Racetime aka La Course des Tuques (2018)

(In English, On Cable TV, February 2021) Interestingly enough, you can make a case that sequel Racetime is in a better position to impress than its predecessor Snowtime. The earlier film, after all, was an animated remake of an all-time classic of French-Canadian family cinema — expectations about it ran high and were not necessarily fulfilled. Racetime, by striking out on its own with its renewed approach and cast of characters, is a bit freer to make its own mark as something more than a remake. While the result is not all that great, it’s not bad. Taking the fantastic engineering conceit of the series farther and farther, the film boils down to the mechanical achievements that a group of kids must accomplish in order to win a race that will determine the fate of the building they’ve rebuilt to their wishes. Good nerd vs. bad nerd is a big conflict this time around, and the film lets loose during the climactic race sequence that it builds to during the entire running time of the film. Aesthetically, it’s very much of a piece with its predecessor, which will make some viewers happy and others not so much. The morals are obvious, the pacing is a bit slack and the character work is generally unsurprising. I liked the result without being overwhelmed by it: as far as family films go, Racetime is adequate without being particularly good. But at least it’s not hampered by comparisons to a 1980s original.