'Speed' a fun flick for fans of the '60s cartoon series

Speed raced into theaters May 9, but even his lucky red socks weren't enough to pass up Iron Man in the points standing at the box office.

Speed Racer, the ‘60s cartoon TV series made into full-length feature film, crossed the checkered flag second this past weekend as Iron Man left everyone eating his dust.

But, true Speed Racer fans will not be disappointed by this film directed by brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski (the Matrix series). The movie is 135 minutes of fun and edge-of-your-seat racing excitement.

For those of you who don't know the history of Speed Racer, it all began in 1966 as a Japanese anime titled Mach Go Go Go.

In 1967, the 52-episode series was dubbed into English and syndicated nationally on television. For nearly 20 years, Speed Racer ran in the afternoons five days a week.

It enjoyed a comeback in the ‘90s on MTV, and then ran for almost five years on the Cartoon Network. Nearly three full generations have grown up with Speed Racer.

The movie version's storyline is Speed (Emile Hirsch, Into the Wild) as a racecar-obsessed kid living in a Technicolor world. His childhood love Trixie (Christina Ricci, The Addams Family) helped him through high school and is his best friend. After winning a race he's visited by a corporate tycoon who makes an offer that unless Speed signs to drive for him, his entire family and life are in jeopardy. This doesn't bode well with Speed or his dad Pops (John Goodman, Roseanne), Mom (Susan Sarandon, Thelma and Louise), his younger brother Spritle (Paulie Litt) or chimp Chim-Chim. Speed is approached by the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox, Lost) to compete in the Casa Christo, the massive road race of thugs, lowlifes and the desperate; it's also the race where Speed's brother Rex was killed. This leaves everyone wondering who will win and, most importantly, who is Racer X?

As far as the plot goes, it seems the Wachowski brothers tried to make it appeal to both adults and kids, but wound up doing the opposite. The plot was very business-oriented, talking about stock prices and violations of charters, and then switches to Chim-Chim and Spritle getting into crazy shenanigans, thus, making it both too boring for kids and too slap-stick silly for adults.

Things we liked about the movie:

1. The impressive cast of characters and the right-on portrayals, especially those of Matthew Fox as Racer X, Christina Ricci as Trixie and John Goodman as Pops.

2. The entire movie is visually inviting, with the use of primary colors, especially during the road-racing scenes. This movie would be magnificent to view in 3-D at an IMAX theater.

3. The very cool marketing promotion on opening day, which presented each ticket buyer with a pit pass, complete with lanyard and a breakdown of all the racers and, of course, promotes, with coupons, that cool line of Speed Racer merchandise available now at a Target store near you.

Things we disliked about the movie:

1. Although he looked the part in hair and wardrobe, we didn't feel like Emile Hirsch was "animated" enough in his portrayal of Speed.

2. For the racing fans out there this is an important note: The movie does not stay true to form in its road-racing theme and introduces a futuristic-like oval circuit with different Mach racing cars that are drifting more than driving. Warning parents: this is a lame attempt at marketing a new line of Speed Racer cars.

3. Occasional bad language and the flipping of the bird by young Spritle (Speed's little brother) did not add a thing to the story line and, therefore, was uncalled for and shocking to those with kids in the audience.

4. Come on! We didn't hear enough of that catchy theme song we grew up with. Ending the movie with it in an updated rap version was not enough for longtime fans.

If you can ignore a few obscene words and gestures (hence the PG rating) the movie is mostly fun but, warning, fasten your seatbelts if you go to see it in 3-D at the IMAX theater.