Thunderbirds Are GO

In the 1960's, British TV producer Gerry Anderson and his wife, Sylvia, went about making a series of shows based around a highly functional set of marionettes which where built around a process called Supermarionation, a speech syncronization system designed to have the puppet's mouth move in sync with the voice actor reading it's lines.

Combining it with some of the most fanciful designs of futuristic societies, they spawned a slew of shows including "Joe 90", about a boy with the ability to be programmed like a computer to do anything, from pilot a stolen jet fighter to perform brain surgery: "Fireball XL-5", a galactic adventure onboard a massive space cruiser, "Stingray", the tales of a super sub working for the World Aquatic Security Patrol ("W.A.S.P."), "Captain Scarlet", tales of an indestructible agent in a war against unseen Martian invaders called The Mysterons, et al.

Perhaps the Anderson's most famous and popular show in the hearts and minds of it's fans is "Thunderbirds". The background is simple. John Tracy, former astronaut and billionaire industrialist, decides to use his wealth to help the world by creating "International Rescue", a secret force of super vehicles designed by an in-house genius known simply as "Brain" and manned by his sons, each a superb athlete and trained expert in their fields (It is no doubt to some that his sons would have been Xtreme sports enthusiasts given the times). Brain's creations are the Thunderbirds, a set of highly specialized rescue and response vehicles each designed for specific purposes.

Thunderbird One is a hypersonic VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) vehicle used as a mobile command center. Thunderbird Two is a heavy lifter, capable of transporting pods containing rescue equipment to any location, from a subterranean "Mole" to the aquatic Thunderbird Four. Thunderbird Three is a space ship, launched from under the Tracy Island estate's pool (the vehicles launch sequences are themselves something to behold, since International Rescue is a secret organization, the deployment of the vehicles must also be the same, leading to some of the most unique ways of converting the Tracy Island compound into a launch & retrieval complex). As for Thunderbird Five, it is a monitoring station orbiting in space, listening in on the world's airwaves for the call.

A pink, armoured futuristic Rolls Royce bearing the license plate FAB-1 also come into play, as the property of one Lady Penelope, British aristocrat and undercover agent for International Rescue. Driven by a former resident of Wormwood Scrubs Prison known simply as Parker, it is bullet-proof,has an exceptionally heavy bit or ordinance under it's hood and is capable of Hydrofoil work on the water.

The way that they pull this off without it turning into a low rent kiddie show was from the contributions of such people as Derek Meddings, designer or the ships as well as the space craft and miniatures for movies like "Krull", "Moonraker", "Goldeneye" and many James Bond films. Barry Gray's scoring duties bring real tension and drama to the adventure.

Anderson was no slouch himself, creating many inventive effects shots using the highly detailed miniatures. This movie, surrounding the attempted sabotage and eventual rescue of a Mars exploration mission, displays the tools of Anderson's craft quite well. Look for another movie, Thunderbird 6, as well as newly digitally remastered releases of the original episodes on the shelves (and no, they did not digitally erase the wires). It is truly one of the best guilty pleasures from the past.

It also marked the end of Supermarionation, for with the exception of one puppet show ("Terrahawks"), Anderson's productions went into live actors, but still carried on the traditions of awesome miniatures with shows like "U.F.O", "Space:1999" and "Space Precinct".

Unfortunately,the big budget adaptation of the series, released in 2005, directed by Johnathan Frakes (Commander Will Riker of "Star Trek:The Next Generation"), was a muddled, childish piece of dreck which totally ruined the hopes of many aging fans of the original show for a decent and reverent homage to Anderson's vision, which probably explains his refusal to have anything to do with the movie.

I grew up on Thunderbirds repeats as a kid. The excitement, the explosions, the majestic Barry Gray scores... It was a wonderful programme. Even now I have a great soft spot for it and own the whole series on DVD. Though the episodes now seem quite padded here and there and I watch it with much more cynicism than I did as a child, I still love it. A good episode of Thunderbirds is the perfect nostalgia trip for me.

Sad to say, then, that the Thunderbirds movies retain little of the qualities that made the TV show such great fun. Perhaps it's the script: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson were far better leaving the scripting duties to other writers as they couldn't write decent dialogue for peanuts. They wrote Thunderbirds' debut episode, which has awful expository dialogue and lots of pointless sequences that go nowhere - but the episode as a whole is still a classic due to the frenetic atmosphere, the sense of doom and the fantastically imaginative rescue (it's the episode where the Fireflash plane lands on three little buggies). "Thunderbirds are Go!" is just horrendously boring. The first ten minutes are taken up with the Zero-X ship being assembled. Very slowly. Later on we have a long dream sequence where Alan imagines going out for a date with Lady Penelope, which features Cliff Richard and the gang having a sing-song (a musical segment in a Thunderbirds movie - what were they thinking?!) and the entire subplot of what the Zero-X astronauts get up to on Mars has no bearing on International Rescue at all.

The Tracy brothers get hardly anything to do in their own film (John, as is customary, has about 5 lines of dialogue, and Gordon just sits about looking glum - even everybody's favourite, Virgil, has barely any screen time at all). Nor, in fact, are the Thunderbird craft used all that often. In 100 minutes of film there's only one real rescue (featuring Thunderbird 2), with IR overseeing operations at the beginning of the film - which involves them sitting around and peering contentedly at control panels. You'd think with 100 minutes - double the length of one of the TV episodes - the Andersons could've plotted loads of thrilling situations and rescues that involved all the Tracy brothers and their Thunderbird machines, but it was not to be. Thunderbirds 1 and 3 swoop about for a few seconds. Thunderbird 4 isn't even in it (despite being on the DVD cover). Nor are the pod vehicles present - couldn't we even have had the Mole drilling away at something? It really is a tedious film. And that's not even mentioning Alan Tracy ignoring his girlfriend, Tin-Tin, and fantasising about Lady P instead. Way to be a good role-model for the kiddies, Alan. Then again he was a snot in the telly series too...

