Set at a snooty Racing Academy, "Speed Racer: The Next Generation" is a follow-up to the 60's animated series that focuses on the original Speed Racer's two children who just happen to be named Speed and X. As if that wasn't unoriginal enough, this feature also sees Speed getting a new fancy Mach 6 car which an evil rich man wants destroyed.

Much like the latest "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," "Speed Racer: The Next Generation" is another soulless series that completely fails to capture the fun of the original show. Instead of attempting something new, the writers reuse old ideas by making them more hip to audiences. Case in point- the new theme song and the new Chim Chim (who is now a robot monkey). As if that weren't disgraceful enough, the racing scenes are now almost entirely virtual and his opponents now include Shark and Bear cars. I wish I was making this stuff up, but alas no.

The 2D/3D animation is also quite hideous. The character models are stiff and the backgrounds are flat. Sure, the racing sequences look pleasant enough, but the fact that they are "virtual" races completely turned me off.

In conclusion, "The Next Generation" is little more than an unimaginative cheap tie-in/cash-in for the upcoming movie. Hopefully, the movie fares better than this.

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