ANIMATED SHORTS: A HISTORY OF SPEED RACER

[MattBrady]

by Steve Fritz

You hear the opening blast of trumpets and the rapid arpeggio of piano, and you automatically know the song. The lyrics are so simple, you can sing along with them in a split second.

"Here he comes
Here comes Speed Racer
He's a demon on wheels..."

The cast of this series is remembered fondly by both anime and non-anime fans alike. In fact, it’s hard to find anyone who can’t name all of them (well, they might have some difficulty naming Sparky or Inspector Detector). Then there's that car, the “powerful” Mach 5. KITT be damned, it’s the coolest car to ever be on TV.

Speed Racer, the classic anime series of the 1960's is back in a big way, with a new TV series and a movie by the Wachowski Brothers coming out this Friday. It debuted in Japan as Mach Go Go Go in April 1967. Shortly thereafter, that September, U.S. syndicator Trans-Lux brought it over domestically. Thanks to its success, it insured its creator, Tatsuo Yoshida, and his studio, Tatsunoko, anime immortality. It also assured that Peter Fernandez, the man who did the American adaptation of the series, became the first person into the All American Anime Hall of Fame last year.

So why is Speed one of the greatest shows to grace the small screen? As Fernandez puts it, two reasons:

“First of all, cars. You played with cars when you were a kid. We all did. Girls too. Of course, boys are better at it, they know how to make better crashes. Now that’s the first thing. No matter what anyone else says, Speed Racer is all about cars. The second thing is the characters. Speed, Pops, the family, Sparky and Trixie; it was a close knit group. They were characters that people cared about. They weren’t just nameless heroes that wins the war or whatever.”

In other words, in the late 1960's it was every boy's dream to have the coolest car. Many a living room floor was littered with the parts of models of Jaguars and Ferrari’s, electronic race sets or the coolest new sensation to hit the toy market that year, Mattell’s Hot Wheels. When kids didn’t dream of being a superspy like James Bond (and driving his Astin-Martin), they wanted to be Mario Andretti.

They also wanted to be with the cutest girl, a loving and tolerant family and some truly loyal friends at your side. Speed Racer had all of them.

Also, back then the top form of car racing was Grand Prix. This style featured the most torqued up and plain coolest looking cars to grace the speedways. You also traveled to the most exotic locations in the world. NASCAR was still considered a lower form of racing. Speed Racer also had all those elements, in spades.

And thanks to Yoshida and his two brothers, it had some of the best animation for the day, with only the likes of Hanna-Barbera (that’s to shows like Jonny Quest and Space Ghostor Tezuka’s Mushi Studio (Kimba The White Lion) for competition.

Then there were the various elements of the show itself. Let's take a look at them:

TATSUNOKO PRODUCTIONS

Tatsunoko was one of the first, and still one of the most prominent, anime studios ever. It was founded in the 1950s by Yoshida and his two brothers, Kenji and Toyaharu (who also was known as Ippei Kuri), initially as a place for the three brothers to produce manga. But the initial guiding light was Tatsuo. In fact, the name itself, which literally means “seahorse” thus the logo, is also a pun that can be broken down into “Tatsu no co” or “Tatsuo’s company.”

One thing that set Tatsuo apart from the competition was his love of everything American. Unlike the mighty Tezuka, who never denied his inspiration partially came from Disney and the Fleischer Brothers, Yoshida also loved American comic books and just about everything else about the U.S. lifestyle. In fact, in an interesting bit of trivia, after he established himself as a manga artist in the 50s, Yoshida became the first Japanese comic book artist in Japan to do Japanese adaptations of his favorite superhero of all time, Superman.

That didn’t mean he and his brothers didn’t keep an eye out on the competition. As one can imagine in those days, just about anything Tezuka did, and he was the father of modern manga, Yoshida was well aware of. So when Tezuka turned one of his greatest titles, Tetsuwan Atom (aka Astro Boy) into an animated series, and in turn became an international hit, the three brothers followed suit.

