Go Speed Racer, go! I mean, come!
Here’s another one for the “gosh I loved that when I was a kid, and now it’s back” files:
Variety reports that Speed Racer is zooming to the small screen:
Lionsgate will announce today plans for its first animated series, a new version of the 1960s toon “Speed Racer.” Nickelodeon’s 24-hour cartoon channel, Nicktoons, is aboard to run the initial 26 episodes.
The new “Speed Racer” cartoon is set to launch next year, around the same time that Warner Bros.’ live-action “Speed Racer,” directed by the Wachowskis, hits theaters.
“It seemed like the right time to do a revival,” said Ken Katsumoto, exec VP of family entertainment at Lionsgate. “When this opportunity arose to revive such a classic property, we jumped.”
Will the series stay true to the original? Well, yes and no:
In the new franchise, young Speed Racer enters a racing academy for the fastest kids on Earth — and discovers that he’s the son of the legendary (and original series’) Speed Racer. He also finds out in the first few episodes that he has a brother — the new Racer X — whom he never knew existed.
Speed Racer wows the school with his Mach 6 (an updated version of the original show’s Mach 5) — the most advanced vehicle in the universe, which doesn’t run on gas. Speed and X team together to prevent villains from stealing the Mach 6 and to find out who’s behind the mysterious disappearance of their father.
Other characters returning include original Speed Racer’s younger brother Spritle, now headmaster of the racing academy. And chimpanzee Chim-Chim is now a mechanical robot.
(For the record, they had me right up until the bit about Chim-Chim now being a robot. What was wrong with a chimp??)
Perhaps most interesting to me was the fact that his project comes from Lionsgate, given that I thought Lionsgate was still the production company of angsty, edgy flicks rather than children’s entertainment. But apparently I’ve not been paying attention while they’ve reached out to grab another market segment:
The new “Speed Racer” comes as Lionsgate continues to expand its family entertainment biz, with a live-action “Bratz” movie coming out this August, as well as two more feature films on the docket: “Foodfight!” and “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.”
After I read the part about Bratz having a live-action movie I had to go lie down, but still, there’s news to be followed, here. And really—chimp turned robot aside—anyone who brings back Speed Racer is okay in my book.