Kernel Rating (out of 5): 
MPAA Rating: PG Length: 96 minutes
Age Appropriate for: 5+. A female snail hits on a male snail and they eventually begin a relationship, demonstrated most by some hugging … and there’s lots of death in this movie. Crows regularly snatch up snails and their deaths are played for laughs, then the crows are hit by trucks and that’s played for laughs, and then bugs splatter into windshields, and so forth; it’s weird how the movie pokes fun at this kind of loss. And there are also some cultural stereotypes at play here, like a small and pushy Asian-American woman who owns a nail salon and speaks bad English; character development isn’t the movie’s strong suit.
DreamWorks Animation’s ‘Turbo,’ about a garden snail injected with super-speed powers, would be better with a more consistent plot, fewer stereotypical characters, and a less throw-everything-at-the-screen-to-see-what-sticks rationale. It’s fun enough, but it’s no classic.
By Roxana Hadadi
So far this summer, “Monsters University” was excellent, “Despicable Me 2” was pleasantly enjoyable, and still-unreleased offerings “The Smurfs 2” and “Planes” will probably be disappointing. “Turbo,” then, falls squarely in the middle of the pack—it’s not nearly as good as the other animated movies already out, but it’s certainly more creative than “The Smurfs 2” or “Planes” will be. The film’s weird emotional tone and copout of an ending, though, are what hold “Turbo” back from reaching the upper echelon.