According to the well-researched site i.gospeedracer.com, the brothers realized there was a lot more to becoming an animation studio than just buying the equipment. Before starting their own productions, they took some time out to work at the largest Japanese studio of the day, Toei. The job didn’t last too long, they were quickly fired for reasons never given. Apparently, with the aid of a Tezuka protégé Hiroshi Sasagawa, they did get enough experience to start up the animation end of their studio. One other important element was they met their second employee (after Sasagawa), Seitaro Hara, who would become an episode director for the new studio.

Tatsunoko’s first show was a black and white series entitled Space Ace. According to a number of sources, the show did fair-to-middling when it was picked up by the massive Japanese network Fuji TV. It ran for 52 episodes and insured the brothers didn’t have to produce manga in order to survive. On the other hand, they were seeing the likes of Tezuka’s Mushi making a lot of extra revenue from exporting his shows to foreign markets. They also noted other studios were making impact in the U.S. with shows such as Gigantor and 8th Man. Unfortunately for them, Space Ace didn’t get anywhere with the U.S. market. That would change with their second attempt.

In 1960, Tatsuo produced a manga entitled Pilot Ace. It would evolve over the next few years, finally being called Mach Go Go Go in 1966. Apparently about to be reissued by Diamond Comics, the series revolved around racing.

“Mach Go Go Go was based on our all-out adoration of America,” youngest brother Ippei would recall. “A defeated people witnessed American GI's driving about comfortably in their jeeps. American movies showed a life of abundance in the American household. Refrigerators were stuffed with food and fresh milk. It was absolutely unbelievable, like the Superman comics.”

“It was also about a car, and the characters were similar to those in Mach Go Go Go, added middle brother Kenji . “The manga was well received and we decided to adopt it for television. Also, at the time, auto racing was pretty popular in Japan.”

It would also be their first attempt at color. The result was the studio's first megahit. Before you knew it, Speed toys were the huge thing in Japan ranging anywhere from model kits of the Mach 5 through its hero’s signature helmet and red neckerchief.

It’s now easy to see why. According to a recent National Public Radio report, Speed’s design was based on one of the biggest movie and music stars of the day, Elvis Presley, especially from his biggest movies Viva! Las Vegas. The Mach 5 itself, created by animator Mitsuki Nakamura, was truly one sexy beast. It not only looked fast, but had a timeless quality that made a model of it a hit of the most recent Detroit auto show, held earlier this year. Finally, the brothers and their team apparently did a ton of research not only at the then recently opened Fuji race track, but also to make their settings as realistic as they could. The finishing touch was the introduction of airbrushing into their color work, a technique they stole from Disney.

The original series did 52 episodes, usually two- or three-parters, unusual for back then. This was an innovation from another key hire, Jinzo Toriyumi, who also previously worked with Tezuka on Astro Boy. He not only adapted many of the manga plots into anime, but was also exceedingly sharp at fast-paced timing and with one of the wildest imaginations of the day. This allowed for better than average plotting and deeper characterization.

The company continues to this day, and has produced many more anime classics. Among them were Gatchaman, Macross, Time Bokan and most recently, Karas.

TRANS-LUX TELEVISION & AMERICAN ADAPTATION

If there is another important company playing in the history of Speed Racer, it was Trans-Lux.

The company was founded by no less than Thomas Edison under the moniker Edison Electric Industries. It insured its place in history by coming up with the first successful stock ticker display. With the advent of television, it moved into creating original animation for syndication, with its first hits being Joe Oriolo’s Felix The Cat and The Mighty Hercules. In 1963, they saw Fred Ladd, who was working for rival syndicator NBC Enterprises, hit the market with a show he would later tell me he bought for “three bowls of rice,” aka Astro Boy.

So they did the obvious thing, they stole Ladd. They saw him repeat his success with Gigantor in 1964. Even though the shows weren’t gigantic hits per se, they apparently were profitable. Further, it followed the formula that Trans-Lux loved, buy cheap, cash in quick. By 1965, Ladd would be back at NBC Enterprises to work on Kimba.

Key to Ladd’s operations was one Pete Fernandez, who previous to Speed Racer worked on Astro Boy . For Speed, Fernandez not only directed the American versions of the show, but helped write the scripts and even supplied the voices of Speed and Racer X. Not that Fernandez was completely alone. He had a loyal, small team around him that included Corinne Orr (the voice of Spritle, Trixie & Mom Racer), Jack Curtis (Pops and Inspector Detector), and Jack Crimes (Sparky & Chim Chim).

