As time goes on, fewer and fewer people remember the TV series that shared its name with our theme topic this week. I sure don’t; I was born a couple of decades after it was banished from the airwaves. What I do remember is the 2004 movie that shared its name. And unlike the original television show, this actually had some Thunderbird-related content.
British readers may be more familiar with the TV show of course. Using a technique calle “Supermarionation”, a mix of marionette puppets and scale model effects, Thunderbirds tells us the story of the fantastically wealthy Jeff Tracy and his family. After Mrs. Tracy’s untimely demise and an unfortunate air crash, the (presumably) incredibly bored Mr. Tracey decided to put that wealth toward good use, and set up the International Rescue organization–sort of a family-run A-team with fewer Vietnam veterans and guns, and more Giant airships, rockets and puppets. The series lasted a total of two seasons, with 32 episodes aired from 1965 to 1966.
It wasn’t sold in the US, but back in Blighty audiences loved it, and it seems it seems to have distinguished itself as the best show that had been produced using Supermarionation–so successful, in fact, that the BBC re-ran the show no less than 8 times between 1993 and 2006. And a new series, “Thunderbirds Are Go!” is returning to TV in 2015. In the middle of this, Universal decided that it had been such a hit that they would turn it into a live-action movie.
I’m sure I won’t get any flak by saying that Thunderbirds: The Movie was a bad film…or perhaps not so much bad as painfully average. When you look at the cold numbers you have a very solid case to call it a bad movie. It didn’t even came close to making back its fifty-seven-million dollar budget, and nobody apart from Co-creator Sylvia Anderson seemed to enjoy it either.
I watched it some years ago and I’d love to tell you that it was so good that it made me want to watch it over and over again. Or that it was a movie so decidedly awful that I would much rather sit through a six-hour dissertation on why the telenovela “Reina de Corazones” (8/7c on Telemundo) is the best television show ever conceived by mankind as told by a twelve-year-old YouTube commenter.
Unfortunately, I’m afraid to conclude it was neither, based on the fact that absolutely anything having to do with it apart from its existence has been removed from my memory. But don’t take my word for it; one Mr. Roger Ebert said, “A movie like this is harmless, I suppose, except for the celluloid that was killed in the process of its manufacture–but as an entertainment, it will send the kids tiptoeing through the multiplex to sneak into Spider-Man 2.”
It had some star power behind it too, with the likes of Bill Paxton (Apollo 13, Twister) and Anthony Edwards (Top Gun, Zodiac) in front of the cameras. Behind them Hans Zimmer, known for the soundtracks of Inception and The Dark Knight saga, had a hand in the music. But of special note, we had Academy Award winner Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE, playing our lead antagonist. It seems after Gandhi and a knighthood he now chooses his performances based on just how much fun he can have doing them. I expect him to turn up in an Adam Sandler film any day now.
Around the same time, Ford seemed to be dumping massive amounts of money in making sure that at least one Ford product would be seen in every movie screen at any given time. The 2002 Bond flick Die Another Day was perhaps the biggest offender, as everything from 007’s Aston Martin to The Villains XKR was related in one way or another to the blue oval. And what did the Bond Girl drive this time? Why, a Ford Thunderbird, what else?
Meanwhile, back in Universal, production of Thunderbirds had reached a small problem. In the original show one of the characters, Lady Penelope, was driven in a very tricked out six-wheel, hot pink Rolls Royce. Called the FAB1, it came with such commodities as machine guns hidden behind the grille and hydrofoils. But now that Rolls is owned by BMW, they decided they’d much rather skip on the whole movie and keep their intellectual property to themselves. Presumably lots of people panicked over that. At least until someone said, “Say, doesn’t Ford make a car actually named Thunderbird?”
And Bam! The New FAB1 saw the light of day. And it somehow made a pink Rolls-Royce with hydrofoils look sensible, practical and not at all conspicuous. 2004 was a time of hip-hop, conspicuous consumption and bling in the world of pop culture, so it actually fit the landscape pretty well. Best of all it was actually fully functional and road-legal, with four-wheel steering to make it actually go around corners.
