Thunderbirds is also a great show, and after two episodes, I tend to think that Thunderbirds Are Go! is too. I can see where people might not get what the people who made it were trying for... but I do, and I think it's kind of brilliant. Because the thing is, it's a CGI remake of a '60s puppet show... but it's not using that technology to try and be something new-n-fresh. In fact, they've gone to great lengths to make it "feel" like the original show. The models still read to the eye like models; the Thunderbirds aircraft themselves, for instance, maneuver in the same distinctively impossible ways as the originals did. The characters still look like they're made of rubber, with glassy plastic eyes and clothing made of fabric that has odd-looking, out-of-scale weave details. The cityscapes still have that Toho miniature-block-party thing going on, and rural landscapes are hilariously artificial-looking, like model railroad countrysides.

In short, it's still a puppet show - it's just that the puppets, models, and miniature sets[EDIT: I'm told that the models and sets are in fact actual miniatures, which makes the level of detail the model makers achieved even more impressive, to say nothing of the visual seamlessness with which the virtual puppets inhabit them. --G.] are all computer-generated, so they can be much more detailed than the original program's scale and budget allowed for. The character models still have limited ranges of motion and facial expression, but they're much wider than the constraints of Supermarionation allowed for, which makes the action sequences work much better (and means they no longer have to have those incongruous live-action second-unit shots with human hands operating switches and stuff).

The bottom line is, they've fiddled with a few things - Kyrano's daughter is a proper member of International Rescue this time, for instance, because it's the 21st damn century, and Brains appears to have become Indian - but I would still not classify this remake with that now-hoary 'noughties buzzword "reimagining". The Thunderbirds themselves are virtually unchanged, and the brightly-colored, clearly-labeled world around them is still 2060 as seen from 1964. The production design itself (titles, etc.) has been moderned up without that painful "look how chrome this all is" effect that we used to get in revamps (Transformers Generation Two, anyone?). It's... well, it's Thunderbirds, is what it is, only with tighter pacing and better production values.

Here's the opening sequence from the first episode (the bit after the roll call changes with specific footage from each ep), and the original launch trailer. You can get a pretty good feel for what they're doing here. (Notice in the former that the composer is evidently a graduate of the Murray Gold School of Updating Theme Songs: take the original theme, make the orchestration lusher, and add some urgent strings. :)

It's airing now on ITV in the UK; I've had to put on my shoulder parrot to get hold of it in the States this early, but when and if the people who made it can be convinced to take my money in exchange for it, they've already made a sale.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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