Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) Is Strange And Impressively Unique 

At last! I was so excited to see you review my pick. You went easier on it than I feared, but I'm not sure I'll ever look at Parker in the same way again. I grew up with re-runs of Thunderbirds in the 90s, so my own love for it is heavily tinted by nostalgia. I can't imagine how strange it would be like to encounter it for the first time as an adult. I'm pleased you got some enjoyment out of it. The mega blok vs. lego comparison is spot on... ha ha. At the time the movie was made, the production company's puppets were in the process of transitioning from caricature to verisimilitude. If you think Parker's mug is ugly, you should check out some of the puppets used earlier in the 60s (cough.. Doctor Beaker... horrifying). I think all your criticisms are valid, especially with regard to pacing. It could easily have been cut down to the standard TV episode length of 50 minutes. For me, the biggest issue with the movie is that the guest vehicle and crew upstage the hero vehicles and characters from the TV show. It also assumes some degree of familiarity, instead of introducing the premise of International Rescue or fleshing out the characters of its members. Several of the TV episodes have better scripts and more rounded/relatable side-characters when compared to the stoic and barely-distinguishable crew of Zero-X. Overall though, it's great to see the higher production values of the movie, and the score really sells it. Barry Gray (the composer) is one of the greats.

Im 38 now, but my father who was born in the 50s, he said this was his childhood television, when I was living with him back in the UK we used to watch the tv series on BBC every Sunday! Good memories! I'll send him this, he will get a kick out of it! :)

For those of us that grew up with Gerry Anderson and Thunderbirds in particular, the thing that hooks us is the hardware and how it is used in the action scenes. This movie has it all - The superb scoring by Barry Gray ; Derek Meddings and his team excelling at both the superb look of the hardware and the shots that feature it and of course the star of the movie which is the Zero-X spacecraft which again was designed by Meddings. The special effects were really pioneering as nothing up to that time even came close to what Meddings & Co achieved and many subsequent movies even borrowed from these effects. Traditionally the movie has been maligned and I fail to understand why this is so. Sure, it's not perfect ( what movie is? ) but it certainly does not deserve the scorn that has been heaped upon it.

The procedural vehicle assembly/launch sequences are a trademark of the various Gerry Anderson productions. If you enjoy this movie, look up the other films and series like Captain Scarlet or UFO.

It's 57 years old and still looks better than Indy5...🤔

The thing that hooked me was the attention to detail. The amount of hours that must of gone into creating the miniature sets is astounding. Definatly a labor of love.

Wow, I never thought you'd review this. I had it on a VHS Double Feature tape with its sequel Thunderbird Six. That one I also saw theatrically around 1993, I've never found anything suggesting it had a nationwide re-release, so I guess it was just a one-off local screening. In the UK in the early 90s Thunderbirds had a huge resurgence in popularity, to the extent that the Tracy Island Playset was the hit toy of Christmas 1992.; there was even a VHS sold in shops showing you how to make your own Tracy Island out of household materials if you were not able to get your hands on the real deal! Bear in mind this was not due to a new series or new episodes coming out, it was all from a repeat run on BBC2 (it had originally been on ITV), and not particularly with adults that had grown up with the series, but with a new generation of kids, such as myself (I was 6 at the time). I even had a photo of myself in a Thunderbirds outfit published in the official comic! On the heels of this further Gerry Anderson 60s series, particularly Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, also had a resurgence in popularity and new merchandise lines. I don't think something like this could happen now without new episodes being made, even at the time it was pretty unusual. Unfortunately by the time Gerry Anderson could get a new series out (Space Precinct 2040), the heat had died and the show flopped (it wasn't great, which didn't help). I haven't watched much of any of this since the 90s but I remember it all pretty fondly. Some of the original puppets are on display at the Hotel at the London 02 concert venue.

As someone who watched Thunderbirds (and all the other Anderson "SuperMarionation" shows) in the 60's and continue to watch them off an on all the time, I can go on and on about what you missed not knowing the background of the Thunderbirds as well as the whole Anderson universe. BUT, I can totally appreciate your fresh take on this movie not knowing all of that other stuff and I am actually amazed at how you did pick up all the innovative parts of this and I hope you do venture into other Anderson material, both pre-Thunderbirds as well as into the 70's with the live action shows. Oh and yeah Team America rocks, that was IMHO such a great homage to these shows.

Gerry Anderson is an unsung pioneer of Sci-Fi, his shows were popular in the 60s but saw a renaissance in the 90s & early 2000s

Grew up watching Thunderbirds TV series in the 70’s and 80’s in the UK along with other Gerry Anderson shows such as Stingray, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90.

I actually saw this in the theater when I was maybe 6-8, during a thing where a local theater was showing G rated movies in the summer for kids (this was the 1970's). I don't remember crap about it though, just the title, and those 1-eyed aliens at 7:02. That was the most memorable thing for me.

Zero X assembling is the best part. I routinely watch that part.

The main effects guy from Thunderbirds, Derek Meddings, went on to work on the effects in some of the Roger Moore Bond movies, also a couple of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, among other things. :)

I'm glad you reviewed it. Not many people know about this odd little gem. Team America is also amazing. Always gets a laugh from me.

