Turbo

 

There's not a whole lot to say about Turbo.  It's a garden variety animated film with middle of the road voice acting, and a ludicrous premise that I just didn't buy for a second.  I know, I know, it's a movie for kids.  Really little kids, if the parents struggling to stay awake at my screening is any indication.  But even for a kids film, this idea of an underdog story about a snail who becomes a racing champion after an accident involving nitrous oxide just doesn't come across as very appealing to me.

Maybe snails just don't make good stars for animated films.  Let's face it, there's not a whole lot you can do with snails in a movie.  No, I'm not forgetting the snail who was in the recent animated film, Epic.  I kind of liked him, actually.  The thing is, he was a side character - the comic relief.  In Turbo, we get a whole cast made up almost entirely out of snails, and it's just not that interesting, even when one of them starts speeding around like a little superhero.  Maybe the problem is the filmmakers make a lot of these snails realistic, instead of giving them interesting or original personalities.  We spend the first half hour or so of the film in a community of garden snails, who pluck tomatoes, and try to avoid being detected by hungry crows flying overhead.  One member of this community, a plucky little guy named Theo (voice by Ryan Reynolds) has a dream about going fast.  He likes to sneak into the homes of humans, and watch race car competitions on TV, much to the chagrin of his brother, Chet (Paul Giamatti), who wishes the little mollusk would stop dreaming about racing, and accept his way of life.

One night, Theo makes his way to a highway overpass, where he takes a fall and winds up inside the racing engine of a street racer.  He is doused with the nitrous oxide from the engine, which somehow enters his bloodstream, and apparently turns him into a car-snail hybrid.  His eyes can act like headlights, his shell now has an alarm, and most importantly, he can zip around at incredible speeds.  Theo becomes an outcast in his community because of his new abilities, but he is quickly snatched up by a taco truck driver named Tito (Michael Pena), who just happens to be involved in underground snail racing competitions. (Does such a thing exist?) When little Theo shows off his speed on the racing track, he earns the nickname "Turbo", as well as the respect of his fellow racing snails.  Tito gets the crazy idea that Turbo could compete in the Indy 500, builds up the money to compete with some of his friends, and before you know it, our snail hero is swerving in and out amongst professional race drivers, and competing against the top racers.

I can buy a lot of things when watching an animated film.  I've been shown dragons, tooth fairies, Minions, and even talking animals, and have not raised an eyebrow.  But, I don't know, I just could not get behind the idea of a snail racing against all those professional drivers.  Maybe it's because Turbo gave me very little to think about while watching it.  None of the characters are memorable, there's no witty bits of dialogue, and not really any jokes that are bound to fly over the heads of kids in the audience.  Since there was nothing really for me up there on the screen, I was forced to focus all my attention on its premise, and it was a hurdle I just couldn't mentally cross.  It was just not an appealing idea to me for whatever reason.  Maybe there are people out there who think the idea of a professional snail racer is hilarious.  To those people, I say go and enjoy.  You may get something out of this that I certainly didn't.

 

This is the second misfire in a row for Dreamworks Animation, after the disappointing The Croods.  I can only hope they get back on track.  With the sly and funny Despicable Me 2 currently winning over families at the box office, and the sweet Monsters University still in theaters, you have to wonder how Turbo can make it, let alone how it made it to theaters in the first place, when there's nothing that really stands out about it.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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