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Thunderbirds
- International Rescue Edition
(MGM DVDs/theatrical films double feature: Thunderbirds
Are Go!
(1966)/Thunderbirds
6
(1968))
Picture: B- Sound:
B- Extras: B- Films:
Thunderbirds
Are Go!
(1966) B/Thunderbirds
6
(1968) C
PLEASE
NOTE:
This double feature has been issued in a limited edition Blu-ray
edition from Twilight Time and you can read more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13623/3-D+Rarities+(1922+-+1952/Flicker+Alley+Blu-ray
The
hit TV series Thunderbirds
could have run even longer than it did, but ITC owner Lord Lew Grade
wanted a new show. However, it was still enough of a hit that a deal
was struck with United Artists to do two theatrical feature films.
They would be big, widescreen productions, and allow for the only
time in the history of Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's entire
SuperMarionation series to be presented in something more than 1.33 X
1 narrow vision framing.
Thunderbirds
Are Go!
is a gem of a film, with the biggest budget the franchise ever had,
the already great model work (with some strings literally attached)
got a full exercise the TV show could have never offered. The film
is done like a James Bond epic, as well as a serious thriller, which
makes for a very entertaining and hilarious viewing. Especially in
an age of too many digital effects, the work done here is incredible
and endures strongly nearly 40 years later. It finishes what the
series started in so many ways and would be the most impressive model
work in a feature film until Stanley Kubrick's 2001:
A Space Odyssey
arrived two years later. Most feature films even today do not look
this good in that department.
It
also helps that this offers a really good story about a special space
ship called the Zero-X (did anyone say Xerox?) being sabotaged by a
terrorist attack, but it turns out to be old enemies of International
Rescue and the Tracy Family after all. They are the ones who own the
Thunderbird technology via their billionaire father. Unlike the
recent live-action feature that did not involve any of the original
minds here, this takes itself much more seriously and does not break
the Anderson's cardinal role of treating the younger audience
childishly. The later live-action film that bombed played like a
retread of the already tired Spy
Kids
franchise.
Even
the much inferior Thunderbirds
6,
which is not written as well, has less money up on the screen and
makes to many jokes out of the material never gets as lame. It still
has its issues, including a sudden turn-about in which British Spy
Lady Penelope (voiced by Sylvia Anderson) treats her ethnic assistant
and driver Parker like an idiot. It is like bad racist humor from
old Hollywood films et al, but never is any of this funny. As a
matter of fact, it is degrading in a way none of Anderson's shows
ever were. Even the title refers to something that should be
exciting and also is made into a big, dumb joke. It was a mistake
and if you see it, you'll know why this did not develop into the film
series it could have, and all this despite the same creative people.
What were they thinking, or did Captain
Scarlet
(also reviewed elsewhere on this site) make them lose interest in
this franchise?
The anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 Techniscope frames for both are an improvement over
the previous letterboxed 12-inch LaserDiscs MGM issued as a double
feature years ago. It cannot be said that the color is the best
example of the three-strip Technicolor the original film prints were
issued in, but it has its moments. As noted in other reviews,
Techniscope was a forerunner of Super 35mm to show a scope frame
without using actual scope lenses. It makes sense to shoot all these
puppets in an optical version of scope, with all the strings and all,
but it also allows more light into the camera and all these puppet
shows took so much lighting to begin with.
The theatrical sound
was originally optical mono and MGM's old 12-inch LaserDisc sets only
offered PCM CD-type 2.0 Mono, but the new DVD set offers 5.1 remixes
in Dolby & even DTS (a rarity for MGM). Though not always as
articulately remixed as the episodes A&E issued on their now
out-of-print DVDs, the fullness of the PCM from the LaserDiscs is
more than retained by the DTS, but both 5.1 mixes sound more like a
spreading out of the mono than a multi-channel rethink of the sound.
Car chases and ship launching are enough of the exception that the
DTS is the best way to go, but it makes the viewings better than
ever. Barry Gray's approximation of some of John Barry's James Bond
scores is impressive, but most of the music is more typical of his
great work for the series. The mix of the two is very balanced and
effective.
There
are a bunch of extras on the DVDs, as well as in the case. As a
matter of fact, the case is
one of the extras, as you can punch out all five vehicles with a
foldout on the back of the foil box. There are also 20 punch-out
magnets inside each case, so this offers more than you will find for
kids and collector's in just about any other DVD release to date in
that respect. Both have animated photo galleries, quizzes, their
original theatrical trailers, and full-length audio commentaries by
Sylvia Anderson and director David Lane, a veteran director of many
of the SuperMarionation TV series, including Thunderbirds.
He directed both feature films.
Each
DVD also offers three featurettes. The first film offers History
& Appeal,
Factory
Of Dolls & Rockets,
and Epics
In Miniature,
while the second offers Lady
Penelope,
Building
Better Puppets
and Tiger
Moth.
As has been the case in all of the TV series on DVD from A&E,
the extras have been fun and are very informative and rich in
information. Sylvia Anderson's commentaries continue to be some the
best you will ever hear and with all that, this will go down as one
of the best DVD double sets anyone ever issued. Get it for the fun
of it!
- Nicholas Sheffo