Speed Racer 4K UHD Delivers Pure Eye Candy
The Wachowskis underrated gem finds new life on the high definition format
After The Wachowskis finished The Matrix Trilogy, they were under pressure from the Hollywood machine to do it again. What exactly is "do it again" when it comes to following up the success of that landmark Science-fiction franchise? Is it to innovate and create something akin to the slow-motion that defined action series of the early '00s? Instead they pivoted to adapting a legendary Japanese Anime franchise for live-action. It would be colorful, family friendly, but still follow The Wachowski's themes of finding yourself trapped in fiction you cannot escape from.
Enter Speed Racer.
The movie is based on the 1960s anime series, Speed Racer, which was known here in the West for its jittery motion and awkward lip-syncing, but also for its love of fast cars and quirky characters. I mean this is a series that has a pet chimpanzee as a featured character. Lana and Lily Wachowski grew up on the series and those influences showed up in the work (similar to how the anime, Ghost in the Shell, was an influence for The Matrix). On paper it might've seemed strange that they'd turn their attention toward Speed Racer, but it ultimately made a lot of sense.
The first thing you might notice while watching Speed Racer is that everything goes by in blur. We're first introduced to young Speed while he's preparing for a test. But he has trouble focusing on the complicated math problems and instead trains his focus on the races of the Grand Prix. His family is heavily involved in racing with his father (John Goodman) responsible for his older brother Rex's racecar. When it's finally time for Speed (Emile Hirsch) to get behind the wheel, he does it while chasing a ghost– the ghost of Rex, who died in a tragic accident.
Make no mistake, Speed loves racing and when he's invited to check out the facility of one of the most prestigious racing teams in the sport, he jumps at the opportunity. The company, Royalton, and its C.E.O. (an exuberant Roger Allam) spares no expense in winning races. This is because winning races directly influences the stock market and that means none of these races that Speed held near to his heart were won fairly. He wonders if there's even a reason to race anymore. But ultimately he decides to investigate what happened to his late brother and prove that anyone can win if they have the drive to do so.
While Speed Racer might not contain "Bullet Time," there's still plenty of innovations in the production. The team behind the movie sought a prototype Sony CineAlta F23 that allowed the cinematographers to achieve an extreme-deep-focus look. They tried to mimic the look of Japanese animation with an emphasis on an infinite depth of field. This look was achieved by shooting the foreground, mid-ground, and background in sharp focus, and then making a composited image that would exceed the depth of traditional optical limits. If you want more about creating Speed Racer, I highly recommend that link above. If you are interested in the CGI of the movie, Corridor Crew did a great feature on it a few years back.
Watching Speed Racer, the colors simply pop off the screen. The new HDR grade of the 4K extenuates these colors– there's few movies that look as vibrant as this. In my mind the directors whose work comes closest these days are Boots Riley (I Love Boosters) and Pedro Almodovar (All About My Mother) with their expressive use of color.
Max Covill
Back in 2008, audiences didn't care for Speed Racer. They wanted the bullets, violence, and innovations of The Matrix; Not a movie that looked as vibrant and earnest as Speed Racer. Time has been very good for Speed Racer. You can see influences of the movie in other projects like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the Spider-Verse animated films, and many others. Even something more recent like James Gunn's Superman can be seen borrowing from the aesthetic created by The Wachowski's.
I admit I was disappointed by Speed Racer when it came out. All I knew from The Wachowski's was The Matrix (not their first triumph, Bound) and I couldn't see past my desire for it to be something that it wasn't. That summer, 2008, saw the launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Iron Man and one of most melancholy superhero movies ever in The Dark Knight. Speed Racer was so against the grain of either of those films, it's easy to see why audiences (including myself) didn't love it.
With this new 4K UHD, Speed Racer has the opportunity to find new life. Featuring a wonderful presentation of the movie and archival special features, including a new interview (13 minutes) with the Wachowski's talking about their time working on the movie, there's no question that Speed Racer is one of the best catalog releases of 2026. If you've never seen it, it's well worth taking the ride.
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