Ace Remacho, also known as El Grosso, Exequiel Remacho or simply Grosso, or Flash in the UK version, or Ace Remacho in the US version, is the main antagonist of the 2013 Argentine-Spanish animated film Underdogs.
He is an extremely arrogant soccer player who plans to be the owner of the town of Jake Hoffer, challenging the latter a soccer match.
He was voiced by Diego Ramos in the Spanish version, with his younger self being voiced by Mariana Otero.
In the UK version, he was voiced by Anthony Head with his younger self being voiced by Jack Maison-Hayman.
In the US version, he is voiced by Nicholas Hoult, who also portrayed Nux in Mad Max: Fury Road, Tony Stonem in Skins, Stefan Fredman in Wallander, R.M. Renfield in Renfield, Peter III of Russia in The Great, and will portray Lex Luthor in the upcoming Superman. While his younger self in the American version was voiced by Brooklyn Beckham.
Biography[]
Past[]
Ace Remacho appears for the first time together with a group of friends at Claudio Alcides's bar, making fun of everyone in the place while he is playing with his soccer ball, hitting two people with the balls just to make fun of them. He is then challenged by Laura to a foosball match against Jake (or simply Jake Hoffer in the US version) in, which Ace gladly accepts. At first, he has the advantage since Jake is depressed, but then he is motivated by Laura to later go back the game and beat Ace, and then Ace is expelled from the bar by Alcides. Ace is completely frustrated and his pride damaged, but then a Agent shows up and offers him an offer to be a soccer superstar and get rich. Ace finally accepts and then adopts the nickname "Soccer Hero".
Exclusively in the American English version, Ace, now a famous soccer player, began earning the MVP of International Soccer Player six-times, became a two-time world cup winner, as well as one-time winner of the Westminster Dog Show.
Present[]
Several years later, the manager who had hired Ace appears and then announces to the town the arrival of Ace himself, now Ace Remacho, and announces that now the town is now his and that he will begin with the remodeling and make the town much bigger and tourist. Laura opposes this, and Ace Remacho mentions both Laura and Jake that he could never forget what happened at the foosball, and that he didn't forget them either. He then orders them to demolish Alcides's bar using bulldozers, which scares Jake who tries to save the foosball, only taking Captain Skip, his favorite foosball figure. Ace Remacho approaches him and mentions that he wants revenge, and then leaves the place, not without first taking Laura after she tried to stop him.
Then he and Laura go to his mansion, where Ace Remacho presents his statues and his projects with animals for a better future for sport, showing off all that. He then tries to destroy all the foosball figures for his defeat against Jake in the past, to Laura's pleas, and tries to flirt with her after he thought she wanted love. Fortunately, Jake appears to rescue Laura and starts a fight between them, which is only stopped by an explosion that occurred in his laboratory. Jake then challenges Ace Remacho to a match where if he wins, the town will be his, but if he loses, he won't. Ace accepts, on the condition that it is a real football match and not a foosball match.
The Ace Remacho team is made up of great stars and professional soccer players, so many people from the town decide not to participate, since they know that the game is a lost cause. Despite that, Jake manages to gather enough people to play the game, however, they are not professional players, and they are also very incompetent. Once the game has started, Ace Remacho's team, as expected, begins by humiliating Jake's team, to the point where his team is leading 2-0. Jake's manager tells him to relax and not make the game boring, which makes the Ace Remacho team start playing with Jake's team. This forces the foosball figures, who at this moment have come to life, to intervene in the match in favor of Jake's team, attacking the players of the Ace Remacho team and helping them in the first goal of the rival team. This motivates Jake's team to come back from the game, and the foosball figures finally leave the field, confident that they will win. Finally, a player from Jake's team manages to score with a header for 2-2, which makes Ace Remacho start to panic.
