Turbo - 3 stars ***Yesterday I took Aum with two of his friends to watch Turbo in Altrincham. It is the latest offering from Dreamworks, the makers of one of Aum's favourite films, Madagascar. It tells the story of Theo (Ryan Reynolds), a dissatisfied snail working as all snails do at The Plant, which to the average human, is a large greenhouse in someone's garden.
Every night, he sneaks into the human's shed, and watches Formula One racing on a TV, wishing for adventure and to escape and fulfil his dreams of competing in a race. His brother, Chet (Paul Giamatti), a health and safety officer, is less than impressed with his brother's crazy risk-taking attitude and frequently chastises him for having his head in the clouds.
One night, Theo goes to watch the cars driving on the motorway, when he gets sucked into the engine of a drag racer, and his DNA becomes fused with nitrous oxide. The following morning, he finds that he has the characteristics of a car, from his eyes being headlights, to reverse beeping, and even having a radio! His new powers get him into trouble at work however, causing him and his brother to be fired from The Plant. Whilst they are arguing, his brother is snatched by a bird, and Theo uses his super speed to chase it, and save Chet from death.
Just as they think they are safe, they are captured by Tito, a man working at a taco shop owned by his brother. Similarly to Theo, he has dreams of greatness, cooking up a variety of schemes to try and get their shop on the map and make his cynical older brother proud. Thinking they are doomed to death, Chet and Theo are surprised to learn he wants to use them as racing snails, and they meet a gang of other snails led by Whiplash (Samuel L Jackson), who Theo (now known as Turbo) really associates with.
Astonished by Theo (now known as Turbo) and his powers, Tito and his friends travel to Indiana to enter him into the Indiana 500 - a world famous car racing event (and coincidentally the race that Theo used to watch on the TV back at home). Here they encounter various set backs and Turbo's belief in himself is tested to the max as he tries to defy Mother Nature and gain the approval of his big brother.
This was a good kids film that I enjoyed myself as well. It had some really funny bits that were clearly aimed at adults, yet all the kids I took said they loved it. The scenes where Turbo falls into the car engine were especially effective as they merged the technical aspects of engineering with bright colours and special effects to make little ones interested. The only qualm I had was that the whole brotherly disapproval seemed a little overdone, to the point where at times Chet seemed really mean! That and the unrealistic aspects (does snail racing actually take place? Would a snail really be allowed to compete in a car race?) but I suppose that is the beauty of a children's film - anything goes!
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