TVSquad

"Here he comes, here comes Speed Racer. He's a demon on wheels." -- The beginning lyrics to the theme song of Speed Racer.

In this week's installment of 'Saturday Morning' we take a break from our regularly scheduled coverage to talk about a cartoon near and dear to many readers' hearts. A cartoon that, while not the first anime to reach the shores of America of the 60s, it was certainly the most influential.

Even though it was never part on any official network schedule, Speed Racer was on somewhere at sometime during the era of Saturday morning cartoons. And, why wouldn't it be? It had everything that a child hopped up on sugar-coated, chocolate-filled cereal could want: action, drama, comedy, mysterious heroes, villains, gadgets, cars, and a boy and his chimp. It also featured animated characters with more natural characteristics than those previously seen on American television. Plus, it had a kick-ass theme song that dug into your brain.

Much has been written on the history of Speed Racer since it premiered over four decades ago. However, with the new Speed Racer live-action film now in theaters, it's a good time to revisit the origins of Speed, Trixie, Pops, Racer X, and the rest of the players. So, if you have your Mach 5 model kit in front of you, let's Go, Go, Go!

Today I did an interview with a radio station in British Columbia and we took some calls from listeners asking me all sorts of questions. One listener asked me about an animated show called Star Blazers. He wanted to know the name of the starship that was featured on the show. Well, I'm sure all you anime fans remember that the original title of the show in Japan was Star Ship Yamato.

Comic-Con 2007 officially began with Wednesday's "Preview Night" or, as I like to call it, "Get the Lay of the Land So You Don't Get Trampled to Death by a Grown Man in a Pikachu Costume Night."

Over the next couple of days, I'll be covering panels featuring the casts of Lost, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica and a few of this coming season's most anticipated new shows - Pushing Daisies, Reaper and Chuck among others. You can keep abreast of the latest scoop by following TV Squad's Twitter feed. (You can score a free TV Squad t-shirt if you're in San Diego by finding me via our Twitter feed.) I'll also be posting photos on Flickr and wrapping-up each day with as many posts as I can churn out to keep you, gentle viewers, informed.

Following earlier casting news regarding the addition of Emile Hirsch (Speed), Christina Ricci (Trixie), Matthew Fox (Racer X), John Goodman and Susan Sarandon to the Wachowski brother's Speed Racer movie comes news that Scott Porter of Friday Night Lights has joined the film as Rex, Speed's brother.

A picture of the Mach 5 was recently released, and as many fans have pointed out, it looks almost identical to Speed's car from the cartoon series. The Wachowski's themselves have said they intend to make the movie family-friendly, and with a "retro future" look and feel.

The movie comes out May 9, 2008. It is currently filming in Canada.

UPDATE: Just to clarify, Porter will play Rex, who eventually becomes Racer X (played by Matthew Fox).