In the last minute of the match, when Jake's team goes on the attack with the intention of winning the game. Ace Remacho, seeing that the referee is distracted, kicks Jake in the foot, almost breaking it, but the referee refuses to charge for a foul there, and Ace Remacho takes the opportunity to score the goal that will give him victory and the people. Jake, with his last strength, tries to stop him, but it is too late and Ace Remacho manages to score the winning goal. Ace begins to celebrate his victory with joy, but strangely, the public is not celebrating his victory, but is celebrating Jake's team for their sportsmanship, with Ace's own teammates exchanging jerseys and also congratulating Jake's team. Ace Remacho doesn't understand this, and his manager later renounces his business with him. Ace Remacho tells him that without him it will be nothing, but the Agent tells Ace Remacho that stars do not last and that agents are eternal, before going to congratulate Jake. Ace Remacho looks puzzled at his now ex-agent, before a flag falls on him. It is unknown what happened to Ace Remacho after that, but it can be implied and interpreted by viewers that he may have lost credibility as a soccer player (despite claiming victory and the town) and arrested for his crimes.
Personality[]
Ace Remacho is extremely selfish, arrogant, self-centered, conceited and perfectionist man who will do anything to win. He absolutely hates losing, as he claims that he always wins, and was greatly enraged at having lost in a foosball match against Jake to the point that he desires revenge against him.
He too he is extremely cheater, as he hit Jake on the leg to immobilize him after his team managed to tie the match and were about to win it. When he won, he began to show off his victory, rubbing it in Jake's face and celebrating with glee and pride. However, he did not understand why the public applauded Jake instead of him, believing that he deserved the ovation for having won, without realizing that his selfishness and arrogance was the reason why no one celebrated the victory of his own team and himself. This also results in Ace losing his teammates as they begin to take off their jerseys and exchange it to Jake and his team for their sportsmanship.
Despite this, Ace Remacho seemed to be in love with Laura, as he invited her to his mansion, showed her his statues and his projects to improve the sport while bragging about it, and then hugged her when he thought she was in love with him.
Overall, Ace Remacho is more of an idiot with disgusting demeanor than truly evil, as he just wants victory at all costs, but at least he's not willing to kill other people to achieve his goal.
Trivia[]
- Ace Remacho's name in the original Spanish version translates to the "The Rude", which fits well with his personality.
- He is somehow similar to Chick Hicks from the Disney film Cars. They both try to cheat the protagonists out of victory by trying to win (i.e. Chick Hicks for Lightning McQueen, Grosso for Amadeo). They both succeed in accomplishing their goal of winning, but their victory turns out to be a pyrrhic victory due to their aggressive actions, with the crowd instead cheering for the protagonist for their heroism (Chick Hicks winning the Piston Cup due to McQueen choosing to help the King finish his last race, only to get booed by the crowd for his dirty tricks on the racetrack as well as not getting the Dinoco sponsorship; Ace winning the soccer match and claiming the town only to be rejected by the fans and his own manager for his selfishness).
- Despite being two successful athletes who both have their victories rejected by the fans, the only difference is that Ace Remacho is seemingly more arrogant and spiteful than Chick Hicks, since he only cares about winning and fame, as well as wanting to steal Laura from Jake and have his life ruined as revenge for losing the foosball match to him years ago. Whereas for Chick Hicks, he is just a snobbish and selfish racer who only brags and boasts about winning the Piston Cup, which resulted him ramming The King (who was about to retire anyway) into the infield that caused Lightning McQueen to sacrifice his victory to help him instead of win. Despite this, whereas Chick's victory resulted in the fans booing him and throwing stuff at him for his bad sportsmanship and instead giving praise to Lightning McQueen for his sportsmanship helping The King, acknowledging him as the real winner despite not winning, as well as being rejected Dinoco, Ace's victory is far more worse than Chick as he is not only rejected by his own fans and being covered in a flag as a form of defeat, but also being rejected by his own teammates and his former manager, who quits being his agent and gives him advice that idols fall due to their arrogance. Because of this, both Cars and Underdogs have a similar aesop; it's not about winning.
- Ace somewhat resembles the Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo and Swedish soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In fact, Ace's playing style is somewhat similar to Ronaldo's.
- Ace's selfishness and arrogance could somewhat be similar to Megan Rapinoe, one of the star players for the United States women's national soccer team. This is mostly because of their cocky attitude and egotistical personality proving that they could win.
- In real life, there is a female soccer player named Julia Grosso, who plays for the Canadian women’s national soccer team and Juventus Feminine FC. She won a gold medal for Canada during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
- In the US dub version, Ace's younger self is voiced by Brooklyn Beckham, who is the eldest son of former British soccer player David Beckham, in real-life.
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