The snails go to outer space in one of the many off-track comedic adventures in season 2 of ‘Turbo FAST’ (© DreamWorks Animation)
The Turbotown crew is back for a second season in DreamWorks Animation’s animated series Turbo FAST, which is available exclusively on Netflix beginning July 31st.
For season two, the creative team is putting the “Fast Action Stunt Team” (hence the FAST name, ICYMI from season one) into comedic situations that go way beyond the race track.
I had a chance to screen two of the new episodes coming to Netflix. First one was “Home on Our Own,” which focuses on racing snails Skid and White Shadow. The two are all set to binge watch their favorite TV show “Gossip Snail” (which features of the voice of Sarah Hyland of Modern Family fame), but are interrupted when devious crabs Clip and Clap try to rob the FAST team’s clubhouse.
Kevin Conroy hilariously voices The Stinger in season two of ‘Turbo FAST’ (© DreamWorks Animation)
Next up was “Sting of Injustice,” which tells the story of Turbotown’s questionable superhero The Stinger (hilariously voiced by Kevin Conroy, long-time voice of Batman in multiple series from Warner Bros. Animation). The Stinger decides he needs a sidekick and he handpicks Turbo for the job. Naming him “Shell Boy,” Turbo joins with The Stinger but ultimately has to deal with the super-sized messes he creates.
Here’s a clip that DreamWorks provided from the season two episode entitled “Dying in Space: The Musical” (I’ve only seen this clip, not the entire episode).
So far, it looks like the DreamWorks team is working hard to create a fun comedy for kids and their parents with the Turbo FAST series. Taking the snails out of the race track into a wide variety of situations opens up the comedic situations for the show. I like the 2D interpretations of the characters used in the Netflix series; in fact, I think I prefer looking at the 2D snail designs over the original CG versions used in the feature film. I still can’t say that I love looking at animated snails overall (snails are just plain gross to me), but the DreamWorks team makes the best of it, particularly in how they use the snails eyes for comedic effect.
© DreamWorks Animation
One of my usual beefs with DreamWorks Animation is their over-reliance on current cultural references in their story lines. However, the cultural references used were what made these episodes of TurboFAST very entertaining to watch. Hopefully, the other episodes of season two will be just as fun.
Making its debut in this review is my new “EGO-tistical” rating scale, named for restaurant critic Anton Ego from the Pixar animated feature Ratatouille. I hope it will help quantify and summarize the opinions expressed (which are my own and not representative of anyone or anything else).
Animation Fascination 