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The Wachowskis\u2019 Speed Racer <\/em>(2008) is a strange mixture of unusual filmmakers and an even stranger concept\u2014to turn the 1960s Japanese-American cartoon Speed Racer <\/em>into a feature-length family film. The Wachowskis\u2019 previous films include The Matrix <\/em>(1999) and V for Vendetta <\/em>(2005), which hail far from the \u201ckid-friendly\u201d genre, but their distinct style and approach brings something unique to this admittedly over-charged, over-colored children\u2019s cartoon. The opening race of both Rex and Speed at Thunderhead establishes all the pressures and problems Speed has to overcome\u2014bad performance at school, fatherly expectations, the soiled reputation of an older brother, a death in an otherwise tight-knit family\u2014and the only tool Speed has to deal with these problems is racing. Despite the seeming incompatibility of racing as a solution to these personal, familial, and social issues, Speed is able to overcome these problems through racing. In both the context of the film\u2019s creation and the text itself, Speed Racer <\/em>empowers children within the scope of their own environments, roles, and abilities through its use of aesthetics, its use of technology, and its representation of family.<\/p>\n Speed is the representation of the child in the film, even as his age seems to lean toward young adult. He still lives with his parents in their home, and has yet to define himself as independent. He is the avatar, the character through which the audience vicariously experiences the story, so it\u2019s with his character that children identify as they watch the film. Even though he has a younger brother, Spritle, who age-wise is more childlike, because of Speed\u2019s position within the family, he is the stand-in for child viewers and their struggles.<\/p>\n The design and storytelling of the film take on the perspective of Speed\u2014the child\u2014favoring deep focus, bright colors, and cut-and-paste composition in order to create a feeling of comic book illustration. These features provide many points for the audience to focus on at once, such as when Royalton gives the Racer family a tour of Royalton Industries. The reactions of the family, the various drivers in training, and Royalton are all entering and exiting the frame at different times. This incorporation of multiple focal points reflects the short attention span of children, especially those with attention-deficit disorders\u2014like Speed has himself. In this film, a literal visual reality is less important than a depiction that expresses a child\u2019s inner reality of a short attention span, a child\u2019s energy level, and a child\u2019s sensory learning process. From a design standpoint, the child\u2019s perspective is celebrated, empowering children by taking on a child\u2019s viewpoint and understanding of the world.<\/p>\n The film also takes on children\u2019s inability to recognize the creative walls between different medias and mediums, incorporating several intertextual pop culture references into its storytelling. During Royalton\u2019s tour, we see a driver scuba diving and collecting fish while walking along a flat tank\u2014a direct homage to Nintendo\u2019s Donkey Kong games.<\/p>\n Racer X\u2019s attack on Cruncher Block\u2019s semi-truck depicts two major ways that children are exposured to violence\u2014video games and action films. When the semi-truck and racecar start a high-speed shoot out, the film turns to the aesthetic of James Bond and first-person shooters to shape its depiction. Using a joystick and a video screen, guns and missiles are aimed, and happy arcade sounds cue when the shot is lined up. When the men inside the truck fly through the air, dodging bullets and explosions, the action goes into slow motion, and the coloring turns to the blue and red silhouettes of classic James Bond films.<\/p>\n In fact, the James Bond film Goldfinger <\/em>was an inspiration for the creator, Tatsuo Yoshida when he created the original Speed Racer<\/em> television show. Thus, this scene plays with multiple layers of intertextuality. Speaking of the television show, there is even a scene in the Speed Racer<\/em> film in which Spritle and Chim Chim imagine that they enter the anime they\u2019re watching, a direct nod to the film\u2019s Japanese and anime roots. The easy incorporation of and flow between different genres, styles, and texts reflects a child\u2019s multitextual learning, mirroring how a child processes different aspects of reality and synthesizes them into a single understanding.<\/p>\n Speed\u2019s skill as a driver also reflects a child\u2019s perspective and representation of the modern child\u2019s relationship to technology. His driving skills are deeply connected to the technology surrounding him, especially with his car. In the same year Speed Racer <\/em>was released, Iron Man <\/em>also premiered, featuring a man who fuses to a machine that enhances his abilities and that keeps him alive. Speed Racer<\/em> is similarly dependent on his machine to enable him to make a difference and express himself. Critic Richard Corliss compares the two movies, stating, \u201cwe live in an age of sophisticated machines . . . so let\u2019s recognize our symbiosis with machines\u2014and celebrate our mastery of them\u201d (Corliss). Rather than another critique of technology controlling its users, Speed Racer <\/em>is an example of beneficial, intrinsic technology. Speed is quiet and powerless until he gets behind the wheel of his T180. Instead of enslaving him\u2014 his time, attention, and life\u2014technology liberates Speed and allows him to take charge of his life: \u201cWhen I\u2019m in a T180, I don\u2019t know. Everything just makes sense.\u201d In parallel, modern children are being raised with technology\u2014computers, internet, smart phones, tablets, etc.\u2014a fact that is accepted and even exemplified as child empowerment in Speed Racer. <\/em><\/p>\n The Wachowskis\u2019 relationship with technology also reflects the principles of acceptance and symbiosis. \u201cMachines are tools that free the creative spirit of the director and the effects mavens. . . [and] that\u2019s certainly true of Speed Racer<\/em>, in which the texture is the text, and it\u2019s deliriously dense\u201d (Corliss). The Wachowskis blend together live acting and almost completely fabricated environments, using green screen to its fullest extent. This use of post-production filling and computer-integrated filmmaking channels a child\u2019s creativity and reliance on imagination to embellish a child\u2019s reality. The dependency upon computer graphics technology is also a testament to the strength of the script and the vision of the directors, as well as the talent of the actors who were able to interact flawlessly with an environment that they couldn\u2019t see. The scope of the virtual movie is matured in Speed Racer<\/em>, and the computer-generated, visual effects technology allows filmmakers the freedom to play with color, depth of field, and composition \u2014with a child-like wonder.<\/p>\n Technology also operates within the film narrative itself; Speed\u2019s racecars are more than just gears, pedals, and a steering wheel. His dashboard is filled with buttons, switches, joysticks, and pedals that control various driving and defensive mechanisms. Especially during the Casa Cristo sequence, Speed\u2019s driving resembles playing a video game as much as it does driving a traditional car. His steering wheel has buttons with letters on them, just as a gaming controller has.<\/p>\n![\"s1\"](\"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/s1.png\")
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