Speed Racer and his tricked-out Mach 5 turned millions of kids onto Japanese anime when the cartoon series "Mahha GoGoGo" -- also known as "Speed Racer" -- premiered in 1967. Its 52 episodes have had a cult following ever since. Though its animation is primitive by today's standards, "Speed Racer" was a pioneer for its time and made an indelible impression on many who grew up with it, including the duo behind the "Matrix" films, Larry and Andy Wachowski.

Speed Racer race
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Emile Hirsch and Matthew Fox as Speed Racer and Racer X, respectively, compete in a race.

The directing brothers, known for bringing an innovative approach, keen visual sense and cutting-edge technology to their projects, have brought the 40-year-old franchise into the 21st century with eye-popping visuals, high-octane action and a welcome reinvention of the term "family film."

How did they make it look so cool, while bringing it in on time and on its $120 million budget? Well, we won't find out from the Wachowskis; they're known for not doing interviews. But the talent in front of and behind the camera were more than willing to reveal the brothers' creative methods and give detailed insight into the making of the movie.

Actors Emile Hirsch (Speed), Christina Ricci (his spunky chopper pilot girlfriend Trixie), Matthew Fox (the mysterious Racer X), Susan Sarandon (Mom Racer) and John Goodman (Pops Racer) tell tales from the set. Producer Joel Silver gives the big-picture history and overview, and visual effects supervisor John Gaeta provides the technical details. Buckle your seat belt and get ready for quite a ride as we go inside "Speed Racer."

Speedy Cars
Arguably, the most famous characters in "Speed Racer" are the cars. Although creators designed more than 100 cars for the film, the only full cars made were the Mach 5 (Speed's car) and the Shooting Star (belonging to Racer X). But even those didn't actually work. All the moveable cars were computer generated, according to John Gaeta.

"We had all sorts of bizarre-o shapes, funny cars in a way, but with jet engines in them. The wheel is captured in an enclosure from above that allows it to not be encumbered by an axle. We call them T-180s," says Gaeta, who designed the cars with inspiration from skateboard technology. "We wanted to go into the realm of Tony Hawk with this."

Another striking aspect of "Speed Racer" vehicles are the jump jacks, "akin to the world's most powerful pogo sticks," says Gaeta. "They can rocket 3,000 or 4,000 pounds of car into the air at high speed. The wheels and the jump jacks can be controlled in unison or separately, so if I wanted to fire just the left side jump jacks the car would roll up and to the right. And if I wanted, I could go end over end."