In a suburban San Fernando Valley garden in Los Angeles, Theo is a garden snail who dreams of being the greatest racer in the world, just like his hero, five-time Indy 500 winner Guy Gagné. His obsession with speed has made him an outcast in the slow and cautious snail community, and a constant embarrassment to his older brother, Chet. Theo wanders onto a freeway to admire the traffic and wishes upon a star (later revealed to be an airplane) that he was fast. Suddenly, he is sucked into the supercharger of a Chevrolet Camaro drag racer, fusing his DNA with nitrous oxide. When he wakes up, he possesses great speed and accuracy, and some characteristics of a real car. Unfortunately, his first attempt to show this power off ends with him crashing a tricycle into the garden, getting himself and Chet fired from the garden crew.
