We were at the Licensing Show yesterday but will have to present out picture parade tomorrow. Lots of Speed Racer news, however, including the word that Lionsgate is producing an all new Speed racer toon for Nicktoons. The toon will have some familiar character hut upgraded a bit — Speed now drives a Mach 6. the show will roll out around the same times as the Wachowski Bros. theatrical version.

Lionsgate has hired the Gotham-based Animation Collective (Nickelodeon’s “Kappa Mikey”) to help produce the new “Speed Racer.” Animation Collective CEO Larry Schwarz will exec produce, along with Speed Racer Enterprise principals John and James Rocknowski.

In the new franchise, young Speed Racer enters a racing academy for the fastest kids on Earth — and discovers that he’s the son of the legendary (and original series’) Speed Racer. He also finds out in the first few episodes that he has a brother — the new Racer X — whom he never knew existed.

Speed Racer wows the school with his Mach 6 (an updated version of the original show’s Mach 5) — the most advanced vehicle in the universe, which doesn’t run on gas. Speed and X team together to prevent villains from stealing the Mach 6 and to find out who’s behind the mysterious disappearance of their father.

Other characters returning include original Speed Racer’s younger brother Spritle, now headmaster of the racing academy. And chimpanzee Chim-Chim is now a mechanical robot.

Peter Fernandez, who voiced Speed Racer in the dubbed American version of the original “Speed Racer,” is aboard to voice Spritle.

Katsumoto and Rocknowski said the new version will stay as true to the original as possible, while allowing for updates like CG animation (including the cars and the background images) and more accurately synched voices.