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!

I enjoyed Speed Racer when I was a kid. I haven't seen it in 25 years or so and I'd probably be horrified now by what my youthful tastes were back then, but I remember liking the race scenes and what the car could do. I remember wanting my first car to be one that would have buzzsaws come out of the front and a big lever that would come down underneath the car that would make it jump over other cars. That last feature doesn't seem like it would work to me, now that I think about it as an adult.

Anyway, the live-action version with Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, and Matthew Fox opens this Friday. And the early buzz is that it's not going to do as well as they were hoping it would.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• The 4400 - Season 4
• Acapulco H.E.A.T. - Complete Series
• 'Allo 'Allo - Series 8
• Avatar The Last Airbender - Book 3 Fire, Vol. 3
• Bewitched - Season 6 (color)
• Crossing Jordan - Season 1
• Greg the Bunny - Best of the Film Parodies: Vol. 2
• A Haunting - Hauntings in America
• Hiya Kids! A 50's Saturday Morning Box
• The Jack Benny Show - The Jack Benny Show
• Madeline - Next Stop America
• Man vs. Wild - Collection 1
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (widescreen)
• Naruto - Uncut Boxed Set Vol. 7 (special edition)
• Punky Brewster - Season 1, Vol. 1
• Sgt. Preston of the Yukon - Best Of
• Speed Racer: The Next Generation - Vol. 1
• Spider-Man - Mutant Agenda
• That Girl - Season 1, Vol. 1

Here is a pleasant letter I got this week from a fan named Everett Mason...

Everett writes, "Hi Paul, I'm trying to remember a 70's anime. I know it was about a boy from outer space that had powers. It was in black and white. It might have been called space boy or something like that."

Well, clearly the answer is Astro Boy. Even if you have never seen the show, I'm sure most of you are at least familiar with it. The character has been one of the more successful crossovers from Japanese animation to America.

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• On December 17, Ann Curry is going to bungee jump off a bridge.
• Here's the trailer for the big screen Speed Racer movie.
• Behind the scenes of Rachael Ray.
• MTV picks the 10 most uncomfortable star interview moments (I think the Phoenix interview should be #1).
• Cracked picks the 13 most ridiculous TV shows of all-time (I don't agree with their choices of Quark and The 100 Lives of Blackjack Savage.)
• Tim Goodman has started a new TV blog, and he picks the 5 best Christmas specials, and I really can't argue with that list (though Miracle on 34th Street should probably be in there).

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.

Friday at Comic-Con got underway with the Warner Brothers presentation. The swag bag included a Get Smart t-shirt with "KAOS" written on one side and "CONTROL" on the other. Not so surprisingly, no one under the age of 20 seemed to know what this meant, but Warner Brothers needn't worry because the kids love The Rock. And, because this is Comic-Con, The Rock (Agent 23) put in an appearance along with his Get Smart co-stars Steve Carrell, Masi "unofficial Comic-Con poster boy" Oka, Studio 60's Nate Torrence and Borat's Ken Davitian mercifully wearing pants.

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.

While trying to keep up with all the casting news for the Wachowski brothers feature-length, live-action Speed Racer adaptation, I missed this bit of news.

As I've written before, the character of Chim Chim, Speed's monkey pal, would be played in the movie not by some animatronic 'bot or CGI creation, but by an actual flesh and blood chimp. Unfortunately, the chimp bit an actor on the set and was beaten, or so PETA was told, and the animal rights group sent a letter to producer Joel Silver asking him to stop using a real chimp.

Big thanks to our sister site Cinematical for news on the latest addition to the live-action Speed Racer flick. Richard Roundtree, Shaft himself, has joined the cast as Ben Burns, a former racer who now works as a commentator at the track.

The cast also includes Emile Hirsch as Speed, Matthew Fox as Racer X, Christina Ricci as Trixie, John Goodman as Pops, Susan Sarandon as Moms, Roger Allam as Royalton, and Scott Porter as Rex, Speed's brother who becomes Racer X (played by Matthew Fox, as mentioned).

The Wachowski brothers, the men behind the Matrix trilogy, have said they want Speed Racer to be a family movie, and apparently that's exactly what it will be with its G rating. Also, based on the design of the Mach 5, it would also appear they're trying to emulate the original cartoon series as much as possible.

The film hits theaters May 9, 2008.

When I heard Speed Racer was coming to Nicktoons, I figured it was the original cartoon, but no such luck. Instead, a newer version is being created to (not) coincide with the upcoming live-action film version from the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix), although having both debuting around the same time will definitely result in the kind of synergy studios crave.

The new Speed Racer 'toon is being produced through Lionsgate and Animation Collective, the studio behind Kappa Mikey, an anime-inspired comedy that also airs on Nicktoons.

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).

I've been posting a lot about the upcoming Speed Racer movie, but so far it's mostly been casting news and not a lot of information on what the actual movie will look like.

Of course, we've been able to venture some guesses as to what we might expect, since the movie is being helmed by Matrix creators Larry and Andy Wachowski.

Korean pop star Rain, the bane of Stephen Colbert's existence (see video below) is in negotiations to appear in the upcoming Speed Racer film from the Wachowski brothers, the duo behind the Matrix trilogy. Rain will join already-cast Matthew Fox (Lost), Christina Ricci, Emile Hirsch, John Goodman and Susan Sarandon.

Rain, whose real name is Jung Ji-hoon, appeared in the 2006 Korean film I'm a Cyborg, but that's OK (doesn't that sound like a Monty Python song)? He is not officially part of Speed Racer just yet. What's also not clear is how big his role will be.

The movie begins shooting this summer and is slated for release sometime next May.

Matthew Fox of Lost has joined the cast of the upcoming Speed Racer movie as Racer X.

FOX joins previously cast Christina Ricci (Trixie); Emile Hirsch (Speed); and John Goodman and Susan Sarandon (Speed's parents). The new movie will be helmed by the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix), and will begin shooting this summer (while Lost is on break) for a May 2008 release.

I'll admit I don't pay as much attention to movie scuttlebutt as I do television, but based on the rumblings about this movie I've caught here and there, it sounds like it could be pretty cool: an amplified, effects-laden version of the '60s cartoon. I imagine that, not unlike the Matrix movies, it'll be something that needs to be seen on the bigscreen.