Toronto - If you have seen Macha Go Go Go, otherwise known as Speed Racer in North America, you would have the warm, nostalgic feeling of cheesy, contrast-y cell-shades floating in your head, set to grand music designed to convince you that racing on a track can save the world. You might also realize, as you haven’t done so in your teens, that there weren’t enough money to justify drawing millimeter-incremental cells so Racer X’s fist flies light-speed into Speed at 30 fps.

Well, I’m glad to report that nothing had changed in this new generation of Speed Racer from Lions Gate. From the get go I cringed at the choppy motion - perhaps because I had been spoiled by Japanese offerings that were Swiss-clockwork smooth. Yet there is more to it - the animators wouldn’t even give effort to complete a running sequence, as if your children (I hope that’s the intended audience) understand that modesty in production time is required in this age. I have seen smoother Flash animations. The rendered objects also looked as if they were done by a 12 years-old with 3DMAX. The texture pixels were so visible that Speed’s first car at the Academy looked like it was made out of bricks of different colors.

So let us visit the story, now that the graphic contents are out of my system. The story deals with Speed, an orphan in his teens, who had just been accepted into a driving school. Well, it turns out that there’s a conspicuous link between his pedigree and this school - his father is Speed from the original, his uncle (presumably not Racer X) is the headmaster, and his brother is the closest comparison you have to Justin Timberlake in Speed Racer. The young Speed works with his crew, delves into his past, tries to pass exams, all the while accepting challenges and races, beating the evil corporate donor who’s secretly protecting his financial interests. I won’t pretend to understand how thing could be less interesting for an adult, but this is a good formula for the YTV audience. It is interesting that some counterculture made it into the story - Mach 6 holds the technology to make gasoline obsolete, a multinational corporation is eavesdropping on everyone, virtual reality making the real world an experimental but spiritually deprived place, etc, etc. I guess they should be applauded for putting ideas into youngsters’ heads.

I’ll close by just saying that there is no hidden depth to Speed Racer: the Next Generation. You get what you think you will get when you shell out the $20 for a DVD meant for kids. And it might well be good entertainment for them. Although with the currently generation constantly fed the newest and coolest through the internet, I think the target age is lowering at racing speed.

Gary is our guest anime correspondent, in his spare time, he plays Final Fantasy XII or something like that.