Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Thunderbirds: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 21, 2015

With the recent announcement that The Muppets are returning to prime time this fall, broadcast television can once again proudly offer puppeteers some meaningful employment. The fanciful worlds and characters brought into existence by the legendary Jim Henson are incredibly unique, but perhaps Gerry (and Sylvia) Anderson deserve a kudo or two for their “Supermarionation” technique, which combined highly articulated marionettes (which included some electronically controlled features) and incredible scale model work that sought to provide a suitable environment for the stringed characters. Probably the best remembered Anderson offering was Thunderbirds, a mid-sixties outing that didn’t actually last that long in its original broadcast run, but which has gone on to achieve near legendary status due to both incessant rebroadcasts, but also feature film adaptations, reboots and playful homages like Team America: World Police. Niche label Twilight Time released a double feature of Thunderbirds Are Go / Thunderbird 6 almost exactly a year ago (as this review is being published), and now Timeless Media Group (an imprint of Shout! Factory) has upped the ante by bringing the entire original series to high definition.

While producer Sir Lew Grade found breaking into the American broadcast market more of a daunting task than perhaps he initially thought it would be (something that reportedly played into the series’ relatively short production run), as I mentioned in our Thunderbirds Are Go / Thunderbird 6 Blu-ray review, the series was broadcast in the Seattle market a few years after its British airing, and I was a member of a near perfect young male kid demographic which would fall unabashedly in love with Thunderbirds. Even then, though, I was more than passingly aware with how patently weird the whole thing was, with these somewhat creepy looking marionettes marauding through adventures with a mid-century modern science fiction ambience.

The series is built around the exploits of the Tracy family, a Bonanza-esque assortment of males (in fact Papa Cartwright himself, Lorne Greene, was evidently the source for the model of this show’s dad, Jeff Tracy). Jeff’s boys include Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon and John, which if you’re incredibly astute you may have noticed also happen to be the first names of then very popular public heroes from NASA. Each of the boys is frankly somewhat interchangeable in terms of any given episode’s plot mechanics, but there are also distinctive, defining characteristics given to them, including backstories or talents (like Virgil’s facility with various Arts). (Here’s a bit of trivia for those interested in the voice cast. Virgil was voiced by David Holliday in the first season. Holliday also had an interesting stage career, and received a Theater World Award for co-starring in the 1969 Katharine Hepburn musical Coco, about famous designer Chanel. David got to sing what is arguably the best tune in the Andre Previn-Alan Jay Lerner score, a smokin’ jazz waltz called A Woman is How She Loves. On another note—no pun intended—Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, the aristocratic London presence of International Rescue, is voiced by Sylvia Anderson herself.)

The Tracy Family is the driving force behind a supposedly top secret initiative called International Rescue, an organization which exists to, well, rescue various people who get into dire straits. This is no mere global fire department, however, for due to Jeff Tracy’s immense wealth, the Tracys have created a high-tech paradise which includes a space station to monitor Earth’s various tribulations and a number of supercool flying (and “swimming”) apparatuses called Thunderbirds. Part of the unique charm of the series is seeing the facility with which effects director Derek Meddings handles the small scale recreations of the Tracys’ world. Everything from picayune elements like controls in the various crafts to larger things like the Tracy swimming pool which retracts to allow the launch of a rocket is handled with amazing skill and finesse and remains one of Thunderbirds’ most enduring achievements.

There’s a fair amount of ingenuity in the various disasters striking folks throughout the series, with the first season opener detailing some incipient terrorism on the part of master villain The Hood when he places a bomb on a plane. A later episode finds one of the Thunderbird vehicles damaged by what amounts to friendly fire. This series’ answer to James Bond’s Q, Brains, also proves he may have the smarts when it comes to gadgets, but he’s sometimes precariously ill equipped to stay out of trouble himself. Later installments bring back The Hood as well as the Fireflash airliner which kicked off the show. Some disasters have rather unlikely if amusing causes, as in one episode where a distraught woman's distracted driving leads to an incredible explosion (things that go "boom!" are a Thunderbirds staple) in an ultra-modern underground parking garage.

While there’s an unavoidable quaintness to seeing everything done with practical effects, the show is so patently charming while also so unabashedly outré that it will probably not come in for withering glares from cynically minded younger viewers. In a way, Thunderbirds looks slightly backwards to 1964's Jonny Quest (super secret island hideaway filled with scientist-heroes and lots of high-tech wizardry) as well as presaging newer efforts like Batman: The Complete Series (undercover superheroes drop down to their high tech "batcave" to assume new identities). While there’s never any real question as to whether or not the Tracys will triumph over any and all incoming fracases, the sheer technical marvel of Thunderbirds should be more than enough to engage children of all ages.

Thunderbirds: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Thunderbirds: The Complete Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Timeless Media Group, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. That original aspect ratio should be good news for the show's fans, as a cropped 1.78:1 version has been circulating for a while. Even better news is the fact that the elements are in near pristine condition, with a healthy, well balanced palette which offers the sometimes bright, vivid primaries (especially blues) with exceptional pop. Sharpness and clarity are quite good throughout the presentation, while occasionally being just slightly variable (as should be expected) in some opticals. Grain is also quite healthy looking, at times again slightly variable, with some "outdoor" scenes having a bit more visible grain field than "interior" moments. Though the show is remembered of course for its marionettes and exceptional miniatures, Anderson wasn't shy about occasionally using stock live action footage, as in one episode which includes a bunch of sometimes funny footage of various beasts in a jungle, all from highly disparate source elements which offer vastly different overall color temperatures and states of disrepair. The increased resolution of this high definition presentation often makes the puppets' strings more than visible, but that only kind of adds to the show's already considerable charm, as far as I'm concerned. Those understandable anomalies aside, the bulk of this effort offers a beautifully colorful, precise looking transfer which should please the series' many fans.

Thunderbirds: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While Thunderbirds: The Complete Series offers a bombastic repurposed lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, purists may want to stick with the also included DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track which offers a better rendering of the series' original sonic virtues. While the 5.1 mix certainly adds enormous "oomph" to the show's low end effects (like rocket thrusters), it can also tend to overpower dialogue slightly at times, leading to occasional prioritization issues. While the mono track has considerably less force (and even amplitude), it can sound a bit more focused at times, with dialogue ringing out cleanly and clearly. That said, Barry Gray's iconic music helps to make the 5.1 mix extremely enjoyable, offering sterling clarity and great punch to the fantastic brass drenched cues.

Thunderbirds: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Launching Thunderbirds Documentary (480p; 45:16) is a good older piece offering some nice archival interviews with Gerry Anderson and others.


• Vintage Thunderbirds Publicity Brochure is available in PDF format, accessible from a Blu-ray drive.

Thunderbirds: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's been a second childhood of sorts for me over the past few days as I've revisited Thunderbirds after so many years. There are so many wonderful little touches in virtually every episode, along with completely odd choices (why does the portal transporting Jeff to the "batcave" necessitate him being upside down for part of the journey?). Technically still incredibly impressive, the show's story deficits therefore become more easily overlooked, and the pure whimsy of seeing these almost animatronic characters moving through such highly detailed miniature sets and props continues to be an eye popping experience. Technical merits are generally very strong on this release, and Thunderbirds: The Complete Series comes Highly recommended.