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"Thunderbirds" (1965) More at IMDbPro »

Thunderbirds - Set 1 (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: "Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a master class in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in color and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, predating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armageddon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishizing gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here. As for the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (license plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catchphrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company.) The puppet stunt work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood.

On this DVD: International Rescue's very first adventure provides a template for all the rest: in "Trapped in the Sky," an experimental new aircraft becomes the target of an evil Bond-style megalomaniac who wants to get his hands on all the neat gear operated by the Tracey siblings. The show introduces, in fetishistic detail, the recurring set-pieces: Thunderbird 1 taking off from the roll-back swimming pool, the question of which pod Thunderbird 2 will use this week--the mole, or the submarine, perhaps?--and so on. Nostalgia fans will be pleased to learn that despite digital remastering the puppet strings are still in evidence, and no amount of high-tech restoration could remove the clunky expository dialogue:

Stewardess: "It's the maiden flight of the new atomic-powered Fireflash."
Passenger: "Isn't that the new aircraft that flies six times the speed of sound?"
Stewardess: "That's right, but don't worry: it's perfectly safe."
[Cut to: interior, Fireflash landing gear, a device clearly labeled "Auto-Bomb Detonator Unit"]
Sinister bad guy (talking to himself for no readily apparent reason): "Perfect. Enough explosives to smash the Atomic Reactor."

In the second episode, "Pit of Peril," an absurdly impractical U.S. Army vehicle falls into the eponymous pit, necessitating use of pod 5, the mole. Joy! Also included: "City of Fire." --Mark Walker

Thunderbirds - Set 1 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: "Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a master class in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in color and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, predating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armageddon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishizing gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here. As for the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (license plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catchphrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company.) The puppet stunt work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood.

On this DVD: International Rescue's very first adventure provides a template for all the rest: in "Trapped in the Sky," an experimental new aircraft becomes the target of an evil Bond-style megalomaniac who wants to get his hands on all the neat gear operated by the Tracey siblings. The show introduces, in fetishistic detail, the recurring set-pieces: Thunderbird 1 taking off from the roll-back swimming pool, the question of which pod Thunderbird 2 will use this week--the mole, or the submarine, perhaps?--and so on. Nostalgia fans will be pleased to learn that despite digital remastering the puppet strings are still in evidence, and no amount of high-tech restoration could remove the clunky expository dialogue:

Stewardess: "It's the maiden flight of the new atomic-powered Fireflash."
Passenger: "Isn't that the new aircraft that flies six times the speed of sound?"
Stewardess: "That's right, but don't worry: it's perfectly safe."
[Cut to: interior, Fireflash landing gear, a device clearly labeled "Auto-Bomb Detonator Unit"]
Sinister bad guy (talking to himself for no readily apparent reason): "Perfect. Enough explosives to smash the Atomic Reactor."

In the second episode, "Pit of Peril," an absurdly impractical U.S. Army vehicle falls into the eponymous pit, necessitating use of pod 5, the mole. Joy! Four more episodes are included. --Mark Walker

Thunderbirds - Set 2 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Created by Gerry Anderson (Space: 1999), this '60s-vintage British series remains a one-of-a-kind. With its "Super-Marionation"-animated characters (their strings endearingly in plain sight) and way-cool supersonic vehicles and space-age gadgets, each hour-long episode plays like a mini-James Bond film. This boxed set contains six fab episodes that chronicle the further futuristic adventures of International Rescue, led by former astronaut Jeff Tracey and manned by his five sons, who pilot the five Thunderbirds aircraft. They are aided on the ground by the glamorous and unflappable Lady Penelope, who is squired around in a pink Rolls Royce by her devoted chauffeur, Parker ("Yes, milady"). PC alert: Lady Penelope smokes and drinks! Perhaps her finest hour is "The Perils of Penelope," in which she searches for a missing scientist who has converted seawater into rocket fuel. With each attempt on her life, she is the epitome of grace under pressure, while her more flustered companion, Sir Jeremy, is more apt to yell, "Open this door. We're British." The squad is also heading for trouble ("and I mean trouble") in "Vault of Death," "Operation: Crash-Dive," "Move and You're Dead," "Martian Invasion," and "Brink of Disaster." Adults who formed their own Thunderbirds squadron on the playgrounds of America in the '60s and '70s should be thrilled with these newly digitally remastered episodes. Yet this is not some Baby Boomer nostalgia trip. The Pokémon crowd will probably watch with rapt fascination and dig these adventures once and again. --Donald Liebenson

Thunderbirds - Set 3 (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Jeff Tracy and his All-American Boys of International Rescue are back with six more episodes of the strangest special-effects adventure ever created. Thunderbirds sets a new standard for the term "wooden" with its slow-moving, rather lifeless marionette stars, but then the characters are really only the support staff for the real stars: the cool sci-fi vehicles they pilot into daring rescue missions. While Thunderbird 1 (the jet) and Thunderbird 2 (the massive sky-born equipment transport) get most of the assignments, you can see the underwater Thunderbird 4 in action in "Day of Disaster" (saving astronauts trapped in a submerged rocket) and "Desperate Intruder" (battling a submarine manned by their vaguely Asian archenemy "the Hood"). Other episodes in this collection include "End of the Road" (a mammoth road grader hangs off a cliff in the South American jungle), "Edge of Impact" (the Hood sabotages an experimental Air Force jet), and "30 Minutes Before Noon" (a raging fire masks a terrorist plot to blow up London). The corker of the collection is "Terror in New York City," where they save the Empire State Building from toppling when it's moved during an urban renewal project. --Sean Axmaker

Thunderbirds - Set 4 (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: At its best, Thunderbirds is an inspired mix of Japanese monster movie mayhem and British stiff-upper-lip attitude. The International Rescue team members are bland and interchangeable, a marionette family of clean-living Hardy Boys, but the high-tech toys are like big-kid fantasies come alive, and the awestruck seriousness of the direction is quaint and cool in these days of hyperactive cartoons. The highlight of Set 4 is "Attack of the Alligators!" where real-life baby alligators star as giant mutants thrashing about the dollhouse-sized sets and actually "act" with the wooden puppets; one of them actually chases a puppet hero through the jungle. Fan favorite Lady Penelope (the team's cool, high-class London agent) and her ex-con chauffeur Parker make memorable appearances in "The Imposters," where they track down a team of crooks passing themselves off as International Rescue, and "The Man From MI5," a James Bond parody where Lady Penelope is (uncharacteristically) a damsel in distress. Other episodes include "Cry Wolf" (two boys live the dream of every Thunderbirds fan and get a guided tour of the top-secret base), "Danger at Ocean Deep" (a fog of radioactive algae destroys ships and wreaks havoc with Thunderbird communications), and "The Duchess Assignment" (a rescue mission in a burning mansion). --Sean Axmaker