Mar 13 2008 New 'Speed Racer' Trailer is So Cool Beans

A new domestic trailer to Speed Racer has arrived, forcing some retro kitsch into its computer-generated candy world with the addition of a "cool beans!" moment. Aside from conspicuously dated slang, the new trailer also gives us disturbing hints of incest, and the shocking revelation that the protagonist--whose birth name is Speed Racer--has had an unnatural fascination with speed racing for his entire life. Who would have thought? Despite all the eye-roll-inducing dialogue--true to the series but not really much worse than Matrix lines--I'm finding myself strangely drawn to the Wachowskis' psychedelic, phsyics-free racing fantasy.

See some speed racing and Matthew Fox playing Racer X like an android Batman, under the cut.

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Mar 10 2008 Two New Internationally Epilepsy-Inducing 'Speed Racer' Trailers

Equal parts video game, hallucinogen, and exposition, two new international trailers for Speed Racer have found their way online in all their blinding, over-saturated glory. I don't know why the Wachowskis keep releasing trailers when it's obvious that the in-theater seizures are going to be the real publicity builders.

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Dec 7 2007 'Speed Racer' Trailer Simulates Brain of Juvenile Psychotics

Envision a jarring nightmare full of absurdly cliched dialogue, the Playstation game Wipeout, fan-fiction, epilepsy, ninjas, Michael Jackson's '80s wardrobe, all the worst parts of Star Wars: Episode I, and Maury Povich's ideal guest (a child who is both fat and prematurely aged), all filtered through the mind of a boy with ADHD. If you did it right, you're now pretty close to the trailer to Speed Racer, only more so.

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Dec 6 2007 'Speed Racer' Images Resemble Cough Syrup Experiences

Since the Wachowskis announced they were making a live-action adaptation of Speed Racer, there's been a lot of speculation and doubt as to how well they could translate the anime. It turns out our worries were completely unfounded. Just like you'd want, it looks exactly like a spaceman having a psychotic episode while half in a spectroscope, half in a Hot Wheels commercial.

And more under the cut!

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Dec 5 2007 'Speed Racer' Behind-the-Scenes with Racer X

In this Entertainment Tonight exclusive--one of the few that doesn't reference "TomKat"--get your first look at Matthew Fox as Racer X, and see Emile Hirsch, as the titular Speed Racer, deliver provocative dialogue from under a goofy wig.

Now I see why, despite the pleas of fans, directors often choose to alter the look of comic book/anime characters for film. As it turns out, using the actual costumes makes it seem like we've stumbled into a strange celebrity cos-play convention, producing the same awkward emotions as if you saw a co-worker dressed like a Jedi. It starts with the feeling of "Oh god, they're one of those," then ascends to "Oh god, I wish I hadn't seen them like this. Are we supposed to just act like this didn't happen?"

Still though, good job being uncomfortably accuracy. Maybe it will seem less weird on film.

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