Most live action adaptations of cartoons… sorry, animated series, generally go to the big screen [The Flintstones, Scooby Doo] – with a big budget. The Cartoon Network’s Ben 10 makes the leap to live action with a minimal [$4 million] budget and premieres on the animated series’ home network tonight at 8 p.m. It’s an odd little flick that works better than one might expect.
Ben 10: Race Against Time finds Ben Tennyson [Graham Phillips] facing two of the mightiest foes he’s ever encountered – Eon [Christien Anholt, best known as Tia Carerre’s sidekick, Nigel, on Relic Hunter], a time-hopping Darth Vader wannabe who is trying to open a timerift to allow his people to invade Earth, and… wait for it… school! Yup! Summer is over and Ben has to return to school – a place where he’s not a hero, he’s the kid the bullies pick on and the principal gives detention!
Of course, there are other complications – like Ben’s vegan/hippy parents, Carl [Don McManus] and Sandra [Beth Littleford], who feed him food that’s even more grotesque than his Grandpa Ma’s [Lee Majors] squirrel jerky [“calms the nerves”] and/or octopus [“good for the teeth”]. They treat Ben like an equal which, while it might seem like a good thing, really isn’t – at least as far as Ben is concerned.
Another problem for Ben is that his cousin Gwen [Haley Ramm] is not only good at school, she’s comfortable there – and delights in teasing him about not being a hero there… just plain ole Ben Tennyson. Then there’s Principal White [Robert Picardo], whom he accidentally pelts with a wad of gun that two bullies used to line the edges of his locker’s door.
Back to Eon for a moment – he’s after a device called the Hands of Armageddon. With this device, he will be able to open that timerift. Fortunately for Ben, there are still a few of Grandpa Max’s old colleagues, The Plumbers [a secret organization that helped to protect Earth from alien incursions over the centuries] left in town – and their identities are quite a surprise! Another big surprise is the reason Eon comes after Ben – it’s a corker!
Perhaps casting Majors was a way to get parental units who remember The Six Million Dollar Man to sit down with their kids and watch Race Against Time. Whatever the reason, he turns in a dryly hilarious performance as Max and adds a certain degree of grounding at the same time. He also has terrific chemistry with Phillips and Ramm. We can easily accept them as grandparent and grandchildren.
But what about the heroes [I hear you ask]? Well, Heatblast [voiced by David Franklin] gets first crack at eon; Grey Matter [Carlos Alazraqui] instigates one of the best food fights ever recorded [well, it’s more of a food slaughter – you’ll see what I mean] in one of the funniest sequences in the movie; Diamondback [Daran Norris] gets the second crack at Eon, and Wildmutt [Dee Baker] becomes part of a school talent show [don’t ask – you have to see it to believe it]. There’s a reference to the Omnitrix’s [the device that allows Ben to become ten different alien heroes] sporadic refusal to work as seen in a few different episodes of the series.
As much as Jack “King” Kirby influenced Man of Action’s animated Ben 10, that’s how much Kirby’s influence is evident in Race Against Time. From Eon [who wouldn’t look out of place in an issue of Fantastic Four] to his fleet [also very FF-ish, to the heroes [very New Gods] and the striking secret Plumbers base under the hardware store – and even the town’s business are – the film echoes the King’s line work. The result is a really good looking overall design.
Race Against time [story by Thomas Pugsley and Greg Klein, script by Mitch Watson] captures the tone of the animated series beautifully. The movie moves at a good pace, too. Director Alex Winter [Bill of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure] really has a handle on the characters and the action.
Phillips and Ramm are a bit wooden at times, but generally, they capture the essential character traits of Ben and Gwen – and when they’re right on the money [especially during the school scenes], they really bring the Ben 10 kids to life. Fortunately, the kids are supported by a wealth of terrific character actors in the roles of the various Plumbers – especially Picardo and Sab Shimono, whose character gets to sit calmly, reading his newspaper [and drinking his coffee] as Grey Matter’s hijinx take place in Le Roy’s Restaurant.
Normally, I wouldn’t expect a live action of an animated series to amount to much on such a small budget. Thanks to some smart writing and judicious use of CG and practical effects [including some really beautiful matte paintings – let’s talk kickin’ it old school…], Ben 10: Race Against Time is great fun. If The Cartoon Network brass want to fund another one of these live action adventures, you can certainly count me in.
Final Grade: A-
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