Turbo is a snail with a plan, and a movie that can’t quite decide what kind of plan it wants him to have. Directed by David Soren and written by Soren, Darren Lemke and Robert Siegel, the 2013 animated comedy follows Theo, a garden snail named Turbo, who dreams of winning the Indianapolis 500. The setup is simple and clever: a garden snail gets fused with a car’s nitrous oxide during a drag race, and wakes up with super speed. The execution is less clever.
Ryan Reynolds voices Turbo, and the rest of the cast reads like a who’s who of vocal talent pulled from sitcoms and action movies: Paul Giamatti as Chet, Michael Peña as Tito, Samuel L. Jackson as Whiplash, Luis Guzmán as Angelo, Bill Hader as Guy Gagné, Snoop Dogg as Smoove Move, Maya Rudolph as Burn, Ben Schwartz as Skid Mark, Richard Jenkins as Bobby, Ken Jeong as Kim Ly, and Michelle Rodriguez as Paz. That list is the film’s strongest argument. Its weakest argument is the story around them.
Trailer, via 20th Century Studios.
How Turbo Got Made
Turbo started as a joke. In 2009, DreamWorks Animation held a pitch contest for its staff, asking them to submit one-page ideas for films. Soren pitched “The Fast and the Furious with snails” and won. The idea sat for years until Soren’s family moved into a new home with a backyard overrun by snails. Then came the racing inspiration: his son’s fascination with cars.
The premise is pure pitch-bait. A snail version of The Fast and the Furious. The joke lands once. It doesn’t build a movie.
The Pitch That Won
The pitch worked because it was absurd. Snails don’t move fast, and making one move fast is funny. The joke is that Turbo can’t stop moving. The movie never quite commits to that joke, instead turning Turbo into a hero whose problem is that he’s too fast.
The result is a story that keeps circling the same idea without landing on it. Turbo wants to race. He gets faster. He wins a race. He gets a bigger race. The loop never closes.
From Garden to Indy
Turbo lives in a suburban tomato garden in Van Nuys, California. He names himself after his hero, Guy Gagné, a five-time Indianapolis 500 champion. His family isn’t pleased. His older brother Chet is embarrassed by him. His community is slow and cautious. Turbo is an outcast.
One night, he wanders onto a freeway and wishes to be fast. A drag race passes, and he gets sucked into the supercharger of a Chevrolet Camaro. The nitrous oxide fuses with his body, and the next morning he wakes up with super speed. He also gains other characteristics of a car.
His first try at speed crashes a boy’s tricycle into the tomato garden. Both brothers get fired. Chet is snatched by a crow, and Turbo rescues him near a rundown strip mall called Starlight Plaza. Tito Lopez, a taco truck driver who works at the Plaza, captures them and holds a snail race. Turbo wins in seconds, earning the respect of the snails led by Whiplash.
Tito plans to revive Starlight Plaza with Turbo as an attraction. Turbo convinces Tito to enter him in the Indianapolis 500 instead. The snails strand a tour bus to show off Turbo’s speed, drawing business. Tito’s coworkers agree to pay the entrance fee and join the trip to Indianapolis.
At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Turbo meets Gagné again. He qualifies for the race and becomes a social media sensation.
The Problem With Speed
The central problem is that Turbo’s speed is a gift and a curse. The movie wants him to be fast enough to win a car race, but it also wants him to be a relatable underdog. Those two things don’t sit together comfortably.
The film tries to solve this by having Turbo crash into a boy’s tricycle early on. The accident is supposed to show that his speed comes with a cost. But the movie forgets about that cost within minutes, and Turbo spends the rest of the film winning races without consequence.
The result is a protagonist who is both unstoppable and pitiable. The audience is asked to root for a character who has already proven he can win. The tension is gone before it starts.
Voices, Not Characters
The cast delivers their lines with energy. Reynolds plays Turbo as a mix of excitement and determination. Giamatti plays Chet as a worried parent. Jackson plays Whiplash as a leader who respects Turbo’s skill. The chemistry is there, even when the script isn’t.
But the characters are thin. Turbo is a dreamer who never doubts himself. Chet is a worrier who never acts. Tito is a schemer who never loses faith. The film trusts the voices to carry the weight that the writing refuses to bear.
The Box Office Failure
Turbo earned $282 million against a $131 million budget. On paper, that looks like a success. It wasn’t. The film lost the studio $13.5 million.
The film was a box office failure. The studio took a loss.
A Television Spinoff
Turbo Fast, a television series based on the film, was released in 2013. It followed the story of Turbo and his adventures.
The spinoff exists because the film made enough money to support it. It’s a small comfort for a movie that failed to meet expectations.
The Verdict
Turbo is a film with a great idea and a weak execution. The premise is funny. The jokes land sometimes. The animation is bright. The cast is game.
But the story doesn’t know where it’s going. It keeps repeating the same beats: Turbo gets faster, Turbo wins, Turbo gets famous. There’s no escalation, no stakes, no reason to care beyond the next win.
The film is a missed opportunity. It had a premise that could have been sharp and subversive. Instead it became safe and repetitive.
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Pitch contest won by Soren | 2009 |
| Film premiere at CineEurope | May 20, 2013 |
| U.S. theatrical release | July 17, 2013 |
- Title: Turbo (2013)
- Director: David Soren
- Writer: Robert D. Siegel, Darren Lemke, David Soren, Guy Bar’ely
- Runtime: 96 minutes
- Budget: $131 million
- Box office: $282 million
- Studio loss: $13.5 million
Turbo is a film that announces its own limits from the first frame. It knows it’s a snail racing movie, and it never pretends otherwise. That honesty is rare. The failure to extend beyond those limits is the whole problem.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