To be honest, for 66 and such a different approach, I'm intrigued, I'll put this on the list (for when my wife is nowhere around cause she'd hate it). Thanks for the review Adam and request Christopher.

you should perhaps give the original show a go, it’s even better than the movie! the first episode especially is absolutely fantastic

It's true. Mars should not be a destination for anybody. It's always a fiasco.

I use to love watching this show as a kid. To see toys move and interact

Fun movie huge Gerry anderson fan 😊

Parker is a Rough Tough old jailbird given a second chance by Lady Penelope who quite often relies on his 'special talents'

I think someone did a cut of this on RU-vid that trims it up a bit, and mercifully it removes Alan's dream sequence. Have you tried watching the TV series? This movie came after that, the series were originally meant to be 30 minute episodes, but the guy who commissioned Gerry Anderson to make them saw the first few that had been made and said "I want these to be an hour!" (45 minutes really, plus ad time, British company trying to sell for syndication)

Wow....I never dared hope you would ever watch this movie...much less see the value in it like some of us did back in the day. In defense of the long shots, this is somewhat of a thing for geeks and modellers back in the day, and the shots are catered to people like that...which are people like the director himself. A similar thing happens in Star Trek the Motion picture, and for me...long extended shots of complex looking equipment doing things are like engineer's porn. In my opinion, work like this isn't even done anymore, and I wish they would bring it back. These works are by Gerry Anderson...a guy whose own work was panned by serious critics of his day...but is extremely influential has you noticed with many of the shots. His other work such as UFO was the basis for the X-COM games and the famous anime Neon Genesis Evangelion copies the beginning credits. He also did Space: 1999, one of the shows that tried to capitalize on the Star Wars space craze with a slick soundtrack...unfortunately the show came apart as it went along, but it's still a cult classic. EDIT: My serious bad there...which my dad helped correct...Space:1999 predates Star Wars by quite a bit...1975

I suppose it’s worth mentioning that a lot of the effects team would later go on to work on films like Star Wars and the James Bond films, even the Richard Donner Superman films

oh ok David Lane was the director for TB are go (1966), BUT in the fandom we say it was Gerry Anderson's TBRG, scince he got the idea for the film and thunderbirds concept in general and he was the producer

Love thunderbirds and captain scarlet. Who doesn't love the Angels.

Thunderbirds comes on Me-TV every weekend. I love the model work and the explosions. They used real fire! Nobody uses real fire these days! And it always looks like shit! Hey, Hollywood! Take a lesson from THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO! More practical effects.

I grew up with the CGI reboot, so I haven't seen much of the original puppet-based episodes.

Try other Supermarionation with your son, he will love it.

I have not heard of this but now I want to check this film out

Love this movie, it can be slow but the effects are amazing and the characters are pretty good.

If they edited out all the material you've suggested, all that's left is just another Thunderbirds episode.

I get the feeling the whole pacing issue you have is more a biproduct of the timeperiod rather than a fault of this film in particular. Look at other films from the 60's and 70's, things like Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Where Eagles Dare - of course, not all of them do this, Star Wars I don't think had particularly long scenes where we were just watching things move in near silence - but there's a reason Star Trek is jokingly called "The Slow-Motion Picture" Also, the whole "No direct main character" - Thunderbirds has five main characters, technically seven, each episode focuses on a different one. Think of it like game of thrones, except all the characters are directly linked together. Parker is a fan favourite character. He's different, but we all love him.

How dare you disrespect Parker

Thunderbirds are a British classic also captain Scarlett. Plus a youg child in this day being intreaged in this is more than enough ❤ plus there was a advert were brains dances to the drench water advert and he dances to rhythm is a dancer... Best advert ever the choreography and puppeteering its so so good 💯😊 its worth a watch with your son its more about the puppeteering there but its so good. Watch it youll like it 😂

All of Gerry Anderson stuff as far back as Four Feather Falls was ground breaking in the field of special effects in the 1960s that influenced Star Wars and Kubrick (2001). But for a generation that grew with these it was much more. They were a positive influence on us kids at that time. It was the models (they looked dirty cool and useful), the story’s were well told and all aspirational- they saved lives and adverted disaster. The writers told a story with grandeur and time, you had to pay attention, unlike today’s attention span programs and editing. The production team worked hard to produce cinematic viewing on a weekly program. It was a grown up kids program that didn’t talk down to children. Sadly modern filmmaking has lost a lot of those skills.

The movie was okay, better than most movies nowadays I also love the TV Show which the movie was based off of

This series has its own NES title. It's decent

😳 Now I can't stop seeing Parker😢

Back when techtv g4 used to show this. Good times

Not you dissing Parker.

David Lane? Oh come on, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson deserve more recognition than that

You (probably as an American), are NOT seeing THUNDERBIRDS at it's best here this big screen film version flopped fairly badly at the time because of a weak, uninteresting story, & relying on out of place gimmicks, such as - puppet singers and dream sequences. The previous tv series was a huge hit in Europe, & was much better than this film version, it was also Jerry Anderson's most successful tv puppet series. I would recommend watching the tv series, and you'll soon notice all the differences.

Ah man, I thought you was talking about Thunderball 😂

Yes I have seen TB are go when it first came out in the 1960's . And mate you have no clue what so ever what you a are talking about . There is a whole lot of Thunderbird fans out there . Maybe you need to do a bit of research on how The Thunderbirds and all of the other puppet shows start under the Supermarination banner .

There had to be so much coke on this movie set.