What SPEED RACER's Family Teaches Us About POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

What are the traits of a healthy and loving family? Is Speed Racer the greatest sports film ever made?

Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are taking a look at one of Alan’s all-time favorite films, Speed Racer. It’s a movie family (appreciation) therapy, celebrating a functional family through positive psychology. Jonathan evaluates the family’s healthiness using six points from the book, Character Strengths and Virtues: courage, humanity, temperance, justice, wisdom and knowledge, and transcendence. Alan goes on a filmmaking rant, but it’s a happy, emotion-filled rant. Crying with Alan, tears of achievement!

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Cinema Therapy is:
Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker, and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright, Alan Seawright, and Corinne Demyanovich
Edited by: David Sant
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis

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[swiddy]

When I tell people Speed Racer is one of my all time films people don’t get it but Alan does…Alan does. The last race sequence is truly a spiritual experience

[Infernape]

That final scene where Speed restarts the Mach 6, clear mind, ultra instinct, being in the zone, mindfulness, there all the same thing and when done well a scene like that becomes the greatest live-action anime movie moment of all time, and the only regret I have is that I never saw it in theaters.

[misterbennnn]

Criminally underrated film, and the positivity is almost as explosive as the colors.

[Kashakunaki]

Alan, I'd like to share a story with you. Speed Racer came out mother's day weekend. My mom grew up watching and enjoying Speed Racer. I'd seen the cartoon and didn't care for it. However, I knew the movie was coming out, so I decided to take my mom to see it; going to the movies was often an activity we enjoyed sharing together. It was opening weekend and the only, and I mean literally *only*, people in the theater were my mother, me, another mother, and her young son that I'd guess was approximately eight years old. They sat right next to us which miffed me a bit; the theater was empty they could've sat anywhere else. So, here I am about to watch a movie for which I have negative expectations... and I was ensorcelled *immediately*. The first race had me hooked. I was so utterly enchanted by the movie's visuals and story telling and writing that I was completely wrapped up in all of it, and it turns out that I wasn't the only one. During the final race of that movie, all four of us, in an otherwise completely empty movie theater, had the complete movie theater experience. It was like every moment carried the same weight as Captain American picking up Mjolnir on opening night. All four of us gasped and cried and clapped throughout the race. All four of us audibly wept during the moment of transcendence and during that final stretch, the moment you were talking about the score intermingling with the sound design, that moment of perfect cinema... all four of us literally jumped out of our theater seats and were screaming at the screen for Speed to cross the finish line; we were steam filled pipes with no release valve and to the point of breaking. When Speed defeats the other two racers and barrels into the checkered finish line... I do not have a means to convey the amount of energy and jubilation. I turned to that eight year old boy and he turned to me and we both had smiles on our faces and tears running down our cheeks. I can't begin to recall how many times he and I high fived. It was truly the best theater experience I've ever had in my entire life; me and my mom bonded with those two over that shared experience. I have shown Speed Racer to many, many friends and expressed my love for it. I have not shown it to a single person who has come close to feeling the way I do about it; most people finish the movie and say, "it was alright." I feel very validated seeing how much you care for the movie. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy imagining my mom and I parading around like idiots, standing up in the middle of a movie, with complete strangers. There are few things as wonderful as being truly moved by a story.

[oakenshadow]

I know a lot people were disappointed because it wasn't faithful, but I lived how crazy this movie was. The style, the colors, the campyness. It made me happy. It is a guilty pleasure, for sure.

[Bulldozer]

A few years ago I brought this movie to a "guilty pleasure" movie night me and my friends were having. I felt like I needed to warn them about the cheesiness, the absolute disregard for anything resembling realism and the unending kaleidoscope of trippy colors and visuals. It's definitely not a "normal movie"
By the end my friends just turned to me and asked "what's so guilty about this one?" That's when I realized I wasn't weird for being so attached to this movie, its emotional core is a universal experience and the final race hits everyone. I love this movie so much it's unreal

[trinaq]

I don't care if this movie was almost universally panned by critics, it was my entire childhood. It's cheesy, but the stunning visually effects, vivid cinematography and slick editing make it unforgettable.

