WHO’S IN IT?
Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder: Party Liason), Paul Giamatti (Sideways), Michael Peña (Crash), Snoop Dogg (Starsky and Hutch), Maya Rudolph (Bridesmaids), Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction), Luis Guzmán (Traffic), Bill Hader (Superbad), Richard Jenkins (Burn After Reading), Ken Jeong (The Hangover)
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
David Soren (film debut), director, co-writer; Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever After) and Robert D. Siegel (The Wrestler), writers; Lisa Stewart (Monsters vs. Aliens), producer; Henry Jackman (X-Men: First Class), composer; Chris Stover (film debut), cinematographer
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
A garden snail known as Turbo (Reynolds) is dissatisfied with his slow-moving life and dreams of being the fastest snail in the world. Funnily enough, he might just get his wish when a freak accident enables him with the power of super-speed and he uses it to achieve his impossible dream: competing in the world’s fastest car race the Indianapolis 500…
WHY SHOULD YOU BE EXCITED?
As much as people love to adore Pixar, there are those who also love to rip into DreamWorks Animation, a studio co-founded by former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, for being a mere copycat mooching off Pixar’s successes. And, in the early days, their opinion wasn’t unfounded with Antz (supposedly ripping off Pixar’s A Bug’s Life) and Shark Tale (DreamWorks’ answer to Finding Nemo) being the prime examples. But in its more recent years, with the releases of the Kung Fu Panda films and especially How To Train Your Dragon and next year’s sequel, it has managed to find its own identity with visually-stunning visuals and unique storylines to match even Pixar.
Turbo, on the other hand, seems like the studio is going right back to the days of Shark Tale which, as most of you might know, is not exactly the best thing.
Somehow managing to copy story threads from both Cars and Ratatouille at the same time – how does one even manage that? – the story of an ordinary garden snail who dreams big and fast on the racetrack sounds, well, a little silly.
And yes, of course it’s a cartoon meant for kids, it’s not really supposed to be geared to older audience members aside from maybe their parents. But only a few years ago, DreamWorks released How To Train Your Dragon, a smart, funny, emotional and surprisingly mature family film with some breath-taking 3D sequences and a fantasy mythos that manages to out-Avatar even Avatar. In fact, earlier this year the same studio released The Croods which was an energetic and likable prehistoric romp which, again, boasted some strong emotional moments. So how is it that they’ve gone back to making films like Turbo, which just feels like what Shark Tale turned out to be as a dumb premise mixed with high-calibre voice actors and a slew of pop-culture references?
But the prime rule of these Film Feeder previews is that one shouldn’t judge before anyone’s had a chance to see it. Strange as the plot may be, the film does seem to boast some cool situations and action sequences with stunning CG animation to keep your children occupied, and like most films to come out of DreamWorks it’s harmless enough.
With all these and more, you’ll hopefully look over the bizarre nature of Turbo and just treat it as a harmless movie to keep your children entertained this half-term.
