Acceleracers DVDThe action is full speed ahead! Hot Wheels AcceleRacers is an action packed series developed by the Mattel Toy manufacturers and released by Warner Bros. Studios. Originally, the AcceleRacers series aired just once, in four parts, on Cartoon Network, before being released into four separate DVDs.

In 2003, the Hot Wheels movie, Highway 35 World Race, introduced the world to the AcceleRacers. Now, the AcceleRacers are back. Starting in 2005, the first movie, Ignition, presented new challenges as the AcceleRacers faced new racing realms, which were opened thanks to the Wheel of Power, and the ancient technology of the Accelerons.

By the fourth movie, The Ultimate Race, things have changed quite a bit. Some of the members of the other teams have been captured by the evil drones (robots designed by the Accelerons in order to test and beat human racers) and the mysterious Silencerz have something up their sleeves.

The AcceleRacers Teams
There are four main racing teams in the Hot Wheels AcceleRacer series.

Team Teku
Team Teku is one of the “good guys” teams. This team is headed by Nolo Pasaro. Team Teku includes two “former” rival drivers, Kurt Wylde and Vert Wheeler, the analytical Karma Eiss, and mellow “take-it-as-it-comes” driver Shirako Takamoto.

At this point, we know that Vert’s mother is dead and his father, Major Wheeler, does not approve of Vert’s racing. Meanwhile, Kurt’s brother, Mark, has been kidnapped by the drones. Kurt wants to save his brother in order to make up for all the times he has let his brother down.

As for Nolo, he is not fond of Tork, who leads Team Metal Maniacs. Nolo believes that Tork is responsible for the death of his brother, Tone (the former leader of Team Teku). This has caused problems between the men in the past, however, in The Ultimate Race, they must find a way to get past that grudge in order to work together to defeat the drones.

Karma is one of the best drivers, though in this movie, she is only seen as a secondary character. The Ultimate Race focuses more on Kurt Wylde, Vert Wheeler, the Silencerz, and the drones. Similarly, Shirako is seen helping his team, but again he is, for the most part, a secondary character in this movie.

Team Teku loves to incorporate music into their cars, and they love nice-looking, high-tech, commercialized vehicles that allow them to blast their speakers as loud as they want during a race!

Team Metal Maniacs
Team Metal Maniacs is not overly fond of Team Teku. In fact, there is more than one spat between the two teams despite the fact that the Wylde brothers race for opposite teams. Part of the problem is the animosity between Team Teku leader Nolo and Team Metal Maniacs leader Tork.

Team Metal Maniacs is comprised of Tork Maddox, the leader of the group, Taro Kitano, the love interest of Karma Eiss, Deezel “Porkchops” Riggs, who cannot stand Shirako Takamoto because he hates the music Shirako listens to, Mark “Markie” Wylde, the younger brother of Kurt, and Mitchell “Monkey” McClurg.

Tork, the leader, blames himself for Tone Pasaro’s death even though he is not responsible. This is why he allows Nolo to blame him for the death. However, the issue is resolved in The Ultimate Race, as the two have to work together against the drones. You can find out what happens by watching the movie

Porkchop and Monkey work together in this movie. The two are great friends. Porkchop is a hulking, wrestler-type of guy. He resents Team Teku because before racing the team he never lost a race. Monkey, the Metal Maniacs mechanic, can race pretty well, though he prefers making the cars, as opposed to racing in them. Monkey has also constructed a robot named “Sparky” from spare drone parts, who helps the AcceleRacers out.

Meanwhile, Markie has joined the Metal Maniacs after leaving the now disbanded Wave Rippers (Vert’s team). Markie is a bit hot headed, and he sometimes breaks the rules. However, he and his brother have reconciled after a long time apart due to mutual animosity.

Team Metal Maniacs uses scraps of metal, other objects, and racing parts to make their own, unique cars. Monkey is one of the primary engineers of these cars, and in The Ultimate Race, he takes over one of the drone sweepers, in order to enter the drone’s realm and try to save Markie Wylde.

The Racing Drones

The racing drones were developed a long time ago by the Accelerons. The Accelerons made them to be the ultimate opponents against human racers. The drones have no emotions and no desires other than to win and destroy the humans. The drones seem to be in an endless supply and have their own realm, which they control.

The leader of the drones is the evil, robotic Gelorum. Gelorum has been a villain of the AcceleRacers since she took on the humans on Highway 35, the destroyed highway from World Race. The prize for winning Highway 35 (which Vert did, though not without quite a fight from Gelorum and the other racers) was the Wheel of Power.

The other drones do not have names like Gelorum. They are merely identified as RD-L1 (Racing Drone, Lieutenant One), RD-S1 (Racing Drone, Soldier One), RD-W1 (Racing Drone, Worker One), and so on. However, in this final episode, one of the former “Good Guys” who has not been mentioned, but has been captured by the drones in one of the previous movies, has turned evil. After his capture, he has become a cyborg reminiscent of Tron or the Terminator.

