Studio / Distributor: DreamWorks Animation / 20th Century Fox
Rated: U
Genre: Animation
Running Time: 95 minutes
Director: David Soren
Writers: David Soren, Robert Siegel, Darren Lemke
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Luis Guzmán, Bill Hader, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Michelle Rodriguez, Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Kurtwood Smith, Snoop Dogg and Samuel L. Jackson
Synopsis: Turbo is a high-velocity 3D comedy about an ordinary snail who dares to dream big - and fast. After a freak accident miraculously gives him the power of super-speed, Turbo kicks his dreaming into overdrive and embarks on an extraordinary journey to achieve the seemingly impossible: racing against famed driver Guy Gagne. With the help of Turbo's tricked-out streetwise snail crew, this ultimate underdog puts his heart and shell on the line to prove that no dream is too big, and no dreamer too small.
Verdict: It's never ever been so overt that the main purpose of an animated film is to sell toys. The plot is, needless to say, unoriginal and formulaic as we can already see from the trailer and the moral values are obvious from the very beginning but the worse part is that the message sent isn't quite right 'cause it kinda tells kids that by being stubborn, delusional and retarded, your dreams will come true; but also maybe not without accidental superpowers. The story is almost thoroughly predictable (anyone could've easily came up with it), the humour is weak, the art design is nothing spectacular and it doesn't seem that the director/writers were giving much creative thoughts into making it more interesting by following the nature of the lives of snails slightly more accurately. The only thing that I enjoyed from watching this soulless, magic-less, uncreative cartoon was the voice acting.
Second opinion: "It's okay for me; quite funny" (girlfriend).
To watch in 3D? Although animated in 3D and has decent depth in a non-IMAX cinema, it doesn't make any scenes more enjoyable and visually on the environment design, there's nothing to shout about either so I don't think there's any difference if you see it in 3D or 2D.
Rating: 1 / 5
Movie stills / images: View 'em here.
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Snails here... don't really have slime. But they can stick onto anything. And when their shell break, it's not fatal. I know it's comedy cartoon and all, but it really bugs me that the film doesn't even bother to follow the law of nature just a little bit to make it interesting and less easy for the characters.
The human character... catches a garden snail, finds out that it has powers and that he could make millions with it but doesn't lock it up in case it runs away and it's not like he could converse with it. Clearly, the director doesn't bother to make any sense at all.
What could've made it less dull: They should've came up with another villain character, a snail that's jealous of Turbo's ability and does what Turbo did to obtain similar powers. So the final race at the end, Turbo would not only be worrying and competing against F1 cars, but also the villain snail as well. Cliched, perhaps, but this is already cliched anyway so why not do more right?
A twist would've been great: The whole film's about how delusionally obsessed and retarded the characters are with chasing their dream and at the end, typically and predictably, they're all successful winning the F1 race and all. Why does anyone need to go to the cinema to watch what they've watched hundreds of times before? If I was the writer or director, I would've had Turbo to wake up at the end to realise it was all just a dream but he will still achieve great things within the nature of being a garden snail.
Is this what this cartoon is trying to tell kids?
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