I would make everything live-action except Trixie would be CG and Speed would be a hand puppet.
Also -> Eddie Murphey would play five different characters

Interesting!

Maybe Tatsunoko Productions threatened to put a death grip on the whole project if the Mach 5 didn’t look like the Mach 5?

Now let’s hope the characters look like the characters (even though they’re actually Japanese!).

Considering the Wachowski’s track record (matrix, animatrix, V), it’s not surprising they nailed it. :]

Here’s the real question: When this movie is over and done with, how much will this baby sell at a car auction?

NICE.

For the love of Christ please OH PLEASE I hope there are over-exaggerated exclamations of OOOOHHH!!! every time Speed is shocked or startled.

AAAAAHHH!! OOOOOOHHH!

It should be shot MOS and dubbed by Peter Fernandez.

Wow. Somebody made a live-action translation of something and actually retained an important part of the original aesthetic. I suppose I should be grateful or something.

The baddassery of that car, coupled with somebody FINALLY casting Christina Ricci as an anime character, all point to this film being any good. But then those guys have never made a good film yet, so I don’t see why they should start now.

Also, how have we gotten ourselves into the predicament where the inclusion of a real chimpanzee in a film, is a good thing?!??

Hey, The first Matrix movie was good. The Animatrix was a noble experiment.

Ignore everything else.

There should be a scene of a Bill Murray - type lounge singer crooning the original theme song. The lines: “he’s a demon, and he’s gonna be a - chasin’ after someone” and “adventure’s waiting up aheaaaaaad” are a natural for that sort of delivery!

Hooper

A few years ago I bought the toy playset of the Mach 5 that came with the kid and the monkey. I totally missed out on Speed Racer growing up, but it couldn’t be passed up, the design is just too cool.

The screenplay is written by one Patrick Read Johnson, the writer/director/auteur of the excellent autobiographical teen comedy 5-25-77, which is almost finished and was previewed in its current form at Celebration IV. The fact that he, and not the Wachovski Brothers (or maybe Brother/Sister at this point?) has written the screenplay gives me a bit of hope for it. Less philosophizing, more fun.

However, they are shooting in BERLIN. BERLIN???? WTF??? The back story that was always in my head when watching Speed Racer growing up was that they were an American expatriate family in Japan. I suppose shooting in Japan might invite unwelcome comparisons with The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift, but whatever. It would have been nice.

They did a great job on the car! Even down to the three-pronged corkscrew tire holders that should never have been able to hold those tires on during a race but always did. It’s nice to see a cartoon adaptation staying true to the important elements of the original. Disney, are you paying attention?