With the Indianapolis 500 scheduled for this Sunday afternoon, the multitude of films centred around the big race come to mind. While F1 tends to beat IndyCar in terms of popularity, but the Indy 500 has been appearing in movies since at least 1929’s ‘Speedway’ a silent-era MGM film shot at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway itself. Many of those early Indy 500 movies featured future movie stars, like Jimmy Stewart in the 1936 film ‘Speed’.
One of the outer planets in the universe of Indy 500 movies is DreamWorks ‘Turbo’ from 2013. Sure, it never matched the box office success of previous kiddie gearhead movie like Pixar’s ‘Cars’ and some say it then faded into obscurity. But ‘Turbo’ brings wholly underappreciated new and modern facets to the Indy 500 movie canon, combining racing and relationships with modern car culture.
Sure, the movie is focused on the Indy 500, but the racing in the film’s first half is aimed squarely at gearheads. Our titular snail, Turbo—actually named Theo, but refers to himself as ‘Turbo’—stumbles into a scene right out of ‘The Fast and the Furious’ while watching traffic from an overpass. A wind gust from a passing semi truck blows Turbo onto the hood of a car about to start a street race! A very Dom Toretto-esque, black sports car with a supercharger sticking out the hood, launches off the line in a with both a wheelie and a burnout. If that wasn’t obvious enough, Turbo gets sucked into the intake, and a POV shot inside the engine as the NOS is activated happens, right out of the first ‘F&F’ film. Instead of the V8 engine getting a dose of NOS, Turbo’s blood cells get zapped with it, transforming him.
Indy 500 movies tend to use the race as a plot driver for romance or ambition, rather than making it the focal point. Turbo is another fanboy gearhead who watches racing on TV like the rest of us. When you look past the ridiculousness of a NOS-powered snail, it unfolds into a genuine-feeling underdog story.
The heartwarming aspect of ‘Turbo’ is the family relationships explored by both snail and humankind alike—clearly, the writers were deep in the ‘F&F’ playbook! Both Turbo and Tito, one a snail and one a human with a snail-racing dream, suffer from doubting older brothers. Chet wants Turbo to accept a safe, ordinary life, while Angelo wants Tito to focus on the family business at Dos Bros Tacos instead of chasing another wild idea. In both cases, the stubbornness comes from love, not cruelty. The “big” brothers try to protect their younger brothers from disappointment, even while slowly learning to support the risks that make them happy. These mirrored family relationships between the snails and the humans bring an added layer of depth. Racing is still the main focus of the film, but as we learn more about each bond, the rewards and victories become much sweeter.
Yes, ‘Turbo‘ is an unorthodox movie by every measure. By plot: snail goes fast. By topic: modern Indy 500 movie, made for families. Yet it manages to put on a considerable display of car culture, from the underground snail-racing scene to the very deliberate ‘Fast and Furious’ energy, right down to Michelle Rodriguez, Letty from the ‘F&F’ universe, voicing Paz the auto mechanic. It is silly, colourful and completely impossible, but it also understands why racing stories work. They are not just about speed. They are about belief, risk, obsession and the people who either hold you back or push you forward.
In the heat of qualifying sessions and rain delays approaching Indianapolis weekend, it feels refreshing to see something with a premise as simple as “That snail is fast!” and an execution that is far more balanced than it had to be. ‘Turbo’ may not have the prestige of the old Indy 500 films, or the cultural footprint of ‘Cars’, but it earns its place in the racing movie canon by treating a ridiculous dream with total sincerity. After all, every great racing story starts with someone being told they are not fast enough. Is it too late for Turbo to qualify this year?
~ by Michelle Demaras