Speed Racer "The Car Hater" #1.26 (1967)

"Listen! Stop driving cars! They're much too dangerous!", 3 December 2017

Even by Speed Racer standards, this is a bizarre episode. In The Car Hater, Speed and Co run into a man who has made his hatred for cars his life's obsession. His son was killed in a car crash, so he's out to rid the world of cars. l think one of my favorite scenes has to be where the titular Car Hater uses his horse whip to try to destroy the Mach 5. I know you want to destroy all cars, but with that whip, I doubt you'll be very successful. Another bit of interesting logic - after being unsuccessful with the whip, he hires some goons to tamper with all the cars in town, turning them into deathtraps on wheels. Murdering the citizens of Anytown is a better alternative? Also, you might hate cars, but riding your horse in the middle of the road, not to mention on a racetrack filled with high performance vehicles, is begging to get yourself killed. Again, bizarre.

Finally, I thought it was kind of weird that this episode, #26, opens with a several minute discussion on all of the special features of the Mach 5. It's done documentary style with Speed talking directly to the viewer. It exists outside The Car Hater's plot. I would have thought that this discussion would have occurred much earlier in the series. I'm guessing it was filmed and the makers were just waiting for a shorter episode to fit it in. It's just odd that it appears here.

6/10