Speeder is an animated remake of the pre-formation era film of the same name. The film centers around a couple that drives too fast and the police pursuit that ensues.
Plot Summary[]
The film begins on a road in Bluebell National Park, where a sports car zooms by. Inside, Sally is concerned for their safety, but Robert just uses this as an excuse to speed even faster.
In the meantime, a forest police officer named Stuart Cane is stationed in his police car near the side of the road. Nothing has happened for the past few hours, which causes him to be caught off-guard when Robert speeds past. Stuart makes haste as fast as he can and pursues the couple through some farmland. A pair of cows only notice the commotion after several seconds.
Soon, however, they're both speeding towards a collapsed bridge. While Stuart is able to react in time, Robert only notices when it is too late, leaving his car dangling off of the side of the broken bridge. Sally, infuriated that she almost killed both of them, leaves Robert, who tries to convince her to stay with him. During their altercation, Robert's car plummets off of the bridge and into the ravine below.
Stuart approaches Robert and asks for his license and registration. After Robert shows his license and shows that his registration is in the mangled mess that used to be his car, Stuart hands him a ticket and walks away.
As Stuart walks away, Sally stops him and begins to flirt, which confuses him. Robert tries to shut down the blooming infatuation, but it is to no avail, as Sally and Stuart walk off hand-in-hand. Robert is left behind to wonder what has happened.
Production History[]
This film was originally created as a release for Ten Years of Going Crazy!, since one of the ideas for the celebration was to remake some of the films created with the LEGO Studios Steven Spielberg Movie Maker Set. However, when the work-load required for Johnny Thunder and the Wisdom of the Ancients shelved this film for the following year, it was decided that this film should be canceled (in order to avoid conflicting with Project U).
By this time, however, the entire pre-production phase had already been completed, so when all of the development documents were recovered in 2019, this project was eventually revived as part of the 2/1/21 announcement event, where it was revealed that this film would finally see the light of day in 2022. When that year came around, it was revealed that this film had finally been set for a September 2 release date.
However, as production set-backs began to pile up, the start of production began to be pushed back until, on August 27, 2022, it was officially announced that this film had been delayed to September 30, 2022. To compensate for this, a promise was made to fill the month with promotions for the film, as well as spend time refining the film's visuals.
None of this happened, and as production lingered on, the film was pushed back several times until the film was finally released on November 28. During this final stage of production, an actor to play Sally was finally found, the film was edited in short time, and the film's music score was composed by Dylan Johnson.
Audience Reception[]
The film performed surprisingly well in its first week of release, maintaining an average viewership that is generally higher than average Mustache Maniacs Film Co. releases over similar periods. The viewers that have seen the film have also given the film positive feedback, citing the film's "classic" feel, its quick pace, and its strong comedy. Unlike big tentpole films like Pharaoh's Quest: The Curse of Amset-Ra however, Speeder's audience almost entirely consists of existing fans of Mustache Maniacs Film Co.'s projects.
Characters[]
- Robert (Puskov)
- Sally (Teresa Bermudez)
- Stuart Cane (Jack Francis)
- Duke Huckleberry (Puskov)
Locations[]
Credits[]
- Andrew Bermudez - Writer; Director; Animator; Editor; Sound Mixer
- Puskov - Voice Actor
- Jack Francis - Voice Actor
- Teresa Bermudez - Voice Actor; Assistant Writer
- Dylan Johnson - Composer
Tropes[]
Speeder contains examples of the following tropes.
- Adaptation Amalgamation: This film combines the plots from both Speeder and Speeder 2 together into one story. Then again, since both films had almost identical plots, doing this wasn't much of a stretch.
- Adaptational Job Change: In the film Speeder 2, Stuart Cane (who wasn't even named) was a firefighter. In this film, he's now a police officer.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Played straight, deconstructed, and played for laughs. Robert is a self-proclaimed bad boy, but Sally, who wants a bad boy, thinks that Robert is just an idiot. She then falls for Stuart Cane when he says that he might be a bad boy for ripping a tag off of a mattress when he was four years old.
- Bicolor Cows, Solid Color Bulls: Completely averted. The two cows seen in the film are solid brown.
- The Chase: This is basically the plot of this film once Stuart Cane begins to pursue the speeding couple (and is the only real deviation from the original film and its sequel).
- Continuity Nod: When Stuart Cane is first introduced, he bemoans that he should have gotten into the aviation business with his uncle Harry. Combined with Stuart's last name, it should come to no surprise that he is mentioning Harry Cane from the Johnny Thunder Saga.
- Dangerous Clifftop Road: While only a short portion of the road actually goes along a cliff, it just so happens to be where the road crosses said chasm. And the bridge is out.
- Delayed Reaction: The cows in this film are played up for comedy, making them into slow, dim-witted animals that only notice the speeding vehicles about 10 seconds after they have both passed by.
- The Ditz: Robert is portrayed as being shallow and clueless to the danger that he's put himself and Sally in. Taking things even further, the cows in the film do not notice the high-speed chase until a sizable amount of time has passed.
- Drives Like Crazy: Basically, what Robert does for almost the entire film.
- Fair Cop: This is how Sally views Stuart Cane.
- False Soulmate: Sally says that she likes "bad boys" like Robert, but the film starts out with how his antics cause her to split up with him.
- Helium Speech: While subverted in that this is her actual voice, Sally's speech is like this somewhat.
- Hot Pursuit: Once Stuart catches wind of the speeding car, he engages in this.
- Improbably Cool Car: The car that Robert drives is very fashionable, very fast, very cool...and makes no sense for a bachelor like him to even own, let alone drive.
- Mattress Tag Gag: Sally begins to think Stuart Cane is a "bad boy" when he mentions that he accidentally ripped the tag off of his parents' mattress when he was four years old.
- More Experienced Chases the Innocent: It's not made explicit in the film, but the personalities and reactions of both Robert and Stuart Cane imply that Sally, whom is implied to have been in multiple relationships, likes dating men who aren't that experienced in romance.
- Not Good with Rejection: Robert honestly can't figure out why Sally would want to break up with him.
- On the Rebound: Right after she breaks up with Robert, Sally immediately asks Stuart out on a date.
- Reimagining the Artifact: The original film was extremely simple in terms of its sets, characters, and plot. Essentially, the couple drives too fast, brakes, escapes from their car, and it plunges over a cliff. It was (as everything from the pre-formation era was) extremely cheaply-made and bare-bones. For this remake, while the exact same car from that film is used, the entire environment is overhauled into a lush forest roadway with farm animals, trees, a detailed road, a fully-realized cliff, and anything else appropriate to bring the environment to life.
Trivia[]
- This film's plot combines the stories from both the original Speeder and its sequel.
- Just like Officer Spot, this film extensively uses LEGO's newer road plate system for the sets.
- While this film's release date is officially recognized as being on November 28, the film was actually released on November 27. This was as part of a release date experiment to see if viewership changed based on which day in the weekend (and the time of day) that the film was released.
- This film is officially Mustache Maniacs Film Co.'s first remake.
Gallery[]
