Turbo

A tiny garden snail yearns to race in the Indy 500 in this fast and furious animated comedy. Daredevil Turbo (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) and his cautious, older brother, Chet (Paul Giamatti), toil at the Tomato Plant. Firmly believing the credo of French-Canadian superstar racer Guy Gagné (Bill Hader) that “no dream is too big—no dreamer too small,” Turbo ventures into the outside world, where he's swept off a freeway overpass onto the hood of a sports car. As he's sucked into the air intake valve, nitrous oxide explodes every atom of his body, changing his molecular structure. Suddenly, Turbo is fast (really fast), blazing through the streets of Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley like a neon bullet. But then Turbo and Chet are captured by Tito (Michael Peña), who—along with his brother Angelo (Luis Guzmán)—runs the Dos Bros taco truck at the Starlight Plaza strip mall. Tito's hobby is snail-racing, so Turbo joins the Racing Snails—Whiplash (Samuel L. Jackson), Smoove Move (Snoop Dogg), Burn (Maya Rudolph), Skidmark (Ben Schwartz) and White Shadow (Mike Bell)—all sporting tricked-out shells. With the es-car-goes as his pit crew and the financial support of Starlight shop owners (Michelle Rodriguez, Ken Jeong, Richard Jenkins), the determined underdog Turbo ultimately begins his trek to the Indy 500. Director David Soren's Turbo is a fun-filled adventure for adrenaline junkies of all ages. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “Be an Artist!” instructional featurette (55 min.), a “Champion's Corner” character featurette (5 min.), “Team Turbo: Tricked Out” on the characters (3 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are “The Race” storyboard sequence with director David Soren (3 min.), a deleted scene (2 min.), the “Smoove Move's Music Maker” viewing option with music videos, a “Shell Creator” game, and bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a fun family film.] (S. Granger)