The FAB1 was just the most obvious product placement. It seems Ford milked the contract for all it was worth. It ranged from everything to background vehicles…
…To baddie cars…
…to awesome…
…to subtle touches. The exhausts on the redesigned Thunderbird 2 look suspiciously like the taillights found on a T-Bird sedan, don’t they?
The plot was…nope, can’t remember a thing. Ben Kingsley wants to rule the world for some reasons that are no doubt evil. And instead of a hunger strike he uses his mental powers. Then he wants to rob the bank in London and then it turns out that one of the Tracy kids also has mental powers. They defeat Kingsley but don’t kill him, so I guess Batman had given them some pointers and they live to save the good, Ford-driving world again. Or something.
It really was as bland as Wonder bread served with nothing but a glass of lukewarm water. Similar criticism could be used when talking about the final-generation T-bird, so in a way there really was no better movie than Thunderbirds to give it some big-screen recognition. It’s just a shame that neither of them could really live up to the hype.
It was one of my favorites.
I’m an old fan of the Supermarionation series – which did show in America, as I watched it repeatedly in my teens. Until this writeup, however, I never realized the movie existed.
Yes, Thunderbirds was aired in syndication during its 1st run in America and later re-aired on Fox in 1994 in a different package from what I read on this FAQ as well as Canada and some others Supermarionation series like Stingray, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, Supercar and Fireball XL5 had aired on NBC during its first run. A&E used to sell Gerry Anderson series including live-action series UFO, The Protectors and Space 1999.
I loved all these shows as a kid though looking back UFO seemed a bit dark for kids TV
You’re bringing back memories. Besides Thunderbirds, I also watched Stingray, Captain Scarlet, Fireball XL5 during their first run, as well as UFO (big fan of Gabrielle Drake who late was the main set of tits, er, lead in “Au Pair Girls”) and Space: 1999. Would still love to re-watch the latter two.
Never saw the original, but I remember them from Dire Straits’ Calling Elvis video. Unfortunately I appreciated neither the song nor the wobbly puppets nor the seemingly non-existanct connection between the two.
Had no idea there was a movie. Now talk about The Avengers, THERES a movie version of a British TV show I was thoroughly looking forward to only to be bitterly disappointed.
That’s the one with Sean Connery dressed as a Giant Teddy bear right?
FAB, Father!
I do remember watching it in the US Saturday mornings around 65-66. At the time the special effects were considered to be quite good. I was lucky it was in the morning so I could watch it in living color. When Star Trek came on in the evening, my parents would make us watch it downstairs on the old black and white TV. I enjoyed it as a kid, but always wished they used real people instead. Never saw the movie, sounds like that was no great loss.
I remember the series -somewhat. The puppet animation was excellent, and the vehicle models were well done and nicely detailed. Never did see the movie that seems to feature live actors, but from about the same time there was “Team America World Police” that involved a puppet animated elite group who fought terrorism around the world. Film was hysterical and took aim at the liberal leftist elite, with nods to “Star Wars” and other films. Although done by the “South Park” team, it is a definate tribute to Gerry Anderson. See it. America-uck yes!
Here’s a Peter Cook & Dudley Moore sketch parody of the Thunderbirds:
this is too funny! When reading the line about “Thunderbird-Week”, my first thought that it couldn’t ever by complete without mentioning the UBER-Thunderbird, a.k.a. Lay Penelope Creighton-Wards FAB1!
Here is a YT video with both cars (and their passengers) in action! I am quite sure everybody will agree who wore it better!?
And the wooden acting award goes tooo,………. Yeah it was an ok show when I was a kid on Saturday morning along with the underwater one whatever that was Stingray maybe but utterly forgettable and I once had a dinky toy FAB 1 which fired missiles when the grille opened.
“The best supermarionation show” also means “only”, surely? I remember seeing the old Thunderbirds show but not the movie. The third car with the new FAB1 and t-bird is a Ford Streetka, the roadster version of the sub-Fiesta Ka hatchback.
Yes, I also remember the T-Birds in American syndication.
It seems like Sci-Fi is an Anglo-American-Japanese thing, I don’t know many French or German contributions except for Jules Verne & Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis.”
