Tracy brothers are back: Thunderbirds Are Go! again in 5... 4... 3...
Brit television outfit ITV has announced the return of the Tracy family in Thunderbirds Are Go! - a fresh take on Gerry Anderson's classic puppet series promising "a whole new level of action-adventure animation for today's audience". Out goes Supermarionation and in comes "CGI animation", although we're promised "live-action …
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Review.
Gerrys comment is the best film review for anything ever. :)
Could be good could be crap
Could be like the CGI Captain Scarlet killed by being on a shit TV programme. The reboot was rather good and I remember the original.
Or it could be like the film I have seen enough clips of to KNOW it will be crap, I do not dare see it.
Main issue it is on shITV with their new moronic stupid permanent onscreen logo of utv.
Might brilliant.
Might be crap.
Thunderbirds were made as a short feature film. The way the X-files were
Both sets of creators wanted (to a certain extent) their results to be viewed as an "Event." Something you looked forward to seeing specifically rather than a piece of something bigger.
I will not that digital TV and DVRs with decent EPG's can help you pin a series together by time shifting to a reasonable time.
We'll see.
Re: Might brilliant.
Not entirely. Thunderbirds was conceived as a half-hour show and Anderson and team were halfway through production of the first series when their backer Lew 'Low' Grade decided the length should be doubled. Which helps explain why certain TB episodes slow to a crawl in the middle as they desperately splice in offcuts to fill up the time. (Let's have another long shot of the meter edging towards critical... now a close-up of a bead of perspiration on Alan's forehead and his eyebrows set to "Frown"... now back to the meter getting infinitesimally nearer critical... back to Alan...)
On the other hand it did give them space to build up the characters a bit more, which was where TB really scored over (half-hour) Captain Scarlet.
Ruined by targetting and timeslot
However good it might be. It will be turned to crap by showing it in-between other shows on CITV. With the idiotic hosts explaining what you just watched 3 minutes ago before the ads. Then they'll play a non related game, then back to the show. Just show the full episode... please.
Thunderbird fans are middle-aged now, they would be the best target audience for this show. Kids will watch it regardless. But we all know it has to be cut up and re-packed to make it blend with the crap that will surround it.
I'll wait for the DVD so I can watch uninterrupted. By which time it will be cancelled.
Re: Ruined by targetting and timeslot
"Thunderbird fans are middle-aged now, they would be the best target audience for this show. Kids will watch it regardless. But we all know it has to be cut up and re-packed to make it blend with the crap that will surround it."
I've gone AC, as I know this is dodgy ground, but, I have to admit, I have found myself imagining how the Tracy boys would have tackled 9/11 and Fukushima etc. I know, I know, fantasy/reality, but has anyone else done this? Would it be wrong to make this kind of programme?
Re: Ruined by targetting and timeslot
They/he did both - one episode covered people trapped beneath a burning skyscraper that collapsed, and another was a radioactive cloud spreading across Australia following a nuclear reactor accident.
Re: Ruined by targetting and timeslot
I think it would be a good idea to bring in a few incidents like that.....
Just re-show the originals
I'm serious.
A few weeks ago, I showed my 4-year-old son an old Thunderbirds DVD which belonged to his older brother. I thought that he'd be unimpressed. Quite the opposite: he's hooked. I've had to get the Tracey Island and thunderbird vehicles down from the loft, buy new batteries and search ebay for missing parts.
Timing
Is it coincidence that this announcement was made a few weeks after Gerry Anderson's death?
Lew had a point
"Gerry, this is not a series, this is a feature film!" - So 30 miin (20 mins after adverts) isn't gonna work for me. I'll go back to dreaming that someone will grab the franchise, and do with it what Marvel have managed with the Avengers etc - two hour big scale entertainment. film, CGI + "Real" Actors + a proper Rescue plot ... Not the rubbish that Riker produced.
Another lost opportunity :(
Originality?
Does it need to be original? I have a suspicion that all the little quirks that gave the original series the character it undoubtedly had and made it eminently watchable will be ironed out. Some do NOT succeed in a re-make or film. Take Hitch-hikers Guide, for instance. They were struggling to make characters that didn't look like the TV ones (Marvin, the paranoid robot, for instance) and they failed miserably, in my opinion.
Re: UFO
There is already a film in production. And has been for several years.
Re: UFO
Far and away the best, and most mature, of Gerry's output. It actually dealt with really involved human problems, sexual situations, and very bizzare situations (not puzzling in a "Dr. Who" way, but truly bizarre things like time warps, mental illnesses, psychoses, etc.). And the aliens were both believable and somewhat scary. It was the most adult of them all, and as such doesn't look THAT dated - because people still have the same issues. Well, except for time-warping aliens....
Kid's will watch it.
They'll watch any old crap. My girlfriend's 6 year old is addicted to Inspector Gadget on Netflix and that's an unmitigated pile o'shite.
Personally I think the problem is that nobody is prepared to take a chance on something new. Much easier to resurrect stuff for which there is at least some brand recognition. Inception proved that movies need not be dumb to make money and the same is true of TV, but who is going to be responsible if they take a chance and bomb? The fear of failure is too high, so nobody will risk it.
