Dillon Kupferschmid Contact Info: E-Mail: dk526a@lab.icc.edu
Log InAnd now, for something a little bit different from the norm...
I always grew up watching animated films throughout my youth because they stuck out to me, and one such series of films was Hot Wheels Highway 35 and AcceleRacers. These animated films done by Mainframe Entertainment and Starlight Runner based on the popluar toy line of Hot Wheels cars were considered to be some of the best pieces of animated media not just by Hot Wheels fans, but many other people. Highway 35 was your typical, "teamwork is great" lesson movie, but it was still fantastic, and AcceleRacers, despite being made based on a toyline for kids, is actually very mature, glossing over some more serious and adult topics, such as death and regret, and atoning for past mistakes. Here is a bit of a synopsis and background for each of the films.
Initially, this movie was spawned as a 4-episode long story, each episode being about 22 minutes in length, released on Cartoon Network. Each episode focuses on a different realm, but the goal of all the racers is the same: win the race. The movie was made for Hot Wheels' 35th Anniversary, in conjunction with the toyline.
Dr. Peter Tezla of the SCRIM Corporation is looking for a driver, or drivers, bold enough to traverse the ancient alternate dimension of Highway 35, and so he recruits 35 drivers to race for him and explore the untold realms of Highway 35. We then follow Vert Wheeler, who has just turned 16 and wants to go get his driver's license, but his father is called up by his squadron, so Vert gets his license alone. When he returns home, he finds a new car waiting for him, and Dr. Tezla leaves a message, stating that he is looking for the greatest driver in the world to race for him. Vert accepts and meets the other drivers, most notably, Taro Kitano, Banjee Castillo, Brian Kadeem, and Kurt Wylde. After they all get acquainted, they begin racing and find themselves warped into Highway 35 by reaching 300 Miles per Hour by using a special kind of nitrous called Nitrox 2 and driving through a portal, which takes them to a volcanic world. Later in the race, Vert demonstrates his driving skills, much to the chagrin of Taro, and even later, a mysterious racer detonates a canister of Nitrox in the volcano, causing it to erupt. One of the other drivers, Lani Tam, gets caught in the lava flow and almost falls off the side, until Vert and Taro put their differences aside to save her. Meanwhile, Kurt Wylde manages to win the first leg of the World Race, and is chosen to be one of five team leaders, along with Kadeem, Banjee, Taro, and Vert, who reluctantly accepts.
The five teams, Wave Rippers, Scorchers, Roadbeasts, Dune Ratz, and Street Breed, led by Vert Wheeler, Taro Kitano, Banjee Castillo, Brian Kadeem, and Kurt Wylde respectively, work on getting ready for the next leg of the World Race, when Kurt's younger brother Markie shows up. Markie wants to be with his brother's team, but Kurt rejects him, leaving Vert to take Markie in. Dr. Tezla reveals that the reason he is willing to pay the winning team of the World Race $5,000,000 is because he is looking for a rare and powerful artifact known as the Wheel of Power, which has unlimited energy, and was left behind by the creators of Highway 35, the Accelerons. Meanwhile, the spy who sabotaged the first leg of the World Race meets with his boss, Gelorum, who has her own stake in obtaining the Wheels of Power, and her spy, Zed-36, attempts to race undercover to win it for her. The racers go into the next leg of the race, which takes place through a rainforest-like dimension, in which Roadbeasts leader Banjee, finds a purple-colored track, which he believes might be a shortcut, so he leads his team through it. Later on, Vert and the Wave Rippers, now including Markie drive onto the shortcut, but later drive across a bridge that collapses, due to the sabotage of Zed-36. The racers on the shortcut find a giant spinning wheel obstacle, and manage to just barely make it through. Zed-36 attempts to sabotage the obstacle, but stops when he sees one of the drivers in particular attempt it. Meanwhile, Taro Kitano and Brian Kadeem win the race but tie for 1st. Later on, Zed-36 meets with Gelorum, who states that Zed-36 must obtain the Wheel of Power at all costs, even if he has to elimate the other drivers, and to not hesitate to stop them again.
