Can Speed survive his daily challenges, and become the greatest race car driver in the world? And it's a good thing Speed has all these people to help him, because he's constantly set upon by a vast array of villains who crop up during Speed's races evil men bent on controlling the world, or stealing vast sums of money, or merely looking to bump Speed off during one of his harrowing races. Most mysteriously, though, a strange figure, Racer X, also seems to keep a watchful eye over Speed, oftentimes showing up at a critical moment in the young racer's life to not only save him, but also to offer a helpful lesson about life and racing. Speed's younger brother, Spritle, and his pet chimp Chim-Chim, are frequent stowaways in the Mach 5's trunk, and while Spritle can often be a nuisance ("I want some candy!"), he also manages to help Speed on numerous occasions. Mechanic Sparky, also keeps the Mach 5 running in tip-top shape, while friend Trixie, who's often jealous of the girls that fall for dreamy Speed, flies a mean helicopter when necessary - which is often when Speed and the Mach 5 find themselves stranded on some alpine ridge or volcanic abyss. Pops, of course, is always improving and modifying the Mach 5 - which has the ability, among other things, to submerge underwater, to cut down trees in its path courtesy of two large front-end buzz saws, to spring over large obstacles, and to send off a tape-recording robot homing pigeon to call for help. Always learning, always improving, Speed is often aided in his pursuit of excellence by his large support network. Once Pop reluctantly agrees, Speed is constantly pushing himself to improve his racing skills, frequently finding himself coming up short despite his innate, superior driving skills. Possessing the gadget-filled Mach 5, one of the most complex cars on the planet (built by his engineering wizard of a father, Pops Racer), Speed wants to be the greatest racer in the world - if he can convince his father to let him race. Young, would-be race car driver Speed Racer has something to prove.
The storyline of Speed Racer is quite simple (and at times, admittedly, repetitive). Along with vocal talents Corinne Orr, Jack Grimes and Jack Curtis, Fernandez had the difficult task of not only completely rewriting the episode scripts into English (while maintaining the basic storylines), but also fitting the new English dialogue to match the mouth movements of the animation - a challenge that resulted in Speed Racer's distinctive "sound," with elongated sentences and plenty of "ah's!" and "oh's!" to fill the screen time of the characters' mouthings.
#SPEED RACER TV#
Fernandez, in charge of not only editing the episodes for American TV (very small, minor cuts occasionally had to be made, to tone down the original violence of the Japanese episodes), but also in providing an entirely new dub track, rechristened Mach GoGoGo as Speed Racer, while Fernandez himself voiced Speed and the mysterious Racer X.
#SPEED RACER SERIES#
Obviously in need of an overhaul for American audiences, the Japanese-language series was handed over to Peter Fernandez, an editor, writer, and sound effects jack-of-all-trades who had previously worked on Japanese imports, Astro-Boy and Gigantor, two animes that set the stage in America for the massive success of Speed Racer. Mach GoGoGo proved popular enough in Japan to be translated into an anime series in 1967 (animated at Yoshida's Tatsunoko Productions studio), with the one-season series then exported to America for syndicated runs by Trans-Lux. Anyone looking at the character who would become known as "Speed Racer" can see the obvious stylistic nod to Elvis Presley (including his black pompadour and even his red sport coat and skinny tie in early episodes), as well as the Bondian tilt in not only the design of the Mach 5 (just like the Aston Martin, with all its technical marvels), but also in the scope and framework of the stories, with their globe-hopping intrigue and emphasis on quick, violent action. Originally conceived as a Japanese manga in the early 1960s by legendary anime artist, Tatsuo Yoshida, Mach GoGoGo, the story of a young race car driver, Go Mifune, was inspired not only by Yoshida's earlier manga, Pilot Ace, but also, according to interviews with the artist, two big-screen American films: Viva Las Vegas and Goldfinger (I call the Bond film "American" because it was largely financed with U.S.
Speed Racer is the americanized version of Mach GoGoGo, an animated television series created by Tatsuo Yoshida and produced by Tatsunoko Productions.
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