Re: Kid's will watch it.
catchy tune though :D
There was a rather annoying contractor who had it as his ringtone and even though he was often away from his desk, he left his 'phone there and would receive many calls.
As it rang he would lope across the office... we all found it so annoying that eventually we started "dah dah"'ing the tune whenever he moved regardless of the phone; he became known as "Inspector gadget" and was entered into the minutes of meets as such too :D
Intriguing,..
I'm intrigued by the "live-action model sets", hope they don't just been scene sets. I'd love to see some Anderson style non-cgi vehicular models - the detail of the original models inspired a billion imaginations.
and as others have commented, 30 mins is to short.
Re: Intriguing,..
"...I'm intrigued by the "live-action model sets", hope they don't just been scene sets. I'd love to see some Anderson style non-cgi vehicular models - the detail of the original models inspired a billion imaginations...."
If you want to see where they got the basis for most of the models - look here:VIP/Thunderbird Models
Future plots
Sam Fisher (aka Michael White) has already written the screenplays (errr "novels") for a successful franchise reboot. Part Thunderbirds, part Alpha's, and all gung ho, State Of Emergency and it's follow ups (2 so far) have it all for the post 9/11 generation. Bring it on please
Re: Future plots
Sam Fisher was voice acted by Michael Ironside.
Mine's the one with the FN F2000 strapped to its back.
Well I can't really complain about more Thunderbirds, how about more Captain Scarlet?
Having watched it originally in black and white, it was only years later that I discovered the full and rich world...
Same here, it wasn't until our neighbour (and my suddenly new best friend), got a colour TV and it was like the Wizard of Oz revelation (B&W Kansas to technicolour Oz) - mindblowing!
Er, no. Dr Who, Merlin, Primeval etc. all 45 minutes (=1hour+ on commercial channels). Back in the 60s we only got to watch half hour Dr Who episodes.
The old Dr Who's had storylines running for four or more episode, (as previously noted), generally with dire cliffhangers - I was traumatised when Sarah Jane fell off a rocket and I had to wait a week to see if she survived - I was a pretty naive kid.
But back to Thunderbirds, it's a shit shame they couldn't of done this when G Anderson was still with us, pretty sure he was fighting right up to his death to bring it back.
Hopeful and excited
If they can get the stories right and not make it americanised patronising nonsense like the film, then this has great potential.
I would love to see the run time increased to about 45 minutes though, which equates to an hour with adverts.
While I regret the lack of originality in today's TV schedule, I suppose we should be thankful that this project does not involve werewolves, vampires or Simon Cowell in any way.
Just goes to show all the good ideas have been used and now they are just making hamburger out of sirloin that's well past its prime.
Thunderbirds Are No Go
Please, spare us. Unless the scripts have been written by Brian Clemens and it's been done by Sylvia Anderson. No Frakes, please.
But what inquiring minds want to know...
...is will there be Bulgin panel lamps flashing merrily away to tell us that the reactor has gone sub-critical because the ship is floating over a large quantity of dog-food ingredient?
Supermarionation.... Wobbly sets, wooden acting, stillted scripts...... Oh sorry that was Crossroads
Finally I get the chance to use this .....
This joke has been waiting over 20 years for the right audience.
Q. What kind of grass grows on Tracy Island?
A. International fescue!
Re: Finally I get the chance to use this .....
It's a shame you didn't have the necessary patience.
Re: Finally I get the chance to use this .....
...Mown....
I can't be the only person who would love to see a 'proper' adult version of Thunderbirds made. In the sense that it would be Christopher Nolan's 'Batman Begins' to the camp antics of the original Batman TV series. I'd watch that.
None of this 'appealing to children' rubbish. Give me a decent film, and please, try not to fsck it up.
Thunderbirds are go--ing!!
A) To bingo night at the local church
B) To see their gerontologist
C) To watch the "Murder She Wrote" marathon
D) To call the local police about "those damn kids" playing in the street
OK, having a little fun at the expense of a TV classic that I even managed to catch growing up in the US of A. I wish big media would show a little more originality than bringing back The Transformers/Chipmunks/Thundercats/Thunderbirds every couple years, but it is what it is, and hopefully the new Thunderbirds will be of better quality than the Bill Paxton movie that got such lousy reviews back in 2004-2005 or so.
So let us hope for the best, and some quality programming for a new generation of Thunderbirds fans!!
"Go" icon for obvious reasons......
F-A-B
I often wondered what the exact meaning of the expression " F-A-B " was, usually uttered after a command from one of the senior puppets on the film set. It's probably equivalent to "aye aye", " yes sir " or perhaps the word " jawohl " in the German language.
Does anyone know the exact meaning of the expression or is it a made up term designed to sound hip and trendy in the swinging sixties?
Re: F-A-B
By Sylvia Anderson I believe, she thought it sounded cool and so decided that Lady P would say it, so it stuck.
Re: F-A-B
I was pretty sure it was just a way of saying "Fab!" that might fit with a para-military operation. Still comes in handy in SMS conversations..
Mumblings of an old fart
Just keep those responsible for Terrahawks abomination as far away as possible.
Idle Curiosity
I don't suppose Vanessa Hudgens will be reprising her role from the movie version ... ?
Made in Britain...
The original was but apparently this series has to be off-shored to New Zealand. Why?
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