My Review of "Turbo"

Turbo is a Dreamworks animated feature that came out back in 2013. It's about a snail gaining super speed abilities. It's a very simple concept but it's also meant for the general audience because it's a family family film. For an animated feature from back in 2013, the visuals haven't aged badly. I was surprised at how much I was still able to enjoy this film.

The movie starts off with this character named Theo who would later rename himself Turbo. He idolizes this race car driver by the name of Guy Gagne. Everyday he watches Guy's races and gets inspired by his win interviews. Often times he will daydream that it's him racing Guy to the finish line and this can be very dangerous.

Obviously, as a snail he's really slow. They make fun of the fact at how he wants to be a racer but he's a snail. They're at the bottom of the food chain and have to fear everything they do. Luckily for Turbo he's got a brother by the name of Chet. Chet is the rational one between the two of them he's often saving Turbo's hide when he gets into dangerous daydream racing situations.

One night watching Guy's race interviews, Turbo gets into a horrible mishap. Through a cascading series of unfortunate events Turbo is miraculously given super speed abilities. Through a wild series of coincidence Turbo's super abilities gives Turbo belief that he can realize dream of becoming a racer.

I know it's pretty crazy but it's a cartoon they can do what they want to do. It's not supposed to be realistic or logical. They even use the often parodied Air Bud logic to help the story out. In this movie's case, they allowed Turbo to race in the Indianapolis 500 because there's no rules in the rule book that says snails can't race. It's pretty funny because the joke is pretty well known.

If you're able to throw your own logic away you're in for a pretty fun ride watching this movie. Each of the characters have a ton of fun to them. They're all brought to life by some pretty famous actors. It's funny how these actor's voices are so distinct that you can immediately tell who they are from listening to them.

The whole concept of a speed demon snail is pretty funny in its own right. I kind of wished they didn't have to rely so much on the super power for the film to work. It kind of defeats the purpose of the film's lesson to kids that they should strive for their dreams. How are you going to tell kids that they should go for their dreams when they don't always have miraculous super powers bestowed on them randomly?

They could have also spent a little more time on the supporting characters. I liked how they mirrored Turbo and Chet's brother relationship with the two human brothers at the Taco truck. It was nicely done because the snails aren't able to speak with the humans so the humans were able to translate the story into human world.

It would have been cool if there was a more clever way of using the supporting snails a little more. They kind of wasted the premise the racing snails used to race Turbo in the middle of the movie. These snails were able to use their wits to race rather than use pure speed. They could have used this premise more but they opted not to.

For a 8 year old movie it's pretty shocking how well the visuals worked. I was expecting it to look similar to Toy Story 1 and 2 compared to today's animated visuals but it looked on par with the stuff we have today. The images were very crisp and animated very well. There are tons of bright colors and special effects that will dazzle when you see this movie. It at times looks like they sort of emphasized that this movie was supposed to be a 3D movie.

Overall, I would say if you're looking for a fun family animated movie this is a good option. The story of the underdog doesn't quite work as well since you know he's got superpower aiding him throughout the movie. This kind of ruins the emotional triumph that comes from the win in the end. I have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. It's a great time killer if you're just looking for something to mindlessly watch.