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Speed Racer is a strange movie. Visually, it is unlike anything I have ever seen before. I’m talking bright color everywhere, Nintendo backed by the best visual and special effects artists out there, Saturday morning cartoons meet Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, animation with real people walking inside of it, absolute craziness. Hyper-real and as bright at a pack of Skittles, the look of the film is by far its greatest strength, its most distinguishing characteristic, and in the end, the basis of what will be its greatest audience appeal.

Even so, the uniqueness of the movie continues beyond its look. In many ways it is pure and simple entertainment for the kids. The central characters in the movie are all young. One of them is even a chimpanzee. On more than one occasion adult themes are quickly cut off with a goofy intrusion justified by the likes of cootie avoidance. And whenever there is a fight, let’s just say it’s more along the lines of Power Rangers meets Home Alone than Neo meets The Transporter.

However, at the same time that the movie can feel like it is all for the kids, the core of its story is one that is very much for adults. Behind the goofy and spectacular ways the movie resolves its conflicts are reasons for discord that very much exist outside the average grade-school thought process. And even though it is fun, with a two plus hour run time it is not exactly built for a kindergartener’s attention span.

Like many of our favorite Saturday morning cartoons, the story of Speed Racer is fairly simple. The Racer family is a car family. They build cars, they race cars, and they pretty much dream cars. The movie opens just before their middle son Speed (Emile Hirsch) takes to the track for a stunning and near-record-breaking victory. And as Speed races along the track against the current record, commentators and flashbacks introduce us to not only the record holder but the Racer family’s history.

You see, the record was set by Speed’s older brother Rex (Scott Porter), the driver of his day, the hottest pursuit of all the sponsors, and the tragic casualty of the most dangerous race around. Through the flashbacks, you get the sense that there’s more to Rex’s departure from the family team and subsequent death than meets the eye. As Speed suddenly finds himself in much the same position as Rex once was, we all see that the contest of which he is a part is about more than just the cars driving around the track. And as the competition heightens, so surfaces the battle between the interests of power, money, and control and the simple act of living out a life of purpose, passion, and artistry at the story’s center.

In Speed Racer, Speed’s nemesis arrives in the form of power-hungry billionaire Mr. Royalton (Roger Allam) and the cast of dirty racers he hires to support his mission. As Royalton tells Speed, in his world, “all that matters is the power and the unassailable might of money.”

When Speed refuses to ally himself with that particular worldview and Royalton’s threats begin to come true, the question on the table becomes whether there actually is any escape from the mighty rule of money. But as Speed’s parents tell him, even if you are the only person who refuses to give into that reality, it will never completely triumph. “It doesn’t matter if racing changes, what matters is if it changes us,” says Pops (John Goodman). “You stood up, you weren’t afraid, and you did what was right. This is not meaningless.”

Although those of us who have never spent Saturday afternoons at the racetrack or an entire weekend inside our garage might not immediately put racing on the same plane as music, painting, or theater, Speed’s mom (Susan Sarandon) poignantly reveals that where there is passion, drive, and purpose, what we do with our lives not only becomes a work of art, but a creative expression that can’t help but touch those around it. “I go to the races to watch you make art,” she tells Speed. “And it’s beautiful and inspiring and everything that art can be. When I watch you do some of the things you do,” she says. “You just take my breath away. “

And as Speed shows us in his final race, even when it seems like we are the only one living for passion instead of power, often the challenge of one is enough to change everything.

In many ways, the theme of Speed Racer is one found in a lot of today’s movies. It is a picture of corruption and a tale of greed. It is a story about the evil core at the center of ultimate power. And it is a celebration of those who choose to stand up against that evil and fight for something higher. But where most of the movies that tell that story take place between dirty cops and slimy lawyers, in dark corners and back alleys, and under the spray of blood and bullets, Speed Racer actually manages to make just as strong a point amid a surprisingly bright picture. And I have to say, it is refreshing.

As Speed says early on in the movie, “When I’m in a T-180… everything just makes sense.” For him, to drive and to drive well fills him with both passion and purpose. It is what he was created to do, and it is what he is good at. And as Speed lives that purpose, he shows us that it not only makes sense of his life, but it reaches out to make more sense of the world around him.

In the same way, whether the places where our lives make sense are in a car, on a stage, or at a computer, whether our passion comes to life holding the hand of a child, speaking to a crowd of thousands, or touching the keys of a piano, by pursuing and sharing the passions and talents we have been given, we too can both turn our lives into works of art and forever change our world. And when it comes to the big guy who gave us that purpose in the first place, I have no doubt that He would join Pops in saying, “This is the reason for a father’s life.”