TURBO – The Review

TURBO is the first film I can recall to tell the story of a garden snail that races in the Indy 500. Who dreams up these concepts? The good news is that Dreamwork’s witty, gleaming new charmer is very funny, has a great message for kids, is a treat for NASCAR enthusiasts, and has Ken Jeong as the voice of an old woman!

Voiced with appropriate energy by Ryan Reynolds, Turbo is a dreamer. While his fellow mollusks, including brother Chet (Paul Giamatti), are content with leisurely chasing fallen tomatoes, Turbo is obsessed with speed. Able to slither a whopping 12 inches in 17 minutes, his human hero is racecar champ Guy Gagne (Bill Hader) who, with his thick French accent tells his fans, ”No dream is too big and no dreamer too small”. Turbo is magically endowed with super speed when he gets sucked into a drag racer’s nitrous oxide booster. He and Chet are then discovered by brothers Tito and Angelo Lopez (Michael Peña and Luis Guzmán), who are Hispanic, therefore operate a taco stand in a struggling, shabby strip mall alongside a hobby shop owner (Richard Jenkins), a tough girl mechanic (Michelle Rodriguez) and a pedicurist (Jeong). The Lopez brothers race snails for a hobby so Turbo quickly makes a new group of same-species friends (a brassy Maya Rudolph, an angry Samuel L. Jackson, and a stoned Snoop Dogg). Tito takes Turbo and the gang on a road trip to enter him in the famous Indianapolis 500 where, despite not even entering any qualifying rounds, he gets to race against Guy and other human drivers.

TURBO combines cute cartoon characters with the well-worn all-American “with determination, any dream can come true” lesson. It contains plenty of the elements that make animated movies popular with children: animals, bright colors, bodily function gags, and video game-style action. But thanks to the vocal work and the humor, this adult had a good time with TURBO. I also liked the nighttime scenes around the taco stand and dilapidated stores surrounding it, which gave authentic detail to an East L.A. not usually seen in kids flicks. As good as Pixar is making animated movies, theri best rival is, without a doubt, Dreamworks. They certainly know how to construct a story. Indeed, TURBO is tightly structured — so much so that one can fairly see the pieces slot snugly into place as the film unfolds. As a result, there’s little surprise, and some moviegoers might find themselves growing restless while they wait for the movie to catch up with what they already know is going to happen, but it’s funny enough to forgive most of its predictableness. The movie is great to look at and a lot of fun, but somehow lacks the extra push of the very best of Dreamworks (HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, THE CROODS). Maybe that’s because there’s less at stake here, and no child-surrogate to identify with but I still highly recommend TURBO.

4 of 5 Stars