STUDIO: A&E HOME VIDEO
MSRP: $64.99
RATED: UNRATED
RUNNING TIME: 1664 minutes!
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Production Stills Photo Galleries
• Behind the scenes featurettes
• Short Subject: The Brains Behind Thunderbirds
• Short Subject: The Making of Thunderbirds
• “Pop Up” Episode- “Pit of Peril”
• Gerry Speaks: An Inside Look at Anderson’s 7 Favorite Series
The Pitch
It’s what George Lucas would have done with marionettes.
BEFORE THEY WERE STARS QUIZ:
In the days before his contract with PBS, he was simply
known as Oscar the Creepy Wino. Who is he now?
b) Oskar Schindler
c) Oscar Wilde
d) Other
Voice: Ray Barrett, Peter Dyneley, Christine Finn, David Graham, David Holliday, Shane Rimmer, Jeremy Wilkin, Matt Zimmerman, John Tate, Charles Tingwell, Paul Maxwell
The Nutshell
In the 21st century, the billionaire astronaut Tracy family forms the secretive, heroic International Rescue group, which patrols the skies, seas, and even outer space to protect mankind from disaster. Armed with a fleet of high-tech vehicles (the eponymous “Thunderbirds”), and assisted by a bespectacled genius named Brains, the Tracy family finds themselves in a perpetual race against time to disarm various things.
Working against them is the sinister agent Hood, who looks a lot like a tiny Yul Brenner. Unbeknownst to the Tracys, Hood’s brother Kyrano is the Tracy family’s manservant.
Unlike many other robots of its era, Chester the Chessbot did have the ability
to love and feel, although he was really terrible at chess.
F.Y.I.: Chester eventually killed himself.
The Lowdown
I’m sure there are a lot of Thunderbirds fans out there, and I can understand why, so let me preface this review by saying the following: I was unfamiliar with Gerry Anderson’s work before this review, and I was only tangentially familiar with the Thunderbirds series thanks to the late ’90’s SNL parodies, the terrible 2004 film adaptation, as well as the Team America film. I’m not a fan of “Supermarionation”, so if you have a pre-existing love for this stuff or feel nostalgic about Anderson’s work (Captain Scarlet, Space 1999), you might not like what I have to say about Thunderbirds.
Thunderbirds are NOT go. They are very, very far from go.
Before I launch into why I didn’t have a very good experience with Gerry Anderson’s cult-favorite series, I’ll start out by pointing out what works. Thunderbirds is a technical marvel. The attention to detail is astounding. The marionette work is brilliant, and it must have taken a master craftsman to put it all together. The puppets cry, talk, dance, push buttons, disarm bombs, and, best of all, nearly all of them smoke. Figuring out how to get a marionette to smoke a lit cigar must have taken several weeks of puppet analysis and design, and I doff my hat to the Supermarionation wizards who made that happen.
The ship and set designs are also a must-see, as they’re finely detailed and fun to watch. The Tracy mansion has a pool that doubles as a rocket silo; when the rocket is needed, the pool retracts to the side and the rocket launches form beneath it. I would have done so much with that as a child.
`
RonCo’s “disco kitchen!” series of light fixtures never really caught on.
It seems, however, that creator Gerry Anderson was so completely consumed with the technical aspects of the series that the pacing, story, and dialogue all take a backseat. The worst fallout from this? Anderson’s Lucasian obsession with showing various crafts taking off, flying and landing. When I watched my first episode, I actually enjoyed watching Thunderbird 1 take off, as I’d never really seen a puppetcraft deploy so beautifully. At around the 30 minute mark, and after watching three other ships take off and land, it became kind of a chore. At this point, I playfully mused that half of each Thunderbirds episode might comprise ships taking off, flying and landing.
After watching several more episodes, my fears were fully confirmed. Even worse: each episode is A FUCKING HOUR-LONG disaster. Thunderbirds is consumed with its own craft to the point that it isn’t much fun to watch. The paper-thin plots about sun probes, arab cults, jewel thieves, and Chinese terrorists are merely setups for vehicular puppetslaughter, as well as sequence upon dreadful sequence of ships taking off. And it’s not like the ships take off all that differently from episode to episode. Anderson could have trimmed these babies in half had he simply cut out the flying scenes. Making things worse is the fact that most of the stories culminate in a nearly identical climax involving a race against time to disarm a bomb or trap.
Although I can’t fault Thunderbirds too much for being a product of its era, it was strange that the heroes are all white, while the villains are almost uniformly Asian. And by Asian, I mean “Fu Manchu” Asian, with long, twirly moustaches and “Ah So!” dialogue. It’s disorienting.