In this episode, we learn that Vert only wants to win the race to be proven the best, but Kadeem is interested in winning the prize money to help his people, who are hungry, without water, and fight each other. A figment of Kadeem's imagination, known as Haziz, tells him to beware of the greatest danger of all, to which Kadeem doesn't know what it is. Later, the drivers end up in a desert this time, and Kadeem is determined to win when he believes he found the Wheel of Power, but so are all of the other racers, espeically Zed-36, who ruthlessly attacks all of the other drivers, and attempts to steal the "Wheel of Power" from Kadeem, only for Kadeem to reveal that Zed-36 is in fact, Street Breed team leader Kurt Wylde. Later on, Kadeem learns what he found wasn't the Wheel of Power, but fake. Kadeem feels hurt that it wasn't the real Wheel, but he learns what the greatest danger really is: "To see only what you want to see, and not what is true."
Kurt ran off after being exposed, but only so he could begin the next phase of Gelorum's plan, to infiltrate Highway 35 ahead of the other racers with drone supplied by the organization Kurt is working for, CLYP. Kurt soars ahead into the final leg of the race, this time taking place at an ice canyon, with all of the other racers following after him. Kurt gets ahead, but when Markie is put in danger by following Kurt too closely, and detonating mines that the CLYP robots placed on the track, Markie almost flies off the track, but manages to save himself. Kurt disobeys the robots to save his brother, but the robots attack him and state that only a human can obtain the Wheel of Power, which is why Kurt must win. Markie saves Kurt, but refuses to accept Kurt's help due to his betrayal to Markie, so the two race aggressively, with Kurt being the victor, but later on Vert and Kurt square off, and Vert takes down Kurt, driving off to Hot Wheels City, where Vert finds the Wheel of Power and wins the World Race.
Later on, Vert realizes that they cannot enter Highway 35 for fun now that the Wheel has been removed, to which Dr. Tezla claims he wants to use it to benefit humanity, but when he uninentionally electrocutes his trusty robot ally, Gig, Tezla realizes the Wheel is too dangerous, even in his own hands. Vert and the others decide to return the Wheel, but since Kurt a.k.a Zed-36 failed to secure the Wheel, Gelorum takes it upon herself to attempt to steal the Wheel back, but the team leaders, later including Kurt, escape to Hot Wheels City to return it. Vert sucessfully returns the Wheel of Power to its obelisk and Gelorum is defeated. The day is won, and Vert gives Kadeem his prize money, learning about what it means to be selfless instead of arrogant. Vert reunites with his father, Gig is fixed, and all is well.
These were a series of 4 movies, each about an hour long, and each having an immersive story. This series soley exists because of how popular Highway 35 was, but this one was even more sucessful, in both the movies, and toys.
Vert, Kurt, Taro, and Markie all return with new teams, Vert and Kurt on Teku, and Taro and Markie with the Metal Maniacs. Both teams are at odds with each other, because Kurt and Markie had a falling out, which led to Markie being sent to prison for 2 years after the World Race, leading to him adopting the name: "Wylde". Meanwhile, Teku and Metal Maniac team leaders Nolo Passaro and Tork Maddox are at odds with each other because Nolo believes Tork is responsible for Nolo's older brother Tone's death during a street race. During a race between Nolo and Tork on the coast, Dr. Tezla's robot helper Gig returns to inform the drivers that Gelorum has returned and that he Racing Drones have stolen the Wheel of Power from Hot Wheels City. The returning drivers, and newcomers Karma Eiss of the Teku and Mitchell "Monkey" McClurg of the Metal Maniacs saddle up and make way to Dr. Tezla's old HQ, where they meet Brian Kadeem, who leads them to Tezla's new HQ and seems to soften the tension between the teams. The drivers learn from the returning Lani Tam that the Wheel of Power is opening another portion of Highway 35, known as the Racing Realms, and that Gelorum and her drones seem to be getting stronger whenever they win the realms. The drivers enter the first realm, the Storm Realm, and fight the drones, but during the scuffle, the drones take Kadeem's life as they push him off the side of the track. Vert tries to save Kadeem but fails. The drivers lose the race and return the the Acceledrome HQ, only to learn the drones crippled Dr. Tezla. All of their old cars from the World Race are destroyed, so they must build new ones. Kurt Wylde and Monkey call for support from their fellow team members, including Teku member Shirako Takamoto, and Nolo, returning from the coast. For the Metal Maniacs, Tork returns, and we are introduced to Diesel "Porkchop" Riggs, who drives a semi and seems to be aggressive towards the Teku. The tensions between the teams rise, but then they are called into the Swamp Realm, in which they discover vehicular transforming mechs called "Hyperpods", left by the Accelerons for drivers to use to traverse tough parts of the realms. We learn that former Roadbeasts team leader, Banjee Castillo has seemingly already been through the Swamp Realm, but was lost, just as Kadeem was. The racers make it to the end, but encounter a giant swamp monster, in which the drones are seemingly going to win again, but Nolo manages to show everyone what his brother taught him, he "stays in the groove", and wins the race, earning a powerful item called an Accelecharger, which gives the user's car special powers. The humans have one victory, but the tensions between Nolo and Tork are still high, leading Vert to wonder if they really can win this.
