If ‘Speed Racer’s’ CGI annoys, keep your eye on the costumes
By Nadine Kam
Warner Bros. photos and illustrations
Just saw the preview for “Speed Racer.” Not really one for the kids; not for adults either. It’s totally about the creative set: game designers, animators, and believe it or not, the fashion crowd. Well, I had to look at something being that the story is simple, the dialog campy, the characters cardboardy, but the clothes they do work with everything that’s going on in CGI. Let’s just say it’s the first film that ever made me feel like running off to Hollywood to be a stylist on a costume crew.
The weird thing about the movie is that it is so futuristic yet it’s actually set in the early to mid-1950s. They reference a pivotal 1943 race when Speed was about 10 and the action takes place in his young adulthood. The costumes reflect the period with crisp polo shirts, sleek sheath dresses and other narrow, spare silhouettes. The early half of the film is full of bright primary and complementary colors and a lot of royal purple. In the final Grand Prix race icy silver, metallics and brocades dominate. Total eye candy. It was so retro, yet so contemporary it didn’t look much different from what’s on high-end retail racks today.
As I watched the credits scrolling I noted they had one vintage buyer on staff. What a great job, though I imagine it must have been difficult to come up with costumes that could hold their own against such a fantasy landscape.
Of course, being susceptible to images, I have a new inspiration for my summer wardrobe, and it’s not Christina Ricci, but the Korean pop star Rain as the racer Taejo.
