Wacky Races. One of Hanna Barbera's most iconic shows along with Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, and The Jetsons. The show that introduced us to Dick Dastardly and his snickering sidekick Muttley along with Southern belle Penelope Pitstop.
I loved this show as a kid and I still love it to this day. I even have the DVD box set. I had no idea a reboot of this show exists until recently. Yes, there's a Wacky Races reboot. It came out in 2017 on the Boomerang channel. I stopped watching Boomerang when it went from a channel exclusively for old Hanna Barbera shows to a recycling bin for cancelled Cartoon Network shows and reruns.
Is it any good?
Let's start with the pros:
1) They kept the theme song from the original series
2) Diedrich Bader voices Peter Perfect and is great
That's it. Those are the only pros here.
Now for the cons:
1) The animation. It's not terrible, but it's not good either. It has the same problem as the Muppet Babies reboot. It's so damn bright! It's so bright, it's nauseating to look at.
2) New characters. I feel bad for complaining about the Muppet Babies reboot adding Summer because Summer is so much more likeable than the new characters in this one. Let's see, they gave Penelope Pitstop an evil twin sister named Pandora. Why? She adds nothing and has ZERO personality. There's some annoying twerpy kid genius. Yawn. There's some short old lady. Another yawn. Then there's some annoying short pirates. Are they supposed to be The Anthill Mob? The only new character that is tolerable is the narrator. In the original series, the narrator is heard but never seen. Here, he's like an announcer/interviewer.
3) They did away with most of the racers. This really pisses me off. The only racers they kept were Peter Perfect, Penelope Pitstop, Dastardly and Muttley, and The Gruseome Twosome. Why did they ditch the other racers? I get that these are the most popular, but why not keep them all? I would have loved to have seen a modern take on the Anthill Mob or that redneck guy and his pet bear. Ugh, did we really need Penelope Pitstop's evil twin? I think not. Give me those little mobsters anyday.
4) Hmm, for a show to be called Wacky RACES, it's lacking one thing: RACING!!!! Seriously, most of the episodes don't even involve racing! That's what the show is all about! All the kooky cars and equally kooky racers. They're off on some boring adventure most of the time. Why is Dastardly hanging around with Peter Perfect and Penelope Pitstop? He's the villain for fuck's sake!
Some other obsevations of both the original and the reboot:
1) Is it just me or does Peter Perfect's car look....phallic? Especially in the original. Was that done on purpose? Is his car compensating for something?
2) Why does Dastardly have a pot-bellied Southern sheriff cousin? This is in the reboot of course where nothing makes any fucking sense.
3) 60's Penelope Pitstop is way hotter. She's annoying as fuck in the reboot.
4) Penelope Pitstop's mom looks like Princess Peach. Again, this is in the reboot.
The Wacky Races reboot is shit. There's no sugar-coating it. It's hot garbage. It's bright, loud, and super annoying. None of the characters are likeable except the narrator guy. It's bad when I even hate one of my favorite villians. Ugh, this show gives me a headache. It's the cartoon equivalent of jingling keys in a baby's face. DO NOT RECOMMEND!