Quick short movies that chronicle the racers' adventures through more realms, with the Cavern Realm ending in the humans earning another Accelecharger, and the Lava Realm ending with the Drones winning, but Monkey taking a Drone car wheel back for examination.
Dr. Tezla has a nightmare about his fear of Gelorum getting all of the Accelechargers and taking over the world, to which collecting the Accelechargers is his now top priority. Meanwhile the drivers discuss about how the Drone wheel they found in the Lava Realm has been reverse-engineered by Tezla for all driving conditions, and that he has installed and EDR device, or Emergency Driver Return, for drivers to return to the hub through warping, without their cars. Tensions are still high, but Nolo and Tork begin testing Accelechargers, with Nolo's car breaking over the stress the Accelecharger puts on it, but Lani Tam makes a statement that Tezla only added the EDR to protect the Accelechargers, to which he reveals his fear of the Drone conquring the world with them. The drivers saddle up for the Water Realm, with tensions between Kurt and Markie being especially high now, but Porkchop ends up getting caught in the water by an angler fish and has to bail out using the EDR. Later it is revealed he has a fear of water, due to his father's death via drowning. The other racers go through the Water Realm, and Vert nearly wins, but gets too arrogant and ends up nearly losing his life, so he hits the EDR and his car is destroyed. The other racers fail and the Drones win, but Taro ends up getting captured and taken the Drone HQ. He manages to escpae, but seeing as each realm the racers enter has an hour-long time limit, he must, and manages to beat the Water Realm a second time, leading Vert to leave due to confidence issues after Taro aced the realm with no trouble. The racers try to sleep, but Tork has a nightmare, driven by guilt over believing it is his fault Tone Passaro died, but he notices Nolo attempting to sabotage his car, so him, Karma, and Nolo have a heated discussion about Tone's death. The drivers then enter the Metro Realm, an urban city, in which Nolo remembers his brother, but he ends up letting his pride get the best of him and meets a deep fate later on. Monkey has taken Markie's car and ends up getting captured by one of Gelorum's new vehicles called a Sweeper, and him and Nolo end up getting captured by the Drones, but Tork puts his differences with Nolo aside and helps rescue him. Taro and Kurt make it to the end of the realm, and Kurt shoves aside Taro to win the Accelecharger all for himself, with Taro being angry about this. After everyone is saved, they go back to the Acceledrome, with Kurt stating he didn't win, but Taro stating that Kurt is lying, to which Kurt attempts to explain, but nobody believes him because of his shady past as Zed-36. Later, it is revealed that a new group of spy racers, called the Silencerz have been secretly been entering the realms and disguising themselves as other racers to use deception to win.
More mini-movies, with the Cliffside Realm showing Teku team member Shirako getting his car sabotaged by the Drones and Kurt pushing him off the side of a cliff to save him, and Taro and Karma enter the Ice Realm, where Taro has a dream that Gelorum throws him off a cliff, and later he races with Karma, only to be betrayed by her, later being revealed that it wasn't Karma, but indeed one of the Silencerz.
