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This is a fanedit sourced from the official blu-ray of Lily & Lana Wachowski’s cult classic children’s action racing film Speed Racer. It started with me just doing a color grade, and then removing a couple scenes I usually skip, and then trying to get the film down to 2 Hours. After that, I created a version that pulls out every trick in the book and cuts every corner possible, but that ended up being very choppy, even if it was only 112 minutes. This version is 117 minutes, which I can be proud enough of, considering the full movie is 135 minutes, and I made the cuts from the 112 version that I deem essential, but the little trims here and there are mostly gone… especially when they make the movie make even less sense than before.
EDITS:
-The opening sequence now starts with young Speed’s flipbook and imaginary race, THEN mom speaking with the school counselor. The “Go Rex Go” scantron segues us right into Rex teaching Speed at Thunderhead.
-Rex picking up Speed from school was skipped, mostly because it tells us what the following scene already does better, and doesn’t show off the futuristic autopia of this movie’s world as well as the script said it should. It’s also meant to mirror a later scene where Spritle gets bullied at school, and Speed picks him up and gives him a pep talk, but this scene was either never filmed or was cut.
-Rex no longer tells Speed to drive with his eyes closed, only that Ben Burns did so.
-The joke where Spritle gives Chim-Chim the binoculars and then takes them back has been tightened up for comedic effect.
-Trixie’s flashback has been shortened to just the part in Pops’ garage, to keep things on track.
-Speed’s flashback of announcers calling rex “One of the dirtiest drivers” and young Speed fighting a kid who says Rex belongs in jail have been shortened and connected.
-The whole scene of Spritle and Chim-Chim imitating anime and answering the phone for Speed has been cut. Takes me completely out of the movie and I think Sparky reading the paper the next morning is a better segue into the breakfast scene.
-Spritle panicking about the “Earthquake” is shortened for more snappy comedy, as is Royalton’s introduction.
-Royalton is a bit more eager for pancakes.
-Spritle’s subplot about getting into the candy stash on Royalton’s jet has been cut.
-Royalton showing the Racer family around the Suite has been cut.
-Royalton making a deal with Musha has been moved to BEFORE Speed & Trixie at Inspiration point, as was in the script.
-Spritle’s quips after being found in the trunk have been tightened up for comedic snappiness.
-Spritle and Chim-Chim sneaking around for candy and joyriding around Royalton Tower has been completely cut out, now they just poke their heads out of one of the drawers on the ship, see Royalton’s factory manufacturing cheating devices, get caught and give Royalton the bird.
-To balance this, some of Royalton’s monologue has been shortened.
-The scene of Speed asking Ben Burns if the '43 Prix was rigged was cut. It makes the chronology of the flash-forward to the Fuji Helexicon confusing, and Speed never mentions asking Ben Burns about it when he tells Pops. Not to mention, it’s not in the script anyway.
-Spritle and Chim-Chim running for their lives from “The Harbinger of Boom” is partially muffled under Racer X waiting for the door to be answered.
-Spritle hiding that he’s watching the Casa Cristo classic has been shortened.
-Speed no longer says he doesn’t know anything about corporate crimes. He knows a lot! Royalton told him!
-Some of the goofier elements of the Casa Cristo race have been removed (Flashbacks of Cruncher bribing the headhunters, the car that shoots slime, the car that chucks a beehive)
-Spritle and Chim-Chim sneaking back inside to watch the race is cut, instead they just get caught.
-Royalton’s phone call with Cruncher is cut.
-more slight dialogue tightenings to remove some dead air.
-A couple small cuts during the next part of the casa cristo race
-The scene where Cannonball Taylor is caught using a spearhook has been slightly rearranged to involve Rex’s reaction more.
-After Spritle says “He’s gonna do it…” Speed now flashes back to his younger self watching Rex in awe. This encapsulates the theme around the film of Speed finally evolving from Rex’s little brother to Spritle’s big brother, a theme that really got to me in the scene where Speed mishears Spritle as calling him Rex. This flashback connects that thread to the end where Spritle holds Speed’s trophy in celebration.
-Spritle’s cootie warning during the final kiss has been cut, and replaced with a simple camera flash as the bokeh go from round to heart-shaped.
-The credits have been corrected to say “The Wachowskis”
COLOR GRADE:
-Added warmth, countered the slight magenta tint, and subtracted some saturation
-Primary corrections surrounding the major effects
-HSL curves to push the blues toward teal and the cherry reds toward firetruck red.
-Bleach Bypass with a Kodak LUT in the Luminance layer
-Some iterations of glow to add subtle bloom and contrast.
Here’s a Davinci Resolve powergrade, since it’s just one grade over the whole film: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aMAAW814zcPWujVj3D8i_1H0f5Zk9dLA/view?usp=sharing