[ScorbunGame]

Movies like this that aren't scared and ashamed to show that humanity can be good, kind and a positive influence on others need to be celebrated, not bemoaned and put down ad "unrealistic" or "generic." I don't wanna live in a world where good doesn't get done because everyone believes the lie that people are selfish, greedy and cruel by nature.

[ArianaChiarenza]

Seeing Alan's reaction to the end of this film is so rewarding for me as someone who's adored it since I was a child. My dad, who watched the original cartoon growing up, lost his job during the 2008 recession and I remember he let my brother and me skip school to watch Speed Racer in theaters with him. Even as a kid, I left the theater euphoric. I'm so glad this movie is finally getting praised--long overdue!

[SageVallant]

I know this is a movies & therapy channel, but I have to say that the final race in Speed Racer is the peak of race design in movies. You see the sequence of the obstacles and scenes within the previous laps. The whole thing is a rule of three. You don't need to know the exact sequence to know that through each obstacle you're getting closer to the end each time we pass one. Each one is so distinct that you become familiar with it at a glance. And on the final lap you're blown away so many times so quickly that you can't even think about which ones are left but you know the end is getting closer with each one that passes. You know there's a limit and you've seen all of them before, in the same order.

Perfect sequence, no notes. There is no single lap race sequence that comes anywhere close to it.

[Virvada]

Alan crying at screaming, bright lights, and a car crossing the finish line is peak CT content. All of us understanding why he is crying (and probably why we ourselves are crying) is WHY WE WATCH MOVIES <3

[r.babylon]

So Speed Racer is oddly important to my family. My dad grew up on the old cartoon, my little brother watched the new cartoon, and we all watched this movie. Our dynamic was incredibly similar to pops, speed, and Rex as well, including the repeated storming out. Hell, I showed this once to my now fiance, and she went from eye rolling to crying at the end. Love this FILM.

[ozzymandias]

Roger Allam dared to ask the question, "How can I do Tim Curry, but more camp?", and I'm here for it!

[mstewie]

Said before and will say it again. This will be remembered as one of the greatest live action anime adaptations of all time. The poses, frames, and emotional output just purely capture the vibe. It gives me hope for a Steel Ball Run movie some day.

[trinaq]

A small detail, but when Pops tells Speed that he can come home at any time, despite not agreeing with his decision to leave, you can tell that he's thinking of when he told Rex to never return. He's learned from his past mistakes, which is good to note.

[dawnalarson]

I absolutely adored this movie when it came out. When people criticize the graphics and the special effects being cheesy, I am like, "Have you seen the original Speed Racer cartoons? They are cheesy! That's the point!" Great movie!

[AnemeKun]

I swear to God, I am one of the only people I know who absolutely loves this movie. I cry during the final race every single time. I watch it online. Thank you so much for doing this

[wumbojet]

I genuinely love how unashamedly anime this movie is, it absolutely works to it's benefit even beyond the obvious importance of respecting the original material.

The contrast between the absurdly hype and over the top action and the tender, gut wrenching family dynamics scenes is just A++.

[vitriolUK]

I love to see people properly appreciate Speed Racer. Between this and the V for Vendetta movie I'd argue that the Wachowskis may be unmatched when it comes to their adaptions of comics. NOT because their adaptions are slavishly accurate, because they are absolutely not, but because they make smart choices about what to keep and what to change to still capture the heart of the original in a way suited to the medium of film.

[VidralliaArchives]

This whole movie, specifically regarding the Racers vs. Royalton, reminds me of the quote from Peggy Carter's funeral: "Compromise where you can. But where you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right, even if the whole world is telling you to move; it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye and say 'no. You move.'"


(Also this episode is what's finally gonna compel me to become a patron because I've been requesting it for months and I need to see more of Alan validating my feelings about the movie. Thank you so much for making this one!)