May 13- OOOH! Speed!
I haven’t had the chance to go see the “Speed Racer” flick yet- heck, I still haven’t gotten to “Iron Man” –and that’s at the top of my list…but, I’ve certainly gotten mixed reviews of it. Some say it’s a visual riot, but the story is extra weak- some say it’s too long- and some think it was better off as a cartoon.
The cartoon (when we first saw it, it wasn’t called ‘anime’ yet in these parts) was always a “must-see” show for my brothers and I- not because we were amazed by the action, but more because we found so much of it to be funny. This, of course, stemmed from mainly the hyperactive dubbing. The voices, going at a breakneck pace to try to sync the lines with the “lip movements” of the characters always seemed funny to us…and we used to notice that, at times, when the chimp Chim Chim (who was so beloved by my younger brothers, when we got a little Quaker parrot, he was named –Chim Chim!) was making noises- it seemed that they didn’t just dub in new chimp sounds, but often left the original soundtrack’s chimp noises there- so, you had two monkey voices going at once! Another favorite part was the often used exclamations done with close-ups of the characters, delivering an agitated “HAHHH?” or, Speed’s trademark “OOOOOH!” We also questioned whether Speed had gone somewhat overboard on the Maybelline on his saucer-like eyes.
His car, the Mach 5, was almost a character itself- and the special features, like the rotating saw blades, or the “homing robot” that soared like a mechanical bird out of the hood, and the steering wheel with its buttons, each labeled with a letter,
Seemed like accessories that every car should have. We especially liked the “yomp-yomp-yomp-yomp” noise the car made when it “jumped” through the air!
The show seemed to be especially violent for a cartoon, even though they seemed to try to soften it up- in one episode, in which Speed is trying to help out a downtrodden circus, the visuals show “still” pictures of a lion tamer in with a lion, followed by a still showing the lion tamer’s whip on the ground, and a hand lying limp- which would seem to indicate that the lion had done the poor sap in-but the dubbed dialogue was saying something to the effect of- “We hated to get rid of our lions, because we loved them so, but we couldn’t afford to feed them!”
I’m trying to schedule our Speed Racer parody from a few years ago into an upcoming show- so, be looking for that- but, I’m still on the fence about going to a theater to see the movie.
I’ll wait for it to hit dvd if I hear that there isn’t a single shot of Speed in close-up crying “OOOOOH!”
The cartoon (when we first saw it, it wasn’t called ‘anime’ yet in these parts) was always a “must-see” show for my brothers and I- not because we were amazed by the action, but more because we found so much of it to be funny. This, of course, stemmed from mainly the hyperactive dubbing. The voices, going at a breakneck pace to try to sync the lines with the “lip movements” of the characters always seemed funny to us…and we used to notice that, at times, when the chimp Chim Chim (who was so beloved by my younger brothers, when we got a little Quaker parrot, he was named –Chim Chim!) was making noises- it seemed that they didn’t just dub in new chimp sounds, but often left the original soundtrack’s chimp noises there- so, you had two monkey voices going at once! Another favorite part was the often used exclamations done with close-ups of the characters, delivering an agitated “HAHHH?” or, Speed’s trademark “OOOOOH!” We also questioned whether Speed had gone somewhat overboard on the Maybelline on his saucer-like eyes.
His car, the Mach 5, was almost a character itself- and the special features, like the rotating saw blades, or the “homing robot” that soared like a mechanical bird out of the hood, and the steering wheel with its buttons, each labeled with a letter,
Seemed like accessories that every car should have. We especially liked the “yomp-yomp-yomp-yomp” noise the car made when it “jumped” through the air!
The show seemed to be especially violent for a cartoon, even though they seemed to try to soften it up- in one episode, in which Speed is trying to help out a downtrodden circus, the visuals show “still” pictures of a lion tamer in with a lion, followed by a still showing the lion tamer’s whip on the ground, and a hand lying limp- which would seem to indicate that the lion had done the poor sap in-but the dubbed dialogue was saying something to the effect of- “We hated to get rid of our lions, because we loved them so, but we couldn’t afford to feed them!”
I’m trying to schedule our Speed Racer parody from a few years ago into an upcoming show- so, be looking for that- but, I’m still on the fence about going to a theater to see the movie.
I’ll wait for it to hit dvd if I hear that there isn’t a single shot of Speed in close-up crying “OOOOOH!”
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"Ooooh Aaaahhh, HaHaaaa ! I'm speaking very fast but my lips aren't moving Ha Ha !" Here's a question for anyone who may know. I've always wondered. Why did Speed have a "G" on his shirt? Was it one of his initials? After all who names thier son Speed? And was his last name really "Racer". Maybe in the original japanese version they called him by his real name.
@ Perry P.
In the original Japanese (Mach Go Go Go), Speed's name was Go Mifune, So that explains the G (Go is the japanese word for Five). The M on the car stood for the family company Mifune Motors. In the comic book adaptation that was out a couple of years ago, they gave Speed the name "Greg" to make sense of the G. Makes me wonder if they will keep all the original Japanese names when the movie is dubbed for Japan.
BTW, Sven...Speed DOES do the car spin and the OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! in the movie. At least go to a matinee to see it....