Customer Reviews

Hot Wheels - World Race

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

OK parents for all of you who have patiently waited for espisode 3,4 and 5, the waiting is over. The DVD is the complete movie it contains all 5 episodes plus bonus features. Yeah!!! For anyone still collecting cars, according to Mattel, all the cars should be available by Christmas and the deadline for submission has been extended. Enjoy

Anybody reconize that quote...it's from Vert, the cool hotwheel guy. I have more because I have seen the movie about a million times...my 3 year old is obsessed. It is though a good movie, tied in with the racing are lessons about teamwork, friendship and loyalty. The animation on it is great, the dialoge is clean and kid-friendly and dude, it's hotwheels. II think I may be losing my mind though because I am starting to talk along with the movie.

OK, I'm a 32 year-old male who grew up with Hot Wheels. Not surprisingly, my three boys (ages 3, 5, & 7) love to play with them and have more of them than I care to admit. We have a couple of the Hot Wheels books, and they are simply dreadful. They seem as if they were written by someone for whom English is a second language. Considering this, I had low expectations for the movie, of which I knew nothing about until we rented it.

I was pleasantly surprised, and even found myself getting into it a little bit. The animation was quite impressive, with movement of the cars especially realistic. Animation of fast-moving things like cars is usually quite poor, but not in this case. Anyway, this movie basically puts to screen what every little kid who plays with Hot Wheels imagines. It shows people actually driving those outrageously designed cars! On tracks with loops and jumps, just like the playsets! What could be better?

It is true that the storyline has a number of fantastical and highly unrealistic content. But please remember, this is aimed squarely at little kids, so realism isn't really something the target audience is expecting. It also seems quite long, but even my three year-old was entertained the entire time, even on the third viewing. There is even a light moral to the story and a sub-plot about family loyalty.

Definitely worth the purchase price.

"Vert" Wheeler is an average young adult, an expert surfer and skateborder who has just gotten his driving license (with a perfect score, no less!).

When he returns how he finds a mysterious car (the Deora) in his driveway. The enigmatic Dr. Tezla, manufacturer of the finest racing vehicles in the world, recruits him, along with more of the world's greatest drivers, to compete in the World Race!

The drivers will race down the mysterious Highway 35, an super-track built by an ancient race called the Accelerons. What lies at the end of this race is what Dr. Tezla craves: The Wheel of Power, a source of limitless, clean energy.

Five racing teams with 35 total drivers and 35 vehicles compete for mastery of Highway 35, the ultimate raceway that challenges man and machine in an alternate dimension of speed, power and performance.

This movie delivers 110 minutes of fun entertainment, with plenty of thrilling moments as well as a positive moral message here and there (that's not delivered too heavy-handed). The movie, while filled with action and adventure, includes virtually no physical violence. It's a great video for children (assuming they like cars!).

Artisan did a good job with this DVD. The movie is offered in both full screen and widescreen versions, each sporting a 5.1 Dolby Digital mix. Bonus features are an interactive garage that provides details on the 35 racers and vehicles, as well as six fun music videos. The interactive garage features three "hidden" easter eggs, with character/car information for Gelorum, Dr Tezla & Gig, and Zed-36.

The adventures of many of these characters is continued in the Hot Wheels Acceleracers series, although with some mixed results.
See my reviews of those titles for more details.

I bought this DVD because my 3 year old son (of course) loves the toy cars and he needed a video besides the Blue's Clue's and Dora types. I bought this particular video based on a review I read saying there wasn't any real violence and it taught teamwork skills. In my opinion the makers of the film did a fair job with the no violence though there was one man on man fight where one kicked the other and one pushed the other down a hill. Also, there was a part where a robot was obviously trying to hurt a human with a large chunk of ice. My son makes me put my hand around his face at that part but still wants to watch. Otherwise, honestly, I really enjoy the movie myself! As I put in the video for the first time my husband and I both got stuck there in front of the TV watching it too. It catches your attention right away! I did think it got long after the first two hours though and found myself waiting to get to the end. I have still watched it a few times since though. It is all my son wants to watch anymore!!

Hot Wheels - World Race is a movie done entirely in 3D Cell-Shaded CGI. The quality of the animation and the modeling are generally pretty good for a Direct-to-video movie. The only downside is that this movie is almost 2 hours in length and some of the scenes look less impressive then others while some of them are very repetitive. They should have kept the best action scenes and cut this movie down to 85-90 minutes instead.

Younger kids under 12 years old will definitely love this movie for sure. It has great action races with some very cool characters, great looking cars and the visual is very good. The story is very simple since the movie is aiming for children. Nobody dies or gets hurt in the movie.

The transfer (quality of the images) of this DVD is far from being perfect. I was hoping for a perfect DVD transfer like Monster Inc. or Bionicle: Mask of Light since the movie source is already digital. The problem is that the DVD has both the widescreen version (1.78:1) and the fullscreen version (1.33:1) on one disc. You will see some compressions in many scenes. The DVD is dual-layer but with 2 versions of this long movie with 2 languages (English & French) plus many extra like music videos, it's just too much.

Overall, I personally love this movie a lot but not as much as Bionicle: Mask of Light, another great 3D animated movie from toys for children. I'm 24 and I recommend this movie for everybody, especially for people that loves animation and cars.

This movie is great! Its all five episodes on one disc without any noticeable commercial break spots (such as when Vert is approaching the lava flow on the Episode 1 disc). The World Race is more than a race to see who's the fastest driver in the world. It is also a place that reflects life. Team Building, betrayal, and redemption all occur on Highway 35. The action never lets up and actually intensifies in the later episodes when a double-blind is pulled on one of the drivers, a new menace is presented, and the World Race turns into one big, fast free-for-all that culminates in a battle at the mecca for racers.

The DVD contains all 5 team videos, a video for Smash Mouth's "Hot" and a section with all 35 cars w/vital statistics, along with a short driver biography. Kind of like the ones that come in the mini comics.

Believe me, this movie is about the race and the race only! With an interesting story, and someone who actually says Taro's line ("I'm going to pass you.") to the Scorcher's leader and does it. Its in a class all to itself, a World Class!

My 3 1/2 year-old son is a Hot Wheels fanatic ... he's got about 200 cars. He bought this DVD 6 months and absolutely loves it. He listens to the song "Hot" over and over again and talks about the characters at school. When he plays with his Highway 35 cars (we got them from Ebay) he voices the dialogues that go with the cars. The movie has some great themes of friendship, teamwork and losing gracefully. The special effects are great and the characters are quite likable. The only drawback, for adults, is that the movie is pretty long and can seem repetitive. I've only watched once all the way through.

My four year old has gone absolutely nuts over this series, having seen #1 and #2. We impatiently wait for the complete series installment, but I know that this one will get alot of mileage (nyuck-nyuck) around here, sharing a rotation with Speed Racer in the vroom-vroom room......

I have two boys (2 & 4 yo). All they ever want to do is play with Hotwheels Cars. The always get tons of cool stuff at Christmas but Hotwheels are their favorite. I rented this movie and they've watched it at least 6 times a day for the last 3 days on their own TV. It's the most peaceful time we've had in the last 4 years :-) That's why I'm looking on Amazon now to buy a copy. I don't know what's going to happen next Sunday when we have to return the movie to Blockbuster.

OK, most adults would probably think it was a terrible movie... but it's not for adults... it's for kids! Any kid who has a box full of Hotwheels cars will recognize the vehicles and tracks. And unlike most kids movies, it actually has some sort of story.