On Tuesday, July 9th, I had the pleasure of attending a taping of the Today Show and watched the anchors race larger than life snails up a building playing skee ball with actor Ryan Reynolds to promote his new animated movie TURBO.
The film, which comes out on July 17th, is by the makers of Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda. It’s a 3-D, animated comedy about a snail that has a freak accident that renders him with super-speed powers and enables him to win the Indy 500. It’s a story about making your dreams come true and is an inspiring tale for children. It also stars the voice talents of an incredibly talented group of actors including Paul Giamatti, Ken Jeong, Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Snoop Dogg and Samuel L. Jackson.
On hand to judge the event were IZOD IndyCar Series Drivers Helio Castroneves, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Tony Kanaan.
We all cheered as the contestants played skee ball allowing their snails to race up the building. The competition was heated ( particularly on Twitter as Snoop Dogg tweeted Matt) as fans predicted which snail would win using hashtags #TurboMatt, #TurboSavannah, #TurboRyan, #TurboNatalie and #TurboWillie on Twitter. But while Matt was the fan favorite, it was Ryan who won the vertical race, declaring ,“In my defense, the film is called TURBO not ‘Matt Lauer.’ I had to win!!!!”
After Reynolds received his prize, Ryan walked over to the crowd and handed over his prize wreath to a young fan.
I was also invited to a private interview session with Ryan after the show where he answered questions about the film and talked frankly about the importance of having a strong support system in his life. Since his character has a dream that’s not supported by his family or friends, he had this to say about following your dreams and keeping reasonable expectations:
…changed many times. That’s the great thing about being a kid is that you’re kind of at the mercy of a tremendous amount of whim. So, for me it was one day I was going to be a professional baseball player. The next day I was going to be a scientist. Once I hit about 12 or so, I really wanted to be in this business. I really wanted to do this, and I didn’t care if I got paid for it. I didn’t care if I was a movie star. I didn’t care any of it. I just wanted to be able to make a living at this someday. That was my dream and not unlike Turbo, I have those naysayers. I have those people that say, “Don’t do this. You’re never going to make it. You’re a fool. You should be going this direction.” And everybody seems to have their own agenda for our kids, or your brother, or your sister, or whatever it is. And the worst offender is ourselves. We tell ourselves we can’t do it. We’re not good enough. We’re not smart enough or good looking enough.
You really have to usurp those thoughts and just kind of push forward and see what you can do. And for me it was just moving down to L.A. That was the scariest thing, moving from Vancouver to L.A., and taking part in that system. My expectations were always very minimal for myself.
I managed to thwart as much letdown as possible and that’s always served me really well, just keeping my expectations kind of reasonable.
TURBO races into theaters on July 17 in 3D! My boys and I loved it! Dream big! Visit the official website. Like Turbo on Facebook. Follow @GoTurbo on Twitter.
Disclosure: Milena was hosted by 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation. She was not compensated for this post and all opinions are her own.
Milena Barrett is a freelance writer and owner of Be Your Best Mom.com where she offers her readers reviews, giveaways and a smidge of real life parenting stories from her life. She enjoys photography, art, and has a love/hate relationship with exercise. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband, two sons, and neurotic cat. You can follow her on Twitter at @barrettboys.
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