Turbo

Movie Title--  Turbo

Release Year--  2013

Running Time--  1 Hour and 36 Minutes

Director--  David Soren

Cast--  Ryan Renyolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Samuel L. Jackson, Luiz Guzman, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Snoop Dogg, Michelle Rodriguez, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong

A snail that dreams of being a racer has a chance to race in the Indianapolis 500 after an accident causes him to gain super speed.

Theo (Ryan Renyolds) is a snail that dreams of being the greatest racer in the world and in private calls himself Turbo.  His obsession with all things fast has made him an outcast from the rest of his community and he tends to be a constant embarrassment to his older brother Chet (Paul Giamatti).  At night Turbo stays up in the garage and watches tapes of his idol,  Guy Gange (Bill Hader).  He finds a chance to prove how fast he is but it goes horribly wrong, so, feeling demoralized and depressed, he wanders onto the freeway.  Upon seeing a star, he starts to make a wish only to get blown around in traffic.  He lands safely on the hood of a car but it starts up and starts to drag race with another car.  Turbo gets sucked into the engine of the car and his body becomes engulfed in nitrous oxide.  

He wakes up with incredible speed but before he gets to show everyone what he can do, an accident that he helps to facilitate causes the foreman to fire both him and his brother.  While they are arguing, a crow flies down and scoops up Chet so Turbo uses his new super speed to keep up with them and save his brother.  They are then caught by Tito (Michael Pena) and taken back to the Starlight Plaza to take part in a snail race that the employees of the plaza are having.  During the race he shows off his super speed and it gives Tito as idea about how to attract customers.  

Needing a better way to attract customers, Turbo gives Tito the idea to enter him the Indianapolis 500.  Tito pitches the idea to everyone in the Starlight Plaza and they all finally give in, all except his brother.  They load up the taco truck, take the $20,000 entrance fee and head to Indianapolis to not only join the race but try to win.

This film is only OK in my opinion.  Don't get me wrong, there are some really cute parts but overall, it really wasn't my cup of tea.  The story was just boring and way too far fetched, even for a cartoon.  I generally tend to like Paul Giamatti but in this film I did not.  It seemed like all his character ever did was yell and be negative and I just didn't enjoy his character.  I really feel like the characters in this film are very flat and perhaps not completely thought out.  Even Guy Gagne  tends to be exactly like the typical villain, only this time he happens to be in a driver's suit.

I know that this film is not going to hold the attention of a small child but I am not sure about an older children.  If you want to have movie night with the children in your life, I would suggest maybe skipping this one and digging out a Dreamworks classic (since after all, this film was produced by Dreamworks) and Don't Forget the Popcorn!