In the 3D family comedy adventure “Turbo,” a snail learns that it takes more
than talent to get to the top and that there’s no substitute for friends and
family in the pursuit of a dream.
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| Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox |
It’s a lesson that the little snail at the heart of the new animated 3D film
TURBO discovers when he sets out to become a champion racing driver.
Turbo (Ryan Reynolds) has determination, drive and a sense of adventure but is
an outsider within community of ordinary garden snails. He is dissatisfied with
his lot; moving through life at a snail’s pace doesn’t suit his temperament.
Turbo has an outlandish fantasy of traveling over 200 miles per hour – just
like his hero, a champion French Canadian racing driver. It doesn’t sound
possible for a creature known for being one of the slowest on Earth, but an
accident on the freeway gives the little snail incredible speed. Turbo-charged,
he embarks on a wild adventure in search of racing glory. Initially Turbo has
no support at all. His goals are regarded with disdain by his brother Chet
(Paul Giamatti), who thinks he should settle down and forget all about
racing. Along the way he ends up with a group of racing snails in a
rundown strip mall called Starlight Plaza. The humans whom he also met
became an integral part of his journey who backed him up in doing the
impossible – to race in the Indy 500.
The Starlight team broadens the film’s world, says director Soren. “We
begin in the snail universe and the film’s scope and visuals gradually expand
to encompass a much more expansive environment.”
The leader of this group is Tito, who is co-owner, with his brother Angelo, of
a struggling taco business they call Dos Bros Tacos. Tito’s true passion
rests not with ground meat and tortillas, but with the snail races he hosts
along with his fellow shop owners at the Starlight Plaza, as a means to gain
exposure for their businesses. When Turbo zooms into Tito’s life at 200
miles per hour, Tito is inspired and the two kindred spirits head off to chase
their impossible dreams.
The senior member of the Starlight Plaza group is Kim Ly, a cantankerous and
elderly nail salon owner who doesn’t mince words voiced by Ken Jeong (widely
known for his character in “The Hangover” trilogy). Her expert manicurist
skills come in handy when, as a member of Turbo’s pit crew, she paints, buffs
and polishes Turbo’s racing shell.
“Kim Ly is menacing, but mostly adorable,” says Jeong who’s anything but
typecast as an elderly woman. “She has a little bit of a mean streak and
can talk smack with the best of them.” Kim and the other shop owners
bankroll Turbo’s trip to Indianapolis, hoping to cash in when he crosses the
finish line. But by journey’s end, “she really cares about Turbo and the
rest of the crew,” says Jeong.
About his unexpected casting as an aged Vietnamese woman, Jeong says that when
he saw the film, “Somehow it just fit!” But Soren knew he had the
right actor for the part after watching Jeong on a national talk show.
“He was imitating his mother and mother-in-law, and he sounded like an elderly
woman,” Soren remembers. “And I said to myself, ‘That’s Kim Ly.’ I
talked to Ken about it, and he loves the fact that he’s sort of channeling his
mother-in-law for the role.”
“TURBO” (in 3D and 2D) opens July 19 in theaters nationwide from 20th
Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.
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