Ryan Reynolds (the voice star here) had double flops on the weekend of July 19th when he starred in this and R.I.P.D. although this film appears to be doing a little bit better than his fantasy-buddy-cop movie. Apparently, people would rather watch a really fast snail than a Men in Black rip-off, to each their own…
What Works: This is basically a one-joke movie but the idea of a super charged snail is a good one. The racing scenes are preposterous but it’s hard to resist them. The spunkier side-characters (like racers voiced by Maya Rudolph and Samuel L. Jackson or a taco truck dreamer voiced by Michael Pena) add some needed kick when the pace is flagging.
What Doesn’t Work: Did I mention this is a one joke movie? If you know that a snail races fast, you have really grasped the concept and then some. Also, the first twenty minutes or so (before Turbo gets injected with nitro fuel) that set up the snail’s hum-drum life are actually pretty depressing. Don’t let your kids leave at this point or they’ll probably be bummed out all weekend.
What I Would Have Done Differently: This is a great idea for a short film. This could have been ten minutes long, and probably won the Best Animated Short Film Oscar for 2013. However, stretched out into feature length…well, let’s just say it’s no surprise Turbo is the lowest grossing animated film in a long time and a lot of kids are re-watching Fast and Furious 6 or Despicable Me 2 for the dozenth time instead.