Loved the original show as a child, and my heart leapt when I went back to England a few years ago and saw it on TV early one morning. The movie, which was one of the worst I saw that particular year (2004), was said to be based on a later animated series called “Thunderbirds 2086” (anyone remember that?) which came out in the early ’80s and wasn’t very convincing either.
I heard of Thunderbirds 2086, I only saw the episodes on Youtube. ^_^; Here the opening credits
Maybe I’m reading this wrong but the original series spawned TWO movies, NOT counting that unforgettable movie of about 10 years ago. The tv network called THIS-TV ran the 2 of them back to back a few months ago and they are overdue for a re-run.
I also seem to remember a super-marionation(?) Movie that parodied this series was also produced a few years before the “live action” movie.
Oddly, the plots for the 2 “real” Thunderbirds movies were a tad bit light, but with the capabilities of the various craft at their disposal the movies never tried an alien invasion scenario. The closest they got was the movie where Brain’s revolutionary “lighter than air ship” got hi-jacked…along with Lady Penelope and friends while circumnavigating the globe.
I actually have those 2 movies on DVD. I picked them up out of the bin of a discount store a couple of years ago. I think they are fun to watch. I was too old to watch them when they were first on US TV but my little brother did. I showed them to my 10 year old grandson last year and he enjoyed them and thought they were funny. Maybe it was a nice break for him from video games.
I have seen live action ‘B’ movies with worse special effects.
I had to reach way, way back in the corners of my mind but I very vaguely remember seeing this cartoon a couple of times and also one called 8 Man from Japan. I don’t remember watching several episodes in a row or day after day, just one or two. At the time these were in afternoon re-runs along with a soap opera about vampires called Dark Shadows.
I wonder if these were originally prime-time adult cartoons like the Flintstones and Simpsons. The was something a wee bit creepy about the eyebrows and mouth movement (or was there no mouth movement) that’s why I ask. There was also something odd about the way their heads tilted.
” Tobar The 8th Man ” was a Japanese cartoon .
A few years ago in Southern California some travel agency made T.V. commercials using The Thunderbirds puppets , very odd I thought as only us old folks remembered the T.V. show from 1965 .
-Nate
While I watched other Gerry Anderson productions when I was a child in the 60s, I missed this one as it wasn’t shown in the US – but when my son was a tyke in the 90s and we were stationed in Japan we both became big Thunderbird fans – the program was very popular in Japan and is still referenced today. I agree it was Gerry Anderson’s best show – even better than his live actions series; UFO and Space 1999. The special effects and model work were impressive, even today – and were done by Brian Johnson, who also worked on Space 1999 and Star Wars.
The 2004 movie on the other hand was horrendous – I understand it was quickly retooled and modeled as an attempt to mimic the successful Spy Kids movie series – it failed.
The original series was so popular that it spawned two movies; Thunderbird 6 and Thunderbirds are Go – both with much more expensive and impressive effects.
The original episodes and movies are on Youtube and for anyone who has young kids they are great to watch together with your children – here is the very catchy theme song performed by the Royal Marines…….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6LeDxlaig0
FAB……….
AFIK Derek Meddings was the FX man on these shows. He went on to bigger things in the 70s-80s in Hollywood.
He worked on the Bond movies when most of their stuff was done with models.
Loved this show. The baddie whose eyes lit up used to freak me out.
I loved this show as a kid. I was also a fan of UFO.
A couple of years ago I procured the entire series and watched them all.
The thing that hit me was that, in addition to being good clean kids entertainment, it served to inspire children to become interested in technology and engineering. It glorified nerdness (Brains) and public service. It told kids that there’s nothing wrong with wanting to become a rocket scientist or a mechanical engineer, and that great things could be accomplished in the future if people’s mind were allowed to be unleashed and dare to dream. And other than “The Hood”,(the Ben Kingsley character in the movie) there are no enemies to hate, nobody who “needs killin’. A genine classic and an artifact of a better time, IMHO.
The lead photo reminded me of some of the Adult Swim stuff. This must have influenced some of their writers.