There are so many movie adaptations of other media that are ashamed of their source material. They want to run away as fast as possible from what the source material was. In some cases, this means dropping minor aspects of the original. In other cases, this means changing the entire tone of a work.
Take The Dark Knight. For all of its greatness, it isn't a Batman film. Indeed, it would probably have had more verisimilitude if they'd called the character "The Vigilante" or some such. Every time the word "Batman" is uttered, the film seems to lose its tone. Batman is reduced to an artifact in his own movie, an echo of an unwanted element in this serious character study/action film.
Speed Racer is completely without shame for its source material. This is Speed Racer in live-action. The world is clean and pure, the racing scenes are absolutely over-the-top (even moreso than in the cartoon, if you can believe that), and even the characters are broad and dramatic. It is, in a word, pure.
No attempt is made to cover up the fact that a family with the last name "Racer" had a child that they decided to give the first name "Speed". This is introduced, and the audience is to either accept it or move on to something else. Speed's brother has a pet chimpanzee; this is introduced and the audience is expected to accept it or leave. The whole movie is like this.
There is nothing quite like a film that knows what it's trying to achieve and lets nothing stand in the way of achieving that. This film sets out to make live-action Speed Racer, and it succeeds. If that interests you, check it out.
Take The Dark Knight. For all of its greatness, it isn't a Batman film. Indeed, it would probably have had more verisimilitude if they'd called the character "The Vigilante" or some such. Every time the word "Batman" is uttered, the film seems to lose its tone. Batman is reduced to an artifact in his own movie, an echo of an unwanted element in this serious character study/action film.
Speed Racer is completely without shame for its source material. This is Speed Racer in live-action. The world is clean and pure, the racing scenes are absolutely over-the-top (even moreso than in the cartoon, if you can believe that), and even the characters are broad and dramatic. It is, in a word, pure.
No attempt is made to cover up the fact that a family with the last name "Racer" had a child that they decided to give the first name "Speed". This is introduced, and the audience is to either accept it or move on to something else. Speed's brother has a pet chimpanzee; this is introduced and the audience is expected to accept it or leave. The whole movie is like this.
There is nothing quite like a film that knows what it's trying to achieve and lets nothing stand in the way of achieving that. This film sets out to make live-action Speed Racer, and it succeeds. If that interests you, check it out.