Taro reviews Karma's car camera footage to see what she was thinking when she betrayed him, and feels angry and lied to by the Teku. Later, the drivers are eating, to which Lani confronts Nolo about having been saved by Tork in the Metro Realm from the Sweeper, in which Lani mentions that Nolo is bitter for Tork saving his life, but spoiling his revenge, to which Nolo claims he saved Tork's life too. Markie comes in angrily and challenges Tork for the position of team leader after letting Monkey use his car, and then getting it destroyed in the Sweeper. We then cut to Gelorum, seemingly having a monolouge about the Accelerons leaving her and the Drones on Earth to race, because the Accelerons began to fear them. Gelorum is then revealed to be talking to Kadeem, who survived his fall in the Storm Realm, only to be captured by the Drones. Kadeem asks what the Accelerons left for the Drones, to which Gelorum states that Tezla never told him because he doesn't know, but soon Kadeem will know everything, with a large, human-shaped device moving up to Kadeem, as he begs Gelorum to stop. Later, Markie and Tork race, and we learn Markie joined the Maniacs because he felt he had nowhere else to go, not even with his older brother Kurt. The two race, and the next race starts, with Dr. Tezla disappearing. The Neon Pipeline Realm sees the humans, Drones, and Silencerz all racing for the Accelecharger, with another sweeper coming to dispose of them all, but failing due to getting stuck in the smaller pipeline as the track progressed. Taro believes he has another shot at revenge with Karma, but doesn't take the shot, leading to him being taken down by a Silencer, who is indirectly confirmed to be Banjee Castillo from the World Race. The humans fail as Tezla explains the Silencerz have been entering the realms and using deception, as earlier he entered the Pipeline Realm to expose the Silencerz with intense-polarized light. Markie and Tork return, with Markie emerging victorious, only because Tork pulled back after worrying of a repeat of the Tone Passaro incident, leading to Markie's victory. Markie gets in over his head as the drivers prepare for the Junk Realm. Vert returns just as the Junk Realm begins to open, revealing that he felt wrong to quit trying, after having a talk with his father, who encouraged Vert to "quit what he was doing". All forces are now racing for all of the marbles, but the Drones fight dirty and send in three Sweepers, to which Porkchop and Monkey drive Porkchop's Rig, Old Smokey, and destroy one of the Sweepers, with the others being trashed. Later on, Kurt constatly taunts Markie at failing to be a good leader, with Markie reaching his breaking point, and remembering that he felt the only reason he ended up in prison was because of Kurt, leading to the two fighting during another race to see who was better, just like in the glacier of Highway 35. Markie seemingly has the upper hand, but gets struck by a giant spiked pendulum, and is thrown off the track. Kurt then says: "You can blame me for this too Markie. You always do." to which Kurt abandons Markie. Later, him and a Silencer clash, with the Silencer disguising himself as Kurt, and Taro shows up and takes down the Silencer, with Kurt winning an Accelecharger and wondering how Taro knew, but Taro says he didn't, and seemingly guessed. Everyone makes it out, except Markie, who's EDR was malfunctioning, and he ends up getting stuck in the realm as the time on the portal expires. Later, we see that Markie has been captured by the Drones, and Gelorum makes a deal with him: tell her the location of the Acceledrome, or have his situation be completely hopeless. Markie denies, but then Gelorum reveals the fate of one of the humans' own.
The drivers enter some ancient Acceleron ruins and learn more about the past of the Drones.