“A couple of editors, Pablo Cervales and Sheldon Rich, worked a lot with me and Fred Ladd and were approached by Trans-Lux, the distributor,” Fernandez recalled. “Basically, they told me they had this series from Japan and could I dub it? I said of course, and I did it.”

Most importantly, one thing that Trans-Lux did was leave Fernandez pretty much alone. This was both good and bad.

“How it went was I got the scripts from Japan,” Fernandez recalled, “sporadically. There were many times when I didn’t know which script I was getting myself. What would happen is the distributors would give me the scripts and I would get to work and start writing scripts for them, casting the voices for them and everything else. There was always somebody in the middle. I never met the guys from Tatsunoko in my entire life, and I did a lot of Japanese films in my time. In fact, I have never met a single person from Japan who was involved in a single project I worked on.”

One thing this relation did give Fernandez was tremendous leeway when it came to adapting the show. By the time he was done, the main characters ended up like this:

SPEED - The second son of Pops Racer, the greatest race car designer in the world. His only ambition in life is to become the best driver in the world. Being he's still a teenager, Pops doesn't think Speed is experienced enough, but that doesn't stop him. Speed's a loyal and true friend, a good fighter and magnificent driver. He's also a bit innocent when it comes to girls. Like almost all of the Racer family, he's hot-headed and impulsive. Still, when it comes to racing he's all business. In the Japanese series, Speed’s name was Goh Mifune, which is why he has a "G" on his shirt and the “M” on his helmet.

POPS - The man who created the Mach 5. He's got a terrible temper but also cools off quickly. He's prone to work himself to death if he isn't careful. On the good side, Pops is a loving, caring father and a demon on redesigning the Mach 5 for whatever race it's about to enter. Pops is a former national wresting champion. That probably goes a long way towards explaining why all the Racers are great fighters.

MOM - The level-headed member of the Racer family, Mom Racer usually stays in the background. The only time you see her out of the house is to cheer Speed on at the track. Just don't doubt how powerful she is, none of the men of this family ever argue with her when she puts her foot down. Mom is actually Speed's biggest ally.

RACER X - He's really Speed's older brother, Rex. When younger Pops and Rex fought about whether he was experienced enough to race, Rex snuck off with Pops then-best car and crashed. Pops and Rex got into another fight over this. Rex then ran away from his father and family. He reappeared as the mysterious masked driver, Racer X. He's now a top spy and international law enforcement officer, but still loves to race. While Rex will never let his family know who he is, he's always nearby, ready to help Speed both on and off the raceways. Racer X is no slouch as a driver, he's won the Le Mans Grand Prix four times in a row.

TRIXIE - Don't mistake Trixie for one of the fawning female fans gathering around Speed. She's independent, can fight well in her own right, and very, very protective of her beau. Her reflexes are so good Speed has no problem relinquishing the wheel of the Mach 5 to her. Trixie is also a top-notch helicopter and airplane pilot. She also has a fetish for Capris pants and the color pink.

SPARKY - If ever there was a grease monkey a driver can rely on, it's Sparky. He's not only an ace mechanic, but Speed's best friend. That friendship often leads the two into major arguments. Sparky is usually the voice of reason when Speed is about to fly off the handle. Sparky is the only person who knows the Mach 5 as well as Pops.

SPRITLE - The youngest of the Racer boys, Spritle appears to have been gifted with his father's mechanical genius. There's only two things Spritle loves more than racing, eating and getting into trouble. He is often sneaking into places he was specifically told not to go to, particularly the trunk of the Mach 5. Spritle can--and has!--built his own cars. Not bad for a kid in elementary school.

CHIM CHIM - The family's pet chimpanzee and loyal pet of the Racer family. This ape is particularly good at stealing food for other people, but otherwise can be counted on in even the worst situations. He usually can be found with Spritle in the trunk of the Mach 5. One also gets the feeling Chim Chim is smarter than Spritle.

