Lionsgate Home Entertainment and Nicktoons have combined their talents to bring us Speed Racer The Next Generation, which will play on Fridays at 7 p.m. on Nicktoons, and a DVD dubbed “The Beginning” chronicles the start of the story.

This new series follows Speed, and orphan who has joined the Racing Academy. There he meets Racer X, Lucy, and mechanic Conor. There’s even a robotic Chim Chim in this version and lots of high tech coolness including a virtual reality track. Spritle is there as the head of the school and of course the there’s a villain, the evil Zile Zazic who is trying to get his hands on the plans for the new Mach 6.

I enjoyed the original series when I was a kid, but had pretty much forgotten about it until my son started watching the old reruns on the boob tube and renting the episodes from Netflix. So the fact that the story has been completely overhauled is not a big deal to me, but I’m willing to bet the “Speed Racer” purists out there might gripe and moan about the changes a bit. Only I doubt they’ll fuss for long because the in truth “Speed Racer The Next Generation: The Beginning” is pretty cool.

The only gripe I have about the show is that I prefer the old school cell animation to the cell shaded 3D animation used on “The Next Generation,” but that’s a small complaint that probably won’t make a difference to the kids of today. My son didn’t seem to notice the difference in animation styles, and if he did he didn’t care.

This film was made for the kids of this generation, but that doesn’t mean fans of the original should close the door on this revamp because it is definitely worth checking out. Sometimes letting go of the past to enjoy the present can be quite refreshing, and after watching “Speed Racer The Next Generation: The Beginning” with an open mind, you can bet I’ll be parked in front of the boob tube on Fridays because this was positively a killer film.