Story
Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is an 18-year-old driver taking the race world by storm in his Mach 5 racing car. He is chasing his dead brother’s track record. For Speed and his family, racing is a way of life. Speed’s father Pops (John Goodman) designed and built the Mach 5, with support from Mom (Susan Sarandon), Speed’s younger brother Spritle (Paulie Litt), Speed’s lifelong companion Trixie (Christina Ricci), and mechanic Sparky (Kick Gurry).
Life for Speed changes dramatically when EP Arnold Royalton (Roger Allam), the owner of Royalton Industries (makers of car engines), offers Speed a place on his race team. When Speed refuses, Royalton turns nasty, revealing that all races are fixed to profit powerful corporations. Royalton informs Speed that unless he signs with Royalton industries, he will never be allowed to win a race. Worse, his career, family and life will be at risk.
Speed is approached by Inspector Detector (Benno Furmann) of the CIB. Detector asks Speed to join forces with Racer X (Matthew Fox) and a Japanese racer Taejo Togokhan (Rain) to enter the gruelling Casa Cristo race in an attempt to expose Royalton’s illegal race fixing activities.
Themes
Corruption in the world of car-racing
Violence
Speed Racer contains frequent stylised action violence, much of it on the race track. There are frequent scenes of cars crashing, including cars flying through the air and bursting into flames. Examples of violence include:
Sexual references
Speed Racer contains infrequent low-level sexual references. For example, after seeing Speed and Trixie about to kiss, Spritle tells them ‘I’m gonna hurl’. He then makes a remark about ‘cooties’.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
- Several scenes show people drinking beer, champagne and mixed drinks.
- Mr Royalton give Pops a box of ‘hand-rolled’ cigars and we later see a man smoking a cigar.
- We see images of a hookah pipe, but do not see people smoking from it.
- Mr Royalton asks Speed if he would like some champagne or a shot of whisky. Speed refuses.
- Speed and Trixie drink wine in a restaurant.
- A Ninja uses poison dripped down a string to incapacitate a driver and poison darts to incapacitate guards.
- Viking-like racers drink alcohol from mugs in a rowdy manner.
Nudity and sexual activity
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
- Several scenes feature women wearing revealing clothing, such as short skirts, brief shorts and low-cut tops.
- Speed and Trixie sit in a car overlooking a romantic scene. They talk and then lean towards each other but are interrupted by Spritle before they kiss.
- A female racer sticks her tongue out at Speed in a sensual manner, revealing a stud in her tongue.
Product placement
None of concern
Coarse language
Speed Racer contains some mild to medium-level coarse language, name-calling and putdowns.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Speed Racer, based on the late 1960s animated TV show, is a stylised action car racing film. It targets a young adult and older adolescent male audience. The film runs for over two hours, and might be too long for younger viewers.
The main messages from this movie are that right will eventually triumph over wrong and that criminals will eventually receive their just rewards. You might like to discuss this view with your children as well as the values represented, such as self-sacrifice, loyalty and courage, and family devotion.
This movie could also give you the opportunity to discuss with your children real-life issues such as:
- reckless driving and road rage
- the health risks to young children of being over-weight like Spritle, and what should be considered as reasonable in terms of consuming junk food
- excessive wealth and corruption
- the portrayal of female characters.