When it came out this summer “Turbo” drew obvious comparisons to “Cars”, Disney/Pixar’s animated film about auto racing. But this clever DreamWorks creation can stand-out on its own, thanks to a simple, but sincere script which contains a whole lot of heart.
Turbo (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) is a snail with a dream: He wants to be a racer. In fact Turbo is not his real name – it’s Theo. His brother Chet (Paul Giamatti) thinks Theo’s dream is completely ludicrous. They live a simple life, working in a tomato garden along with the rest of the local snails, who all see Turbo as a little different.
One night, while looking for some excitement, Turbo wanders away from his suburban LA neighborhood and, through a series of events (in a “Fast & Furious”-like setting), ends-up inside a street race car and is blasted with nitrous oxide. Instantly Turbo gains the power and speed he’s always wanted. He’s a race-snail, who can now zip around at more than 200 miles an hour.
A Taco shop owner in a deadend LA strip mall finds Turbo and Chet on the street. Once he discovers Turbo’s incredible speed, he decides to use him to help promote his business. Then Turbo convinces him that they should enter the Indianapolis 500 where Turbo will have to beat the odds and his idol, famed Indy driver Guy Gagne (former “SNL” star Bill Hader) to make history.
Even in the world of fantasy animated movies this is a ridiculous premise. But I give the writers of “Turbo”, including writer/director David Soren, a lot of credit for embracing the plot and tackling it straight-on. Mixing human characters and a real-life event such as the Indy 500 with cute, talking snails could have resulted in a mess of a story. But “Turbo” is surprisingly
grounded and realistic. And there are some nice emotional elements, including the loneliness of the owners of the struggling strip mall businesses and the relationships of two sets of brothers.
“Turbo” is one of DreamWorks’ best-looking animated films to date. I seem to write this practically every time I review a new release, but the animation from each of the major studios continues to get better and better. All the snails are bright, colorful and likeable. The racing scenes are impressive, a few of actually look like actual racing footage. Yes, there’s a lot of product placement in the
raceway scenes, but that’s true at real racetracks so it’s not a distraction. And thankfully, the
announcers avoid any goofy one-liners and call the climactic race just as they would a real Indy 500 (even though there’s a snail in the field).
This film is clearly geared for a pre-teen audience. There aren’t any jokes specifically designed for older kids and adults (other than a clever social media scene) or any deeper meaning to what’s happening on screen. However, older audiences will appreciate the voice cast, which includes Giammati, who is excellent as Chet. Hader does a nice job as the egotistical Indycar superstar. And what’s not to love about Samuel L. Jackson voicing a snail? Plus, Snoop Dogg voices a snail and sings on the soundtrack.
The biggest problem with “Turbo” is that after getting to know and really like the spunky title character, we hardly hear from Turbo the entire second half of the film, because he’s too busy racing. Other characters, who are not as strong, dominate the screen time. It’s understandable, you want to see the little hero in action, but, in a way, Turbo becomes a supporting character in his own film.
“Turbo” is rated PG for the racecar action. It’s appropriate for kids 6 and up, with 6-12 being the target age group. This is a very straight-forward action adventure with enough excitement to keep the young ones glued, and some nice messages to make parents happy.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Turbo” gets a B.
It’s not as smart as “Monsters University” or as funny as “Despicable Me 2”, but it continues DreamWorks streak of quality animated films. And “Turbo” is gearing-up for his TV debut: the new Netflix series: “Turbo:
F.A.S.T.”, is set to debut in December.