each other that manages to come thorough even though Speed Racer is a flatly drawn cartoon. I think that’s why the show continues to delight kids despite the wildly outlandish Wachowski Brothers feature film and the highly inferior Speed Racer: Next Generation series (more on that later).
Speaking from experience, I also know that young kids still get into the show: my son watches with fascination each time it comes on. There’s enough action to keep him entertained, and enough humor to make him guffaw. As a parent, I’m glad that he likes Speed, Racer X, Spiddle and the rest of the gang. So much children’s entertainment has an edge, either in its humor or in the level of action/violence, that I appreciate not having to worry when I walk away from the TV set when he’s watching Speed Racer.
All I know about Speed Racer I learned as a kid, when I watched episodes of the proto-anime between spoonfuls of Cocoa Puffs. There wasn’t much to it — there was a car, a monkey, a bad guy, and once I had my sugar rush I was outta there, its theme song lodged in a tiny corner of my mind. Some 40 years later I wouldn’t have imagined it as a potential new franchise for the makers of The Matrix (1999) to put on the road, but then again I was the guy who said today’s savvy, Wii-playing kids would never, ever go for Alvin and the Chipmunks.
