Hot Wheels AcceleRacers

Hot Wheels AcceleRacers

The second film's DVD box art
Genre Action
Adventure
Sci-fi
Distributed by Warner Bros. Television
Created by Andrew Duncan
Directed by Andrew Duncan
Gino Nichele
William Gordon
William Lau
Produced by Ian Richter
Gio Corsi
Shea Wageman
Ben Burden Smith
Written by Mark Edens
Starring Lisa Ann Beley
Dexter Bell
Michael Donovan
Brian Drummond
Andrew Duncan
Andrew Francis
Adrian Holmes
David Kaye
Cusse Manukuma
Kasper Michaels
Kirby Morrow
Kevan Ohtsji
Will Sanderson
Venus Terzo
Kathleen Barr
Music by Brian Carson
Production company Mainframe Entertainment
Country United States
Original channel Cartoon Network
Release date January 8, 2005
Running time 60 minutes
Preceded by
Followed by

Hot Wheels AcceleRacers is an animated series of movies by Mattel. It is computer-animated, produced by Mainframe Entertainment out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which also produced ReBoot and distributed by Warner Bros. Available on DVD and VHS, it has also been shown on Cartoon Network's Toonami.

The show takes Mattel's Hot Wheels toy cars and puts them in a ReBoot-like situation, with racing somewhat reminiscent of Tron. This is a sequel series to Hot Wheels World Race. Both shows take place in California. A soundtrack was distributed by Sony BMG and toys were sold in stores and given away in McDonald's Happy Meal.

Plot

Two years after the end of the World Race, Dr. Peter Tezla continues to study the information he gathered on the Wheel of Power while it was in his possession. However, he finds that Gelorum has returned now fully repaired, now with her army of Racing Drones and she is attempting to steal the Wheel of Power again. Tezla enters Highway 35 himself and attempts to stop Gelorum but fails and is greatly injured as the Drones capture the Wheel. He manages to escape back to Earth and the Drones turn Hot Wheels City into their new headquarters.

Meanwhile, in present-day California, former World Race drivers Vert Wheeler, Kurt Wylde, Taro Kitano, and Mark Wylde have now become members of two street racing teams: the Teku and the Metal Maniacs. During a grudge race on the coastline, Dr. Tezla's robotic assistant Gig appears, telling the World Race drivers that Dr. Tezla needs their help. Arriving at Dr. Tezla’s old base from the World Race, with some of their new teammates, they find it partially destroyed. Former Dune Ratz driver Brian Kadeem appears and takes them to the AcceleDrome, Dr. Tezla's new base. After the drivers arrive, Dr. Tezla appears on a large hologram in the middle of the cavern and tells them what he has found: new Acceleron knowledge from the Wheel of Power's research. Now that the Wheel has been taken from its spire in Highway 35, the Drones have control over the dimension’s portals.

Each of the symbols on the Wheel represents one of the Racing Realms, inter-dimensional worlds that have tracks that go through a single element in the hardest way possible for driving conditions (there are only fifteen Realms in the series, twelve that were actually shown and three that the Drones had already completed before the beginning of the series, but only the AcceleChargers from those three are shown). The Drones have been entering the Realms, and each time a Realm is finished, the first driver to reach the end of the track obtains an AcceleCharger, which gives a car the ability to drive through any condition that relates to the realm that it was won in. Discovering that the Wheel hologram is always in sync with the actual Wheel, it functions as an inter-dimensional portal to the Racing Realms (it should also be noted that the Drones have their own Wheel hologram portal as well, due to them capturing the actual Wheel). The drivers enter the realms to try to stop the Drones, but find it harder than the World Race because the Wheel itself decides when to open the Realms and that each Realm only stays open for one hour with no way out but the finish line.

As the race to stop the Drones rages on, drivers are trapped in the Realms, grudges between the teams grow, and a new enemy force known as the Silencerz appears, attempting to defeat both the Drones and the humans with the same Wheel hologram technology that the other drivers currently share. As the race to stop the Drones reaches its end, the secret of the Acceleron's test comes to unveil itself: the Racing Realms were designed to create "the perfect driver" and the AcceleChargers were created as keys to having the Wheel of Power open a portal to the Acceleron home world.

Films

Name First Air Date Runtime
Hot Wheels: AcceleRacers – Ignition January 8, 2005 60 minutes
Hot Wheels: AcceleRacers – The Speed of Silence March 19, 2005 60 minutes
Hot Wheels: AcceleRacers – Breaking Point June 25, 2005 60 minutes
Hot Wheels: AcceleRacers – The Ultimate Race October 1, 2005 60 minutes

There are four DVDs in the series. They constitute one continuous story. In story order they are:

The first film film was split up into three episodes of around twenty minutes each for DVDs packaged with HyperPod vehicles, in addition to being released as a sixty minute feature. The four complete films have also been released in a box set.

Characters

Metal Maniacs

The Metal Maniacs are one of the two racing teams in the Hot Wheels AcceleRacers series. They are a group of muscular, wrestler-like, rough neck drivers whose vehicles are a mixture of scrap metal and racing car components reminiscent of old-style muscle cars. They have a raucous and reckless driving style with the cars to match. They have a fierce rivalry with the Teku.

Teku

The Teku are the second racing team in Acceleracers. The Teku cars have emphasis on looks and sound so their cars are tricked out to not only look good but to sound good as well, similar to Import Tuners. The word Teku is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the word "Tech", and the logo for the Teku is also the Japanese writing for it (テク).

Racing Drones

Originally built by the Accelerons as test drivers, these robots became a problem as they would do anything to win. The Racing Drones were abandoned on Earth when the Accelerons returned to their home world. Gelorum, their leader, ruled with an iron fist as she had no concern for life – robotic or organic. Now that the Racing Realms are open, the Racing Drones are free to enter and win AcceleChargers. The Racing Drones excel in manufacturing, building drivers and vehicles in mass quantities and to the required specifications. They also have the ability to reproduce and send AcceleCharger powers to drivers in need.

Silencerz

Of unknown origins and shadowy intents, the Silencerz are a secretive group of drivers who prefer to let the Teku, Metal Maniacs and Racing Drones fight it out before making their appearance known. They rely on stealth and deception to gain the upper hand on their competitors. They name their cars after elements on the Periodic Table. Their cars are far more advanced than even the Racing Drones'. The main body is made of liquid "smart metal", can become invisible, change to appear as another vehicle, driver included, magnetize to tracks, and fire EMP bursts. Because of the cars designs, they were meant to lure the Teku and the others into a trap.

Other

Racing realms

According to Dr. Tezla, the Accelerons built over 100 Racing Realms. However, only 25 are known, and only 16 are shown in the movies. These tracks are more dangerous than the ones on Highway 35. This is another test for the drivers built by the Accelerons. Highway 35 was only the beginning. The Wheel of Power decides which Racing Realm to open and when. The only way to stop the portal from closing is The Wheel of Power, all the Accelechargers, and the Wisdom Ring.

The realms above were all conquered by the Racing Drones or Silencerz before the movies and minisodes or never gone into at all. The ones below were seen in the movies and the minisodes.

AcceleChargers

AcceleChargers are powerful chips that are given to the driver who reaches the end of the each Racing Realm. The AcceleChargers help vehicles in different locations depending on the realm you're in or in what conditions you are driving. While they provide drivers a certain edge when driving in the realms, the Accelerons do not accept drivers who complete the realms with their use; instead, they accept those who have overcome the challenges with their own unsupplemented abilities.

Ultimate Race Accelecharger: All of the realms' accelechargers put into one accelecharger: Won by Vert Wheeler.

External links