Turbo Directed by: David Soren Starring: (voices of) Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Giamatti Rating: Not Yet Rated Release Date: July 19, 2013
Trailer Score: 8/10
Thoughts by TSR: As enjoyable as these 80 seconds are, the single best thing about this teaser is how it calls to mind Drive (this led me to watch it as my first film of 2013, in fact). No, there isn’t any head stomping or anything of the sort to be found here. It’s simply the use of "Tick Of The Clock" by Chromatics, and it immediately put me in a good headspace for this teaser. It’s not often that an animated feature from DreamWorks affords an opportunity to talk about something like Drive, so obviously I wasn’t going to let that go to waste, but let’s go ahead and focus squarely on Turbo.
Despite not showing a whole lot, this is a perfectly enjoyable and effective teaser. The racing sequence shows some fine animation and sound work, and I could imagine it allowing for a decent use of 3D. Ryan Reynolds’ snail participating in a race that's more his speed features some nice comedic timing by Reynolds and the animators as well. Based on the plot description it seems like there’s a little bit more to Turbo than what’s shown, so even though I’m skeptical that a snail could ever stand a chance in the Indianapolis 500 (even one with the voice of Green Lantern), I’ll keep an open mind. I have to commend the little guy for having a dream, at any rate.