Turbo (2013)
Directed by David Soren
The tale of an ordinary garden snail who dreams of winning the Indy 500.
3 connections found
View:
3 films that influenced Turbo
What critics say influenced Turbo
The film is not, as you would certainly be led to believe by the concept, DreamWorks's outright carbon copy of Pixar's Cars .
But after the originality of the hero, the filmmakers borrow too heavily from other movies; the similarities to "Ratatouille" and "Cars" are almost distracting.
Reminiscent of the opening of 2006's " Cars " if Lightning McQueen were to have remained at the glitzy raceway and never been sidelined in Radiator Springs to learn a valuable lesson about life in the fast lane, "Turbo" additionally loses its way in a cog of mixed messages.
Their destination is the Indy 500, where Theo (now rechristened Turbo) can win the patronage of Cars fans.
The film is not, as you would certainly be led to believe by the concept, DreamWorks's outright carbon copy of Pixar's Cars .
But after the originality of the hero, the filmmakers borrow too heavily from other movies; the similarities to "Ratatouille" and "Cars" are almost distracting.
Reminiscent of the opening of 2006's " Cars " if Lightning McQueen were to have remained at the glitzy raceway and never been sidelined in Radiator Springs to learn a valuable lesson about life in the fast lane, "Turbo" additionally loses its way in a cog of mixed messages.
Their destination is the Indy 500, where Theo (now rechristened Turbo) can win the patronage of Cars fans.
A garden snail gets to chase the chequered flag in the Indy 500 in DreamWorks' latest 3D digimation, which seems less like a riposte to Pixar's Cars than a peculiar addendum to the Wachowskis' Speed Racer .
I also enjoyed the great job Bill Hader does in voicing the egotistical French racing champion Guy Gagne, even though he is a rip-off of the Sacha Baron Cohen character from "Talladega Nights."
Hilariously voiced by Bill Hader, Gagne looks like Vincent Cassel and sounds a lot like the effete French snob Sacha Baron Cohen played in “Talladega Nights” — an amusing yet strange rival, considering only one French driver has won the Indy 500 since 1920.
The aforementioned mollusk is Turbo (Ryan Reynolds, no more animated as a cartoon), who’s initially found toiling in a suburban garden while daydreaming about racing neck-and-neck with French-Canadian driver Guy Gagné (Bill Hader, offering a tamer take on Sacha Baron Cohen’s character in Talladega Nights).
The movie draws from other films, like the obvious Nascar-inspired “Cars” but also the live-action “Talladega Nights” (including an almost-criminally similar climax), but it handles these elements well in its own plot.
“Turbo’’ actually looks pretty good compared to Pixar’s recent, mediocre “Monsters University” — not to mention a long line of DWA horrors like “Megamind’’ and “Madagascar.”
Having paid his dues with cut-rate Madagascar television and direct-to-video spinoffs, director David Soren initially displays some ambitious aims with the bigger budget and larger canvas he’s been offered here.