Invading Earth is a tough job, so it helps when I have a cigarette with
full body and flavor. That’s why I’m a Marlboro Martian.
Added to the list of sins above, Thunderbirds gets the credit for inspiring the lifeless Jonathan Frakes film adaptation. Apparently, Frakes is just as useless behind the camera as he was on the bridge of the Enterprise. (Note to readers: CHUD DVD reviewers get paid by the potshot, so that Frakes burn just earned me a car payment).
That said, fans of the series will be pleased with the set. It’s filled to the brim with extras, and looks great for a product of the 60’s.
a very well populated release, with a behind
the scenes featurette, and legions of production stills. You could make an hour-long flip book of the production stills from this set.
The pop-up episode is actually pretty fun, as it lets the show’s creators give on the spot details about the “Pit of Peril” production.
“This is the 40th time we’ve seen Thunderbird 2 take off.”
Awesome!Fans of Anderson’s work will be enthralled by the one-on-one interview, as well as the making-of and “Brains behind” Thunderbirds featurettes.
While I found it to be a mostly tedious affair, I know the fans of these tech-obsessed, anti-Asian puppets will be happy with this release.
12 comments
this site! lol
1he talkbacks! lol
Naturally, a shot at Lucas. A fellow that did more for movies than almost anyone … in fact, the "artistic" stuff critics love so much still exists is because the studios make their cash off of Blockbusters by guys like Lucas. Elitists.
OPIE AND ANTHONY! O&A PARTY ROCK! XM 202!
i only ever saw this show the one or two times a year i vistied my grandmother while i was growing up. it was this crazy surreal (not that i knew it at the time) show that left me scratching my head yet thinking "awesome!"
then the 21st century came and one of the 300+ channels i had started reairing thunderbirds.
jeebus, this show blows.
somethings should always remain in the past.
keep the talkbacks!
I love blockbusters. You know what I don't like? Dozens upon dozens of shots of shuttlecraft taking off and landing. I guess I'm just stupid like that.
Are you 10 years old? No? Then don't review puppets. Watching things take off and flying around are a kids dream. Who cares about the story and pacing, show me the rocketship! A grown man reviewing puppets and expecting a work of art, so funny.
Good point. I sure hope I didn't offend my pre-teen readership.
I loved the Thunderbirds when I was just a small kid and I can barely remember anything at all about the show besides the ships taking off. Back then, I probably wanted the dialogue and plot trimmed, so we could see more takeoff sequences! But in all honesty, this review could apply to nearly any Andersons production. Look at UFO and Space:1999, for instance – it's all about the ships taking off, and it always has been. Both of those shows are terribly wooden and tedious affairs to watch now (and I have), and UFO even managed to make the actors *look* like marionettes. Barry Morse was far and away the best thing 1999 had going for it, and even he bailed after a year of it, saying "playtime was over".
The thunderbirds kinda creeped me out when I was young. Something about thier big lifeless eyes. Also I look forward to an indepth analytical adult review of Scooby-doo season 4. only at chud.com!
Props to Trevor for at least defending what he wrote … good zinger as well! My point in mine, however, is that the Lucas dig is inappropriate and indicative of the elitist nature this page has turned into. Just because you don't necessarily like Lucas (and is that because you didn't like any of the Star Wars movies … or is it because it is the "critic" thing to do) doesn't mean that literally millions of people that DO like Lucas are wrong. You have lost, deal with it … "horrible" movies like Star Wars (and the prequels) just don't "fool" so many people into liking them … they just don't. There is a reason why many of them are at the top Box Office of all time … which makes them the Gold Standard of movies. Again, I have no problem with your opinion on these movies … but they do not deserve your spite. OPIE AND ANTHONY! O&A PARTY ROCK! XM 202!
Please tell me where in this article I called Lucas "horrible."
hey man, i dig voivod as much as the next man and you make good and interesting points but (man, there's always a but) chill a bit on the lucas shit and the elitism crap. we get it. i'm a big fan of the lou ferrigno hercules series but i'm gonna have to just shut my mouth and acknowledge that they're crap. same goes with the star wars prequels. no one's arguing that thx-1138, american graffitti and star wars are crap. everyone's saying is that the star wars prequels are souless and lacking in spark. you may disagree; more power to you. this isn't meant as an insult, but i'm sue you can't help but take it this way, but you're just more easily satisfied than we are. WHICH IS OKAY!. save your bullets for an article that actively deals with the topic. tell me what you think about thunderbirds, i'd really like to know.
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