Writer-director Ross Venokur’s frenetic, heartfelt, funny, but derivative Rally Road Racers is Speed Racer (2008) for the Zootopia (2016) set. Though an Indian production, the story is set in China, with slow loris Zhi (Jimmy O. Yang) as the young hotshot protagonist forced to race against toad and reigning champion Archie Vainglorious (John Cleese, in full vocal regalia), who’s referred to as a frog when convenient. (Zhi’s surname is apparently Bai, which would make his name a near-homophone of baíchī, or “idiot.”)
Zhi has always wanted to be a racer, like the perennial champion Archie. But as his grandmother (Lisa Lu) never tires of reminding him, speed goes against the ways of the slow loris village, modeled on traditional Chinese values such as harmony, tai chi, Dao, mahjong, a home altar to venerate ancestors (here Zhi’s dead mother), and the eschewing of haste. These elements can be superficial: Grandma entreats Zhi to find his Dao, following the same road to self-actualization as the titular protagonist of Mulan (2020) does in unleashing her qì. Zhi races anyway, and by the time he reaches young adulthood, he’s pretty good — except that he chokes when, in the lead, he sees a car coming up behind him in the rearview.
