New Speed Racer Cartoon

[Geekyfanboy]

Speed Racer Zooms To Nicktoons

Lionsgate has announced plans for its first animated series, a new version of the 1960s cartoon Speed Racer, Variety reported. Nickelodeon's 24-hour cartoon channel, Nicktoons, is set to run the initial 26 episodes.

The new Speed Racer series is set to launch next year, around the same time that Warner Brothers' live-action Speed Racer film, directed by the Wachowski brothers, is released in theaters. The two properties aren't related, but Lionsgate told Variety that the company sees the feature film "as a giant promotional vehicle for Speed Racer the brand."

In the new series, a young Speed Racer enters a racing academy for the fastest kids on Earth â€" and discovers that he's the son of the legendary Speed Racer from the original series. He also finds out in the first few episodes that he has a brother â€" the new Racer X â€" whom he never knew existed.

Speed Racer wows the school with his Mach 6 (an updated version of the original show's Mach 5) â€" the most advanced vehicle in the universe, which doesn't run on gas. Speed and X team together to prevent villains from stealing the Mach 6 and to find out who's behind the mysterious disappearance of their father.

Other characters returning include the original Speed Racer's younger brother Spritle, now headmaster of the racing academy. And chimpanzee Chim-Chim, who is now a mechanical robot.

Peter Fernandez, who voiced Speed Racer in the dubbed American version of the original Speed Racer, is aboard to voice Spritle.

Speed Racer first aired in the U.S. in 1967, one of the first Japanese anime-style franchises to make it here. The franchise was briefly revived twice in recent years, in 1993's The New Adventures of Speed Racer and 2002's Speed Racer X. Both series were short-lived.