Animated Antic Ryan Reynolds is an actor I think can be both charming and clever if he is given the right material. The good stuff he is in can be sometimes be both funny and clever, but the bad stuff he's in can not be very pleasant. I bring this up because I think something similar happened with him in animated movies. In the same year, Reynolds appeared in both of DreamWorks' two animated movies and where I found "The Croods" pretty good, the same could not be said for "Turbo". In short, this film is kind of stupid. It has some cleverness too it with the idea of a snail getting super speed, but the film is mostly bogged down by a ridiculous premise, some weird animation choices, unmemorable characters and lots and lots of stupid moments. Here's why this movie doesn't exactly work.A garden snail named Theo, who goes under the nickname Turbo (Ryan Reynolds) loves the world of sports racing and dreams of becoming a very fast racer. Though his older brother Chet (Paul Giamatti) feels that he has his head in the clouds too often and tells him to stop with his ridiculous daydreaming especially after he causes an accident involving a tomato. After leaving the garden in embarrassment, Turbo accidentally falls into a sports car and gets covered in nitrous oxide which effects his DNA and gives him super speed. Afterwards, he and Chet are then captured by a taco truck driver named Tito (Micheal Peña) and ends up impressing everyone at a run down strip mall where he works. With some motivation and confidence, Tito convinces the others to try to enter Turbo into the Indy 500 in hopes to bring back customers if they win. So, can Turbo get into the Indy 500 and win the race? Is this movie way too predictable and stupid? Well, yeah.The major problem I had with "Turbo" were the many stupid moments that occurred throughout the movie. For instance, after Turbo gets his DNA infected, he doesn't just get the ability of super speed. No, he actually gets features of a car. Yeah, he can have headlights come out of his eye, his shell can set off a car alarm and at times he can blast music from his mouth like a radio. It honestly makes no sense. And yeah, I know it's an animated movie and I'm not supposed to take things to seriously, but the fact is that he should have only gotten super speed after being infected. How he got those random car features makes no sense whatsoever. There's also lots of product placement shoved into this film as well notably from companies like AAA, HP and particularly Verizon. Seeing their logos placed all over the film was so distracting that it really caught me off guard at times. As for the story itself, it's kind of ridiculous. I mean, the idea of a snail getting faster is not a bad premise, but the idea of him entering a race like the Indy 500 is just too silly. Not only that, the film reminded me way too much of other movies. An example would be the scenes where Turbo is seen glancing at his hero racer on the TV similar to how Remy looked up to Gusteau in "Ratatouille". The animation, I like for the most part. The environments of the film is fantastic. It really looks real and the attention to detail in the backgrounds in pristine. Even the human designs aren't that bad, but the snails designs didn't work for me. They looked way too much like a cartoon and stood out too much due to their bright colors. As for the characters, it's kind of the same as the animation. I like the humans particularly the ones at the strip mall. The snails on the other hand, are mostly run of the mill. Turbo is a typically hero who has a dream, there's this group of snails he gets with that are just cool all the time and that's pretty much it, and his brother is just the typical stick in the mud. There's nothing special about it.And honestly, there's not much special about "Turbo" anyway. It just feels run of the mill. It has some ideas going for it, but it's execution at times is pretty questionable and honestly really stupid. It's definitely DreamWorks' weakest entry in 2013 animated movies. I don't know if I can bring much else to the table. It's just kind of stupid. As for the grade it gets, I think Turbo's number might be the best score for it.

morrison-dylan-fan Whilst being well aware of their major franchises,I've been meaning to catch up on the individual films from Dreamworks. After being delighted by the off-beat charms of Mr. Peabody & Sherman,I raced down to Turbo.The plot:Dreaming of being the greatest racer in the world like multiple Indianapolis 500 champ, Guy Gagné,Theo has one problem:he is a snail. Sliding down a road dreaming of being in a race car,Theo gets caught in an accident involving a supercharger drag racer. Barely surviving,Theo discovers that his DNA has been fused with nitrous oxide,which allows Theo to match the speed of any race car. Outrunning any snail in his path,Theo starts to dream of being the first snail to contest the Indianapolis 500.View on the film:Whirling round the screen in a haze of bright colours,co- writer/(along with Darren Lemke & Robert D. Siegel) director David Soren gives the characters a bold,building blocks-style design,which whilst firing up the primary colours does leave to the characters only being able to express a limited amount of facial expressions,that ends up causing the snails and the humans to have a plastic appearance. Clearly enjoying the sight of Theo on the race tracks, Soren gives the Sports Drama rush a surprising level of stylisation . Breaking out of the shell,Soren follows Theo round the track in extensive tracking shots which display a great eye for tight cornered locations.Making the snail stand out in the pack,the screenplay by Lemke/ Siegel and Soren set the track out with a playful Adventure Comedy,where Theo's sports dreams are slugged by the daily life of a snail. Whirling into Sports movie mode,the writers crack an excellent level of tension by making Theo drive for his dream one that drives a wedge between his friends. Joined by lively vocal performances from Michelle Rodriguez, Samuel (Yel)L. Jackson and Paul Giamatti, Ryan Reynolds gives a terrific performance as Theo,thanks to Reynolds keeping Theo's doubt intact,whilst keeping his excitement turbo-charged.

Julius Light Another animated film with the theme of resisting tradition and the norm, finding out who you really are, and pursuing your dream. Interesting to see the garden snail's view on life, and the opposition from the snails is completely understandable -- snails are born, they are inherently made, very slow. Many times we are bound to harsh reality, and thus cannot go beyond. The Mexican guy's pretty cool, the music (kudos to Henry Jackman) is invigorating, and the electric blue trail left by Turbo is just sweet.I love how Disney, DreamWorks, and the like depict the worlds of those we cannot understand -- Wreck-It Ralph brought us the world behind arcade games, The Lego Movie showed us the world of LEGO, Toy Story that of toys, etc. Turbo shows you the world of garden snails.

David Arnold Turbo - a speed-obsessed snail - dreams of becoming an Indy 500 champion. After he and his brother, Chet (voiced by Paul Giamatti), are fired from their garden jobs, Turbo (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) is involved in a freak accident when he's accidentally sucked into the engine of a street racing car. It's during this he is infused with nitrous oxide - a substance that is able to give super-speed. When he happens upon Tito (voiced by Michael Peña), a mere taco cook who's always on the look-out for the next big thing, he's entered into the world of snail racing. It's here that he meets a hip street-wise snail crew and along with their help and Tito, Turbo's dream of entering the Indy 500 may well become a reality after all.Turbo is a fantastic movie from the studios of DreamWorks Animation, the company that gave us the likes of Shrek and Madagascar. They may not have the reputation of Disney/Pixar, but they have definitely delivered a great film with Turbo.The movie does actually start off pretty slowish, and it gets to a point where you wonder if it will ever really pick up. Thankfully, it does, and it gets much better as it goes on, obviously building up more & more to the big race for the end scenes.Turbo is a bright, colourful, fast-paced movie with excellent animation, especially on Blu-ray with everything being so beautifully crisp & clear. I also loved the soundtrack for the movie as well and the songs used for the different scenes really added to the overall feel for the film.While this may not be one of the funniest animations out there it's still a pretty humorous film and the comedy moments aren't just two or three big moments either. They come in smaller but much more frequent instances and it's these instances that keeps the humour in the film going and ticking along nicely.Overall, Turbo is definitely a great movie to watch and will be enjoyed by adults and kids alike. Very much recommended.