WesternAnimation Makes "Cars" look good
Turbo is perfectly generic Dream Works movie, probably written by a computer algorithm. It's a pretty dumb premise, going with story outline you heard million times, except without no stakes.
Admittedly movie lacks any specific flaws. No annoying characters, logic jumps or bad comedy. But that's mostly because it is so little to this movie. I guess one memorable thing about this movie is Samuel L Jackson as mentor slime. Not that he's amazing, it's just so weird to watch Nick Fury snail.
You can argue that "Shark Tale" or "Emoji" are worse movies, but this one is way more forgettable. Do yourself a favor and skip it.
WesternAnimation Funny for Children, but Forgettable and Mediocre
I, a cynical teenager, did enjoy some of the movie, and I can understand why a kid around 5-10 would as well. But even though it has a heart, it doesn't give room for much creativity.
The characters: they were okay, but they feel like knockoffs from Cars. The main character's dream is similar to Lightning Mc Queen's -he wants to be a famous racer! But the big difference is that, while Mc Queen is a car and can attain this dream by advancing a career he already has, the snail is just a snail. This makes his need for speed a lot less obnoxious and more dedicated (in my opinion). His brother's impatient with him, but it's understandable -he doesn't know he's in a children's film, he thinks his brother will get run over in seconds! And his fear is very justified, "What if you lose your powers tomorrow?" The other characters are okay, not good but okay. It is cool that they're Mexican, though, so the film has more diverse characters. I didn't think it was insulting, but I'm not Mexican so I don't know. It was also neat that the main characters weren't rich and had convenient things available. They had to work their way to the top, which is very inspiring.
The humor: Wasn't great, but it got a few laughs from me. If only they took the "snails getting taken by crows" joke away. It did set up for an awesome scene later in the movie, though.
The story: The conflicts really make the story. If you're not interested in the race, the snail brothers, or the Mexican brothers, then it'll be a long hour. But the characters aren't hard to invest in, if you're willing to see both sides of the issue. One brother is a dreamer, the other is a realist (for the humans and the snails). It would have worked better if the snail brothers didn't feel too much like the Ratatouille brothers, but if you can let that pass then the dynamic works.
The moral: gets a little choppy with the ending, but kids will get the message. It takes dedication, not strength, to achieve your goals.
Overall, this is an okay movie. Not great, not bad.
WesternAnimation Dissapointing Effort by DreamWorks
DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo tells the story of Theo, a garden snail with large ambitions. His role model, Guy Gagne, inspires him to become a racer, even though he is ridiculed for his unrealistic dreams. After a freak accident involving Nitrous Oxide, Theo’s DNA and life will never be the same. After meeting several friends along the way, he and his human friend Tito start on a journey to win the Indy 500, despite the arguments put up by their practical brothers.
Turbo is one of the more disappointing animated movies of 2013, even more so after considering that DreamWorks Animation produced this for $127 million. Upon first glance, Turbo appears to be a sort of Ratatouille and Cars hybrid. After watching the movie, it comes true, as it features the same themes as the former and the environment of the latter. DreamWorks Animation effectively creates parallels between the two pairs of brothers – Theo and Chet; Tito and Angelo. However, it doesn’t do much else with them and the brotherly bond subplot, among many others (like the "romance"), is lost in the wind due to its underdevelopment. Part of the reason for this is that the cast is made up of far too many characters. It gets to the point that the majority of the characters play too minor a part to justify development or a connection with the audience.
Children might find joy and excitement in watching Turbo, thanks to its flashy visuals – highlighted by a minor race and Turbo’s neon-blue trail. The auto-tuned song, “The Snail is Fast”, might have children singing it, but may only serve to annoy the rest of us. Turbo attempts to introduce humour a few times with the eagles, tomatoes, and snail crew, but unfortunately falls short every time. A running gag, the crows snatching up the snails, hopefully will zip past childrens’ minds, as that won’t be a particularly enjoyable conversation to have with a young one.
One thing that parents may notice is the extremely blatent product placement. Brands on cars is perfectly understandable (although avoidable), but I’m sure DreamWorks could have made the same movie without a Verizon-branded phone or HP-branded laptops – no offense to either company.
DreamWorks Animation had a juicy premise with Turbo, but instead of fleshing out the characters and plot, fails to deliver anything substantial, instead giving quite a rotten movie. =
WesternAnimation No Dream is Too Big, No Dreamer Too Small
There are legitimate critiques of Turbo. It’s formulaic, sure. It’s ending with Turbo regaining his powers feels contrived. It overly relies upon children’s humour. It isn’t as memorable a movie as Megamind or as emotional movie as Onward. And those are all true. None of those make Turbo a bad movie.
I don’t think it’s fair to compare Turbo to Cars or Ratatouille.
I actually find the over the top superhero parody origin story for Turbo to be entertaining. And I like how they foreshadowed Turbo losing his powers in a way that, as I recall SpiderMan 2 didn’t. ( Spider-Man 2 is still the better movie though).
I think that the “never meet your heroes” undertones of the broken pedestal in the manner wherein is relayed by the film is a genuinely emotional moment.
I quite like the Aesop of “No dream is too big, no dreamer too small that permeates the film. And when Turbo’s brother gives him a rousing speech towards the end, after having faced every fear known to snailkind, and convinces him to “get back up again” ,to quote Trolls, and finish the race, I would consider that this movie’s Crowning Moment of Awesome. And it’s not by any means a bad one.
So Turbo is neither the funniest nor the most compelling DreamWorksAnimation movie by a long shot. It still doesn’t deserve the hate it sometimes gets.