THE MACH 5 - The fastest Grand Prix car in existence. It easily goes over 200 miles per hour and comes chock full of special features not seen in any other racing car. What’s interesting is it went through some major modifications over the series. Pops would constantly be upgrading the engine, and if you listen carefully, each time he did it, the sound of the motor changed with it. The Mach 5 also came with some special features not on any other car, both in real life and in animation. Most of these special devices are in a control panel on Speed's steering wheel, and are labeled A through G. There was an eighth, H, which was accessed a control stick for the robotic homing bird Speed occasionally used.

Whatever one may think of the changes, it worked with American kids. The mix of Tatsunoko sophistication and Fernandez’s adaptations made it an immediate hit in syndication.

“All I’d like to say is whatever job I did I just tried to do my best, whatever it was,” says Fernandez. “It’s the only way I know how to survive.”

Fernandez is still active in animation today. Some other highlights of his career include the recently reissued The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers and Courage The Cowardly Dog.

SPIN-OFFS

If one has to say one thing about Speed and the Mach 5, after Tatsunoko finished production in 1967 (and the U,.S. syndicated version stopped its original run in 1968), the show continued to air far longer than anyone expected.

In 1969, Trans-Lux sold the series to Alan Enterprises, where it continued in repeats for decades to come. Alan sold the series to Color Systems Technology, which then went bankrupt in 1986 and was acquired by General Electric. In 1989, Lorne Michaels and his Broadway Enterprises picked up the series in 1989. Then John Rocknowski acquired the title from Michaels, and formed Speed Racer Enterprises (SRE) in 1992.

SRE didn’t sit on their laurels for long. They hooked up with Fred Wolf to do a new series, The New Adventures of Speed Racer in 1993. The series only lasted 13 episodes. Meanwhile the original series was picked up by Cartoon Network, who would run the series for a number of years.

Tatsunoko wasn’t sitting on idle either. They created another new series, Speed Racer X in 1997. This series would be picked up by Nickelodeon domestically. It included a number of up-and-coming American voice artists, including Dave Wittenburg, Michelle Ruff and Joshua Seth. Unfortunately, Nick dumped the program shortly after they started airing it. It has been a hard one to catch outside of bootlegs. Meanwhile, after a stint on CN spinoff Boormerang, the original series moved on to the racing cable channel, appropriately called Speed.

Then a few years back, SRE sold the DVD rights to Lionsgate Home Entertainment. According to Lionsgate VP Mark Rathauser, the subsequent five volume release became one very steady seller.

“We had a lot of fun putting it together,” Rathauser recalls. “It did surprisingly well, and as you can imagine, the sales are on an upswing again. With the coming of the movie everyone wants to see the original shows again. Everything started because we love Speed Racer so much. In fact, we were planning to do the TV show independently of if there was going to be a movie or not. We wanted to create something that took what we loved about Speed and create a continuation that appealed to a new generation.”

For Lionsgate, that something new is Speed Racer: The Next Generation, which was done in cooperation with Nickelodeon, the Animation Collective and SRE. It debuted last Friday, May 2.

Now this Friday, May 9, the Wachowski Brothers film hits the big screen. If you listen closely, you’ll hear the blast of trumpets and arpeggio of a piano in the soundtrack. After all, like the series, it’s something you never forget.

BOOMERANG SELECTS WILMA AS MOTHER OF THE YEAR

To celebrate Mother's Day on Sunday, May 11, Boomerang will do a 7-hour tribute to that modern Stone-Age
matriarch, Wilma Flintstone. Entitled the Wilma Flintstone Mother's Day Marathon, it airs from 12-7 p.m. (ET). Viewers will see Wilma Flintstone through the years-as she and Fred first court, during her pregnancy, as a new mother and, finally, as she becomes a grandmother. The holiday marathon kicks off with five and one-half hours of
Wilma-centric escapades from the original The Flintstones animated series and concludes with the 90-minute animated feature Hollyrock-A-Bye Baby (1993).

