Turbo [2013]

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Luis Guzman, Bill Hader & Samuel L Jackson
Directed by: David Soren

Animated by: DreamWorks Animation
Release Date: July 2013
Running Time: 96 mins

Synopsis: Turbo is a speed-obsessed snail with an unusual dream: to become the world’s greatest racer. This odd snail gets a chance to leave his slow-paced life behind when a freak accident gives him the power of super-speed. Newly revved-up, Turbo embarks on an extraordinary quest to enter and win the Indianapolis 500. Accompanied by a dedicated pit crew of trash-talking adrenaline junkies, Turbo becomes the ultimate underdog by refusing to let his limitations get in the way of his dreams.

Conceptualized by its writer-director as “The Fast and the Furious, but with snails”, Turbo is one of those films where the elevator pitch premise (“a snail that can run fast”) is so succinct and evocative that the story practically writes itself. The simple juxtaposition of making a slow snail into a speed racer is ripe for narrative exploration in the same way that Pixar took rats, an animal considered unhygienic and vermin in kitchens, and made one into a chef. In fact, Turbo shares many parallels with Ratatouille; both feature a creature considered unsuitable for their desired profession, both admire a human expert in the field and both manage to succeed despite the odds. There is also hints of Cars there too, with the focus on motor-racing and also the sub-plot of restoring a local community to its glory days through the increased attention paid to its racer. As a DreamWorks Animation production, the film lacks the softer edges one might expect from a Walt Disney or Pixar film and instead inherits has the same rebellious attitude seen in the likes of Shrek and Kung-Fu Panda.

Ryan Reynolds voices Theo (aka Turbo) and proves that he is incapable of changing his voice for a voice-over performance – he sounds exactly the same as he does in real life and in Detective Pikachu. As this film precedes Deadpool, there is much less of his trademark snarky humour and non-sequiturs and instead he has a more earnest and innocent persona in this film. I suspect if this film had come out after 2016, we’d have had a much different version of the character. Paul Giamatti is oddly cast as his sensible brother, Chet, and I had no idea it was him for most of the film – I was convinced it was Richard Kind instead. His personality was very much the Richard Kind of the snail world. The film introduces some other quirky snail companions midway through the film, although they are a selection of thinly-veiled stereotypes to make up for a lack of characterisation. There’s Samuel L Jackson, who is literally playing Samuel L Jackson as a snail. Similarly, Snoop Dogg appears as himself in snail-form, giving off some heavy “420 vibes” for a kid’s film. They are largely superfluous to the plot and are mainly there to give Turbo and Chet some other snails to interact with during the second half of the film once they’ve left their colony.

The film establishes a cross-species friendship between Turbo and Tito, a taco-truck driver with similar aspirations of success and an older brother equally as disparaging as Chet is with Turbo. There is a neat sequence in the film that spotlights this parallel between the two, intersecting between conversations as Turbo and Tito reveal their plan to race in the Indy 500 to their respective brothers. Michael Peña does a great job at voicing Tito, capturing the same mixture of innocence and incompetence that he would later bring to his role as Luis in Ant-Man. The friendship between the two characters is what anchors the movie, providing a beating heart beneath its glossy and superficial surface. It is what makes you root for the two to win the Indy 500, and to accept the ridiculous premise to begin with. While the film initially begins as Turbo’s story, Tito becomes a secondary protagonist during the second half as events move beyond the grass roots level of the garden and into the human world proper.

I’ve never been a massive fan of motorsports, especially circuit racing, and find them to be rather dull set-pieces to movies; the climactic race in Cars or the pod-racing scenes in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace are perfect examples of racing sequences that failed to grab my attention. I was expecting to be similarly uninspired by Turbo’s climactic race, but against all odds, I actually found myself engrossed in the competition. Perhaps it was that last-ditch sequence as a powerless Turbo attempts to cross the finish line whilst current champion Guy Gagné drags the remnants of his vehicle behind him, but I found it to be an extremely satisfying climax to the film.

Turbo is a curious oddity of an animated film; its “fast snail” premise is extremely simple and it borrows heavily from A Bug’s Life, Ratatouille and Cars to recreate the Pixar recipe, but despite these flaws, it still manages to craft some moments of originality and fun. Ryan Reynolds’ dials down the sarcasm and increases his charm in the lead role, and while his snail support team are effectively walking stereotypes based upon their actors, there is still a warmth between the characters that pays off in the film’s ‘big race’ climax. It may not have spun off into its own multi-movie franchise in the same way that Shrek, Madagascar and Kung-Fu Panda did, but Turbo might be the most ‘Pixar’ movie that DreamWorks Animation has ever produced, and perhaps it is best that it didn’t devolve into a series of sub-par sequels and spin-offs. Simple yet effective, Turbo is a fun take on the racing genre that is just as earnest and likeable as its lead character.