“Turbo” races home with the prize of being an awesome summer movie! The themes are terrific such as “No dream is too big and no dreamer is too small.” Theo, a garden snail, loves races and watches old video tapes of a champion named Gagne. He longs to race himself but to his older brother, Chet, this is more of an embarrassment than anything else. He and Theo work at a local tomato plant and Chet is more concerned about safety at the plant than he is about Theo’s dreams.
Yet when a freak accident pulls Theo into the internal parts of a fast car he suddenly becomes turbo-like fast and even takes the name of Turbo. When a Taco owner named Tito finds him and sees how fast he is, he wants to get him to the Indianapolis 500. It sounds preposterous to a lot of people, including Tito’s brother Angelo, but Turbo believes he can win it, and can even upset the champion, Gagne. Another nice theme in the movie is one of community spirit as local businesses support Turbo because they believe in his dream.
A joke I once heard says a snail knocked on a man’s door and when the man answered it and saw it was a snail he tossed him across the street. Two years later there is a knock on the same man’s door and once again it is the snail. “What was that for?” he asks. Well, Turbo is much too fast to take two years to get anywhere. This is a wonderful movie with great animation, entertaining characters and wonderful themes. A lot of kids, including young ones, saw the movie I screened and they laughed and chuckled and thoroughly enjoyed it. The film features the voice talents of Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti and Samuel L. Jackson. We are happy to award this delightful movie our Dove “Family-Approved” Seal for all ages. There is a little slapstick violence such as a snail slapping another snail and a kid accidentally being thrown off a bike and running into a door, but nothing of any real consequence or no gratuitous violence. So race out the door soon and see this terrific movie with your family. “Turbo” is not to be missed!