Team Hot Wheels

Team Hot Wheels
Promotional art
Genre	Sports (Auto racing)
Written by	Derek Dressler Patrick Casey Josh Miller
Story by	Shane Amsterdam Scott Hart Derman
Directed by	Matt Danner Dan Fraga
Starring	Ben Diskin David Lodge Grant George Nicolas Roye
Theme music composer	Rob Hudnut
Composers	Rebecca Kneubuhl Gabriel Mann
Countries of origin	United States Canada
Original language	English
Production
Producers	Margaret M. Dean Kimberly A. Smith Ben Burden Smith
Running time	77 minutes (1) 45 minutes (2 and 4) 22 minutes (3)
Production companies	Mattel Playground Productions Mercury Filmworks (1) Titmouse, Inc. (2-4)
Original release
Network	Cartoon Network (1) Netflix (2 and 4) YouTube (3)
Release	June 7, 2014 (2014-06-07) – October 5, 2015 (2015-10-05)
Related
Hot Wheels Battle Force 5

Team Hot Wheels is a series of animated movies by Mattel Playground Productions, Mercury Filmworks for the first film, and Titmouse for the second to fourth films. Based on Mattel's Hot Wheels toyline, the franchise currently consists of four features released through a multitude of distribution platforms. All were directed by Matt Danner.

The first film, The Origin of Awesome!, debuted in 660 theatres through a Fathom Events screening in the United States on June 7 and 8, 2014. It was later released on home video by Universal Studios Home Entertainment and aired on Cartoon Network. The first act was distributed as a 22-minute special on Netflix on February 3, 2014. The second film, The Skills to Thrill!, was released exclusively on Netflix on August 17, 2015. The third film, Search for the 5th Driver!, was released on YouTube in 2015, and made its linear debut on the KidsClick syndicated block on October 28, 2017. The fourth and final film, Build the Epic Race!, was released exclusively on Netflix on October 5, 2015.

Cast and characters

• Gage Green (voiced by Grant George) is the leader of Team Hot Wheels. His car is the Twin Mill, that is until it was destroyed by the Road Pirates and currently drives the Twinduction at the end of "Build the Epic Race!". He has a constant phobia of hamsters, as being revealed in "The Skills to Thrill!", and loves to go fast. Gage's catchphrase is "It always comes down to speed!", which is also his motto in "The Origin of Awesome!". He is also the son of Mr. Green, who makes an appearance debut in the second film as well. His mother was also mentioned in the second film, respectively, but she didn't make an appearance in any of the films.

• Brandon (voiced by Ben Diskin) is the brains of Team Hot Wheels. His car is the Quick n' Sik, that is until it was destroyed by the Road Pirates and currently drives the Fast 4WD at the end of "Build the Epic Race!". Brandon's catchphrase is "Brandon likey.", and his Quick n' Sik has amazing in-car technology like the Vacu-Suck, and auto-pilot in "The Origin of Awesome!", a plunger, a cloning device, a power drill, and emergency crabo hands in "The Skills to Thrill!", and also super boost, spiral saws, hands, a sword, a force field, a broom, slick-proof tires, and rocket tires and also used the same plunger in "Build the Epic Race!" as well. However, the Fast 4WD also comes up with rocket tires and a tennis racket, too.

• Rhett (voiced by David Lodge) is the funny guy of Team Hot Wheels. His car is that Bone Shaker, that is until it was destroyed by the Road Pirates and currently drives the Surf Crate at the end of "Build the Epic Race!". Rhett's catchphrase is "I'm okay!", and in both "The Origin of Awesome!" and "The Skills to Thrill!", it has been revealed that he can relax his chi, and do karate. He also has a mother, who makes her only appearance in the second film, respectively.

• Wyatt (voiced by Nicolas Roye) is the cool guy of Team Hot Wheels that speaks in a Southern drawl. He's the driver of his Baja Truck a.k.a. Jump Truck by Wyatt himself, that is until it was destroyed by the Road Pirates and currently drives the Land Crusher at the end of "Build the Epic Race!". Wyatt's catchphrase is "Wyatt-Style, baby!", and his Baja Truck can jump on the top on one building to another. Wyatt is the only member of Team Hot Wheels to be raised by his grandmother, Gammy Gram, due to the fact that none of his parents have appeared in all of the films, nor being mentioned in them either. However, Wyatt-Style is an awesome stunt that he came up with, which is that in "Build the Epic Race!", he accidentally caused some destruction to the Epic Race Press Conference, and after Wyatt quits the team, Monkey replaced him, which is actually a part of the Road Pirates' plan, that is until Wyatt rejoined the team as a member, with Monkey being the newest member at the end of the film.

Films

Reception

Writing for Common Sense Media, Renee Schonfeld praised the first film's character focus, comedy and animation and gave the film four stars out of five. Brian Costello, who reviewed the second and third films for the outlet, was far less positive, summing up both features as "nothing more than a 45-minute Hot Wheels commercial" and awarding them with a one star rating.

See also

• Hot Wheels (1969–1971)
• Heroes on Hot Wheels (1991–1992)
• Hot Wheels: World Race (2002–2003)
• Hot Wheels: AcceleRacers (2004–2006)
• Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 (2009–2012)
• Hot Wheels Let's Race (2024)

References

External links

• Team Hot Wheels: The Origin of Awesome! (2014) at Internet Movie Database
• Team Hot Wheels: The Skills to Thrill (2015) at Internet Movie Database
• Team Hot Wheels: Build the Epic Race (2015) at Internet Movie Database