Maybe I'm being too hard on what is meant to be an inoffensive kids' film featuring explosions and great model work. But then again the TV show was a genuinely exciting and exhilarating programme, which, at its best, provided great entertainment. "Thunderbirds are Go!" has an uneventful plot, awful dialogue, no decent set-pieces, and - the cardinal sin - a boring rescue that doesn't even utilise the Thunderbird craft to the best of their abilities. It's difficult to imagine kids being wowed by it. You'd be far better off going back to the telly series. Show your kids the Fireflash episodes, or that brill one where giant alligators attacked a manor house. Heck, show them the daft one where Parker encouraged everybody to play bingo for half an hour. Both younger viewers and adults looking for warm nostalgia will be disappointed with "Thunderbirds are Go!" Avoid.

I have just been watching this movie and felt that as the only other comment on it was some excuse for a review by some person with rather questionable views above, i thought i'd lend my opinion (after all, i couldn't be any worse). "Thunderbirds Are Go", the first full-length feature film version of Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's top fantasy series of the 60's is quite a landmark indeed.

Landmark (?), i hear you ask. Well, yes. The whole Thunderbirds series was nothing but pure Hollywood at it's best; and this movie - as well as the one that came afterwards - only served to expand that tradition, whilst still maintaining the elements and formula that made it famous in the first place in 1965. The movie, has style, wit, incredible drama, and for its time, an astonishing view of the mid-21st.Century. Of course, most of it was pure fantasy and could never ever be real. The amount of times i've heard it said that the Thunderbirds machines couldn't even get off the ground is enormous. But that's ok, it's fantasy. And what good would a decent adventure be, if it didn't transport you out of reality and into a fascinating fantasy world where everything was different! As i say, the best Hollywood tradition. And of course, what made these productions so very special (at least to us Brits), was that 1. it was British, and 2. the heroes were all Puppets! Unbelievable to this day, i know. Yet as we are soon to be confronted by a million dollar live-action Thunderbirds epic, i think it is true to point out, that the main charm in the Thunderbirds adventures WAS the fact that they were acted by Puppets. So charming, so much a throwback to our own innocence (let alone a throwback to a much more innocent time when it was made); how could that be improved upon? The model work and special effects, especially the Zero-X Space-probe, are all extremely effective (as you would expect from Derek Meddings), and whether you are a Thunderbirds fan or not, it will be hard to knock this piece of Movie/TV history off it's perch. This movie being years ahead of its time, a great piece of fun and a fine addition to a classic series.

When it premiered in 1964, "Thunderbirds" became Gerry Anderson's most successful series (and remains the jewel in the Anderson crown to this day); its popularity was such that after the second shorter series - 26 episodes were produced in 1964, followed by a further six episodes in 1966 - a pair of feature films were made for the big screen. Unlike a lot of movies to come from TV shows (like "Mission Impossible Vs. The Mob," which was the two-part story "The Council" given a theatrical release), they were real movies, but they were never as popular as the source.

"Thunderbirds Are GO," the first of the two, deals with a manned mission to Mars which the Hood (International Rescue's recurring nemesis) tries to sabotage, but our heroes give the astronauts help both going there and on the return journey. The model work and special effects remain impressive, but Scott, Gordon, Alan, Gordon and John never defeat their real foes this time around:

1. With or without his wife Sylvia, Gerry Anderson's strengths were never in the writing department, and to his credit he knew it, which was why apart from the pilot episodes of his shows (and a few exceptions, such as the entire second season of "Supercar" and a couple of episodes of "Stingray") he left the actual writing to the likes of Dennis Spooner, Tony Barwick, Donald James et al. But he and the missus wrote the movie, and the weak pacing and terrible dialogue hobble the tale.

2. The movie's second act is an endless dream sequence (a staple of most Anderson shows - though tellingly, never of "Thunderbirds") featuring Alan Tracy, the most whiny and least appealing of the brothers. This is a three-time loser: it serves no real purpose outside of padding the running time, it stops the movie dead in its tracks in a manner not seen again until the Michael Jackson song in "Free Willy 2," and it provides the movie's official low point - an awful song from Cliff Richard (er, "Cliff Richard Jr.") and the Shadows, with a music video to boot!

All Gerry Anderson/"Thunderbirds" fans should see this movie once, and then go back to the previous 32 stories. (But the live-action military band performing the theme music at the end is a nice touch.)

Do you appreciate beautiful models? No, not THAT kind of beautiful models...I mean this kind!

This is the first of two feature film versions of the `Thunderbirds' TV show. If you're on the wavelength of this type of entertainment (i.e., willing to ignore the fact that the characters are puppets, and to simply accept them as real), you may find this to be very engaging viewing.

`Thunderbirds are GO!' makes use of a good number of the sets and puppets from the TV show, and throws in some new constructions. It doesn't bother explaining who any of the characters are, however, so if you're not familiar with the series, it may be difficult to tell which characters are the `stars' and which play supporting roles. Regardless, you will see amazing model work and puppetry, and the very naturalistic, serious, story-conscious approach typical of Gerry Anderson's work.

The `Supermarionation' method was designed to allow the filmmakers total control over the look of the characters--impossible with real actors--and a means to depict spectacular action at the fraction of the cost it would take were it realized with conventional full-size sets. But the sets, models and puppets are lovingly crafted, and cost a pretty penny to produce; in fact, the original shows were the most expensive British television produced at that time.

If you're lucky enough to see this feature in its original widescreen version, you will see the Supermarionation look in beautiful frame compositions! I'd love to see this in a theatre sometime. Grab this up at your local video store if they have it!