Speed Kzinti

[zrath]

I Netflixed and watched "Speed Racer" on Thursday Night.
Yes, the soopa-psychedelic "Deeelite"-esque motion picture.
AND I LIKED IT!
Also, the theme has been stuck in my head ever since.
Not just the original TV theme or the movie megamix, oh nooooo!!
I also have the early '90s Alpha Team techno remix stuck in there!!
AND the Alpha Team extended "naughty" mix!
And I keep cross-mixing everything and making soopadoopamegaremixes!
AAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

Okay, it's really not so bad.

So anyway, yes, "Speed Racer", the reviled-for-unknown-reasons Wachowski Brothers movie.
I enjoyed it, it was fun, and it made sense in its own way.
It had cartoon physics, cartoon plot, cartoon humor, and live-action characters acting like cartoons.
It's a cartoon movie based on a cartoon TV show. Where exactly is the problem here?
Is it because certain people still feel butthurt (HAR! New slang!) over the Matrix sequels? Get over it!

I was ragging on this movie for using all-CGI cars but after seeing it, I understand why they did it.
They're some seriously insane car-fu in there and there's no way in hell you can do it in live-action.
Also, the racetracks are pure videogame fantasy. Again, impossible to do in real-life. So CGI makes sense.
"Speed Racer" starts being funny for me in the middle and stays funny until the end.
My favorite line is in French and not subtitled. During a race, a certain character completely loses it and pulls
out a .45 pistol. The reaction of the French race commentator is priceless, especially since he's been talking in
French-accented English the whole time. He goes native and exclaims: "Putain de sa mère, il a un flingue!"
Which contextually translates to "son of a bitch, he's got a gun!" (rod, heater, gat, "flingue" is slang for gun)
LOL!
I definitely want this on DVD.

Also, me being me, I am intrigued at the theoritical engineering involved in some of the race cars.
Especially the T-180 racers, with their 4-wheel steering system controlled by top-mounted roto-rings.
Are the wheels actually powered, or is the car propulsed by exhaust from the babbletech power plant?
Because if the wheels are powered, than means an electrical motor inside each wheel, which is not unheard of.
I've seen plenty of experimental vehicles with wheelmotors or hubmotors.
You'd need to run power cables from the power plant to the wheelmotors.
It's simple on conventional vehicles, really tricky on T-180s, but not impossible.
Just thinking out loud...

So anyway, if you want to experience some overly colorful sci-fi cartoony racing, "Speed Racer" is pretty much it!
Otherwise, wait for "Death Race" to hit DVD. (HAR!)

Comments

[paka.livejournal.com]

So if flingue is the slang term, does it actually have any other meaning? (You know, like the way "typewriter" meant something before it was used to mean Thompson SMGs?)

[zrath.livejournal.com]

Actually, "Flingue" is derived from the Bavarian "flinke, flinge", which means "rifle".
I just found this out after doing some online digging. The Internet really is an amazing research tool.
So "flingue" is French slang for any kind of gun, really, and a "flingueur" is a gun-toting gangster.
There's a 1963 French film called "Les Tontons Flingueurs" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057591/), which roughly translates to "Gun-Toting Uncles". ("Tonton" is slang for "Uncle")
It's actually a gangster comedy and one of the great French classics.
I should probably Netflix it. It's been a while since I've seen it.

[darrelx.livejournal.com]

I watched it on Pay-per-View over the weekend... and yes, I liked it too.

It was a fantastic live-action version of the cartoon I remember... but with more plot! [grin]

[ultraken.livejournal.com]

I saw it with friends while I was in New Orleans in May, and liked it too. It's definitely garish, I'll give it that, but definitely fun to watch. My sister told me that my three-and-a-half year old nephew liked it too.

[duntov-475hp.livejournal.com]

It could be hubmotors, and it doesn't have to be electrical, there are motorcycles out there sporting gas powered hub motors, like Batman The Dork Knight, from what I understand that one had TWO which would be insane to keep in tune.
I dunno, though, it could be something more complex. It could just be using something similar to the effects of high temp super conductors using the magnetic leylines in a sort of way like ships use sails to propel itself. Hey, there are brakes that work using opposing magnets without any pads making contact with each other, I suppose they could use the same tech to propel one, too.