In the finale, Vert hangs back while all of the other racers enter the final realm, the Cosmic Realm. All the newcomers, Nolo, Karma, Shirako, Tork, Monkey, and Porkchop enter, but Kurt and Taro follow behind, with Tezla wondering what they are doing. They enter, and encounter a fleet of Drones and Sweepers, but they only care about winning now. The humans plan to hijack a Sweeper to save Markie, after Tezla and Lani reveal that other drivers from Highway 35, such as Banjee Castillo, Vert's old friend Alec Wood, and Kurt's second in command of the Street Breed Dan Dresden, went into the realms but never returned, and that Markie was captured by the Drones. The drivers also discover the Accelechargers no longer work. The humans successfully take over a Sweeper thanks to Monkey reliving his trauma and allowing himself to get captured again, leading to the drivers going to the Drone HQ, which was built in Hot Wheels City of Highway 35. Kadeem, now turned into a Racing Drone, explains to Gelorum that the humans are there, but Gelorum explains they aren't to make it back, but even if they did, there would be nothing for them to return to, as her and an army of Drones infiltrate the Acceledrome, to which Tezla is horrified. Vert sneaks into the garages to get to his car and fight, and Lani goes looking for the Accelechargers, only to find out that Gig was actually attempting to hide them and deliver them to the Silencerz, who he has been working for since the beginning, as he and Tezla worked for them, but Tezla stole Gig, their technology, and a car and started the Acceledrome. Gelorum collects all of the Accelechargers and fuses their energy together, making the portal go haywire and open the ultimate race through the realms. Vert follows after her and attempts to stop her. Meanwhile, the others are going through the Drones' HQ and Kurt talks about how Markie and him were involved in a business deal, but their partners were crooked and Markie wouldn't back down, leading to his arrest because Kurt didn't say anything to help him. Kadeem intercepts an signal from the drivers' communicators and pretends to be imprisoned, telling them that he can lead Kurt and the others to Markie, inside of the tallest building. Meanwhile Vert and Gelorum race for the ultimate race and shift from realm to realm, with Gelorum using all of the Accelechargers, and Vert using his own skills. Back in the Drones' HQ, Kurt makes it to the tower and finds Markie, but meets the now Drone'd Kadeem, who states that he is afraid Kurt may have been to late to rescue him. Kadeem then attacks Kurt and references when they fought in the desert, to which Kadeem remarks that he won. Kurt attempts to remind Kadeem of his humanity, but Kadeem simply doesn't acknowledge it and attempts to attack Kurt again until Markie fights Kadeem, but Kadeem then launches him to the top of the tower, leading to a final fight between the two, with Kadeem seemingly about to end Markie's life by dropping him from the tower until Kurt punches Kadeem and knocks him off the side. Kurt pleas with Kadeem one last time, but Kadeem lets go, stating that: "Kadeem is gone." falling off the side of the tower laughing, presumably to his death. Meanwhile, Vert and Gelorum reach the Realm of the Accelerons, to which an Acceleron appears, telling Vert that he is a true AcceleRacer for using his own skills, whereas Gelorum used the Accelechargers, to which the skills for the realms were the real test. Vert gets a new outfit, and Gelorum shifts into her real form, a monsterous-giant Drone, but is tossed away by the Acceleron. The other drivers end up back at the Acceledrome, but are surrounded by the Drones, and the Silencerz have infiltrated the Acceledrome and attempt to take down the Drones. Vert hears of this and returns to help his friends, and the humans team up to take down the Drones. Dr. Tezla states that he will detonate Nitrox storage tanks to destroy the Drones and the Acceledrome, but he intends to sacrifice his life as justification for his otherwise robotic personality throughout all of the previous events, but Gig decides to stay and do it. All the drivers and Silencerz escape, with Vert fleeing through the portal, and the other drivers escaping with a Sweeper. The Acceledrome is destroyed, and the other drivers end up on the old desert road where Highway 35 first began, explaining that they needed to look for Vert, as Monkey's repurposed Drone friend Sparky shows up (because Sparky was riding with Vert during the ultimate race), and tries to explain what happened to Vert, to which nobody understands him. With all fences mended, they all become one team and go after Vert. Vert ends up being captured in the Silencerz base, to which he learns that his father is the leader of the Silencerz, ending AcceleRacers.
These are some of my favorite movies ever, and I hope I didn't seem too long-winded in my explanation, but I couldn't do them justice by just describing them, but they are a good batch of movies worth all of your time and energy. I hope you enjoyed reading!