The racing drones have an endless fount of drivers. They also have a wicked sweeper, which basically sweeps the track clean, destroying and/or capturing racers as it moves along the track.

The Silencerz
Not much is known about the Silencerz other than Dr. Tezla seems to know of them. Information on how he knows about the Silencerz is revealed in The Ultimate Race. The Silencerz have special abilities, which allow them to stand out from the rest of the drivers. These powers include the ability to transform their car into something else (a disguise used to attack cars and pit other racers against one another), electric charge attacks (disables other cars), a bomb launcher, magnetic car bottoms, and an invisibility feature.

Tezla reveals, in a previous movie, that the Silencerz have stolen his technology. However, the robot, GIG, who was re-programmed by Tezla, is revealed to be a stolen robot of the Silencerz. GIG makes a big splash in, The Ultimate Race, and you learn much more about the Silencerz through him, in this movie.

One big secret is who one of the main Silencerz is. This is revealed at the end of The Ultimate Race, and it opens up the door to many additional Hot Wheels AcceleRacers movies, which are yet to come.

Other Characters of AcceleRacers

Dr. Tezla is the man behind bringing the AccleRacers together to race in World Race. He hired the drivers in order to find him the Wheel of Power before the drones could get to it. Dr. Tezla is quite mysterious, though at this point, it seems as though his intentions are good.

Lani Tam used to race with the Wave Rippers. Now she is one of Dr. Tezla’s technicians, and as one of the few females, she has played the love interest, or potential love interest of a few of the male racers. At one point, she dated the “quiet” Taro Kitano, but they did not talk much so they broke up. While Monkey seems to have quite the crush on Lani, she is actually interested in Nolo Pasaro.

GIG is an X-88 floating robot companion to Dr. Tezla. Originally, one of the robots of the Silencerz, GIG was re-programmed by Dr. Tezla. However, a lot happens thanks to GIG during AcceleRacers – The Ultimate Race, changing viewers, and Dr. Tezla’s perception of the robot.

Racers employed by Dr. Tezla, though all of them have disappeared mysteriously, include Brian “Zone” Kadeem, Banjee Castillo, Alec “Hud” Wood, and Dan Dresden

The Plot of Hot Wheels: AcceleRacers – The Ultimate Race
The movie starts and it is quickly revealed that Kurt Wylde has assembled Team Teku and Team Metal Maniacs, behind Dr. Tezla’s back, in order to go to Drone Headquarters and rescue his captured brother Markie.

Dr. Tezla is not very happy about this, but he has his own problems to worry about at this point. He must face a traitor on his team, as well as the infiltration of the Acceledrome, by the drones. In the meantime, Tezla, Lani, and the AcceleChargers (which the drones and the Silencerz want) are kidnapped by the Silencerz as chaos ensues.

The evil Gelorum has decided to race the AcceleRacers in a bid to head into the portal of the Accelerons. However, Vert has other ideas. Despite being injured (a leg injury) he takes Gelorum on, head to head, with the assistance of Monkey’s robot, Sparky.

As time runs out for the AcceleRacers, the following things occur:

  • a Silencerz member reveals himself/herself
  • the Accelerons reveal the true meaning of racing and the true reason for the realms
  • we find out what has happened to some of the racers who disappeared mysteriously
  • more questions arise leading to thoughts of a new movie series in order to answer all the remaining questions

Thoughts on the Movie
As a parent of a twelve-year-old boy, I found the movie to be decent for kids. It teaches lessons of right and wrong, good and bad, and the overall “car theme” is eye-catching, especially for boys. The movie is definitely suited for those who are twelve and under, though teenagers and adults who are interested in cars and cartoons might get into it.

I found the graphics to resemble a video game type of setup as opposed to a cartoon. The intention was to make the AcceleRacers look more realistic. I did not have a problem with the graphics, though I have heard of some who complain about the fact that the movie is not as “cartoonsy” as it should be.

Overall, I liked the movie, though it left many questions unanswered. The writing was easy for children to understand. I have heard complaints about the fact that the “last movie” in the series leaves you hanging and some stories are tied up sloppily or too quickly. However, I think this just adds to the excitement of the movie. I was watching this for the racing, and there is plenty of racing action going on throughout the entire movie.

While, I am not sure how relevant the whole “love interest” stories are especially for kids, in The Ultimate Race there is little to no mention of this, since other issues are addressed.

Bottom Line: My only issue is, if they do not make a sequel, then they have left a bunch of people hanging and wondering what is going on. However, I personally believe this is a promotional ploy by Mattel in order to get fans of the series to watch the next AcceleRacer movie.

While World Race clearly had an ending, it did tie into this series, so instead of ending things clearly, Mattel has found a way to draw interest into the AcceleRacer series. I give the series three out of five stars. If you love cars and cartoons, then you need to check AcceleRacers out.

Note: I highly recommend watching the other AcceleRacer movies before this one. Otherwise, you will be confused. I hope that this review will also help you before watching The Ultimate Race, since I have tried to list all the relevant information from the past movies, in hopes that if you do watch it, you know what is going on.

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