'60s Japanese cartoons led to anime, new 'Speed Racer' film

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Emile Hirsch, as Speed Racer, drives the Mach 5 followed by Matthew Fox, as Racer X, in a scene from Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' action adventure "Speed Racer."

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"Speed Racer" careens into theaters Friday, dragging with it a $120 million budget, the bruised reputation of directors the Wachowski brothers - whose careers need a shot of nitro after the flameouts of the last two "Matrix" debacles - and the summer hopes of a movie industry desperately in need of a few winners.

Back in the `60s and `70s, though, few could imagine that Hollywood would ever pin hopes on a live-action take on what then seemed to be strange, disturbingly violent Japanese cartoons that were totally at odds with American sensibilities. "Speed Racer" 1.0 - like its contemporaries "Gigantor," "Astro Boy," and "Kimba the White Lion" - was imported into the U.S. in the `60s through the wonders of syndication and an apparent need to fill afternoon airwaves with something other than Mike Douglas, old movies and teary soaps. Filler, thy name is "Speed Racer."

Long before such land-of-the-rising-sun concepts as sushi, karaoke and Optimus Prime had filtered their way into the American psyche, this first wave of Japanese animation - the Normandy Invasion of what would become the multi-million dollar business known as anime - was rather unnerving. This animation stood in stark, wide-eyed contrast to the lushness of Walt Disney's artistry, the wackiness of duck season-wabbit season Warner Bros.' anarchy, the modernist touch of Jay "Rocky & Bullwinkle" Ward's tomfoolery, and the friendly camaraderie of the Hanna-Barbera animal stable (Yogi and Boo Boo, Quickdraw and Baba Looey, and, my favorite, Lippy the Lion and his depressed, dyspeptic hyena sidekick, Hardy Har Har).

"Speed Racer" and his ilk were something different. With their fixed expressions, stiff movements and penchant for violence - can't remember if it was "Astro Boy" or another of them but a pilot's headphones outfitted with skull-piercing blades sticks in the memory - the Japanese imports were a shock to the system and seemingly as alien as those new Toyotas and Datsuns popping up on every street.

So, if the Wachowskis' vision is half as impressive as "Iron Man," the big-screen vision of a prototypical American superhero, there's going to be increased interest in what they based it all on: those odd Japanese cartoons from an earlier era. Here's a guide to the four big ones.

-ASTRO BOY (1963-64)

This is the one that started it all. Based on a 1950s comic book by Osamu Tezuka, "Astro Boy" was the first Japanese cartoon to be seen widely in the U.S.

And the plot's back story is arguably the darkest. It's the 21st century and robotics engineer Dr. Boynton is bereft after the death of his son in a car accident. So he creates a robot in his son's image but, distraught that the replicant can't replace the real thing, sells him into slavery at a robot circus, where he's held under the cruel thumb of ringmaster Cacciatore. The boy, dubbed Astro Boy, is freed by a robots-rights activist, Dr. Elefun, who teaches the kid how to be a crimefighter and all-around conqueror of evil.

"Astro Boy" remains my favorite of the early Japanese imports, partly because it's the first and partly because of the warped stories. Absoluteanime.com and astroboy.tv give rundowns on some of them, whether it's 46 wrestling robots linking to become a mega-centipede or Astro Boy, sister Astro Girl and Elefun being flung 70,000 years into the future.

Updated versions of the tale were seen in 1980 and 2004.

DVDs available: "Astro Boy: Ultra Collectors Edition, Set 1," "Astro Boy: Ultra Collectors Edition, Set 2."

-GIGANTOR (1965-66)

Gigantor, a giant robot controlled by a boy, has roots that go back to the `50s when Tokyo artist Mitsuteru Yokoyama came up with the story for a Japanese boys' magazine. That was subsequently turned into a TV show, "Tetsujin 28-Go" (Iron Man 28).

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Cary Darling: cdarling@star-telegram.com