FUNIMATION GOES TO ZUNE

Microsoft Corp. today announced that Zune is adding new software features and content to the Zune online store, music community and Zune Pass monthly subscription service. Among the shows it will now carry is a number of series distributed by FUNimation, including Trinity Blood, Desert Punk, Witchblade, Afro Samurai, Samurai 7, Solty Rei, Speed Grapher and Suzuka.

The shows are supposed to be up and running now. You can access them at www.zune.net.

CLONE WARS TRAILER IS UP

Warner Bros. announced its trailer for its feature film Star Wars: The Clone Wars is now up. You can access the all-CGI affair on all five Turner Network TV internet URLs (including Cartoon Network, obviously).

NEXT COLUMN: Finally! We get to George Melies. .

[vincentvague]

psyched for clone wars

[TheGrowth]

Boy was I addicted to this series

[Question86]

Wow, I always thought the M on his helmet was for the Mach 5.

Wasnt his name in the American version just Speed?

On a side note, Ive never been able to take Speed Racer seriously since Dexter's Laboratory parodied it

[sfritz]

Originally Posted by Question86

Wow, I always thought the M on his helmet was for the Mach 5.

Wasnt his name in the American version just Speed?

On a side note, Ive never been able to take Speed Racer seriously since Dexter's Laboratory parodied it

Nope. His full name was Speed Racer.

And while the Dexter bit was good, I still love the reference Animation Collective threw in Kappa Mikey...where Speed wound up as Mikey's chauffer the best.

-s

[Chitwood]

Originally Posted by TheGrowth

Boy was I addicted to this series

Me too. I'd fall asleep watching it when Cartoon Network actually aired it.

[Kolimar]

Interesting History lesson.

[Lupek]

Nice article.

Greatest cartoon ever!

[OM]

Then there's that car, the “powerful” Mach 5. KITT be damned, it’s the coolest car to ever be on TV.

...Steve, there's a number of us Bat-Fans who'd love to disagree with you on that one. The Barris Batmobile may not be able to jump using hydraulic jacks, but it'll still run rings around the Mach 5!

[sfritz]

Originally Posted by OM

...Steve, there's a number of us Bat-Fans who'd love to disagree with you on that one. The Barris Batmobile may not be able to jump using hydraulic jacks, but it'll still run rings around the Mach 5!

Hmmm....i'd love to see a race between the Mach 5 and Batmobile.

Speaking of, has anyone ever seen Yoshida's work on Superman? Now that REALLY has my curiousity going, especially after seeing his Mach Go Go Go manga. -s

[TheToileteer]

Why the "M" on his helmet?

1. Speed Racer was originally going to be named "Meth Racer."
2. Has vowed fealty to House of Magneto.
3. McDonald's tie-in.
4. Pledged Sigma, but was too drunk to put the parking sticker on right.
5. Roman numeral for the number of women Elvis pleasured in HIS car
6. Because Speed wears a size "medium" helmet.

(you finish)

As for the "G" on his shirt, I figure it must be some sort of Masonic reference.

[Thad]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

CLONE WARS TRAILER IS UP

Warner Bros. announced its trailer for its feature film Star Wars: The Clone Wars is now up. You can access the all-CGI affair on all five Turner Network TV internet URLs (including Cartoon Network, obviously).

Uh, care to be more specific? All I see on the CN page is a teaser telling me there's a trailer coming.

[beta-ray]

Originally Posted by Thad

Uh, care to be more specific? All I see on the CN page is a teaser telling me there's a trailer coming.

Man it's not even on the starwars.com site.

Wonder if it is the same as this one?

http://gizmodo.com/379190/leaked-clo...-force-hotness

[Thad]

Yeah, I saw that too, but the quality's not even good enough for me to sit through it.

[DMP]

Originally Posted by Steve Fritz

In 1960, Tatsuo produced a manga entitled Pilot Ace. It would evolve over the next few years, finally being called Mach Go Go Go in 1966. Apparently about to be reissued by Diamond Comics, the series revolved around racing.

The pre-anime original Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go manga is out NOW by Digital Manga Publishing, not Diamond Comics. A 2-volume hardcover set, it's the first time the entire manga has ever been published in the U.S. It contains several prototype stories that eventually became episodes of the TV show.

Other than that unfortunate, glaring error (to us), nice article!