This is the second of the big screen Supermarionation spin-offs, after Thunderbirds Are Go! which is famous for featuring a) Bob Monkhouse and b) that Godawful Cliff Richard ‘dream sequence’. In this one, the daftness comes from the fact that, as Brains has designed an airship, everyone dresses up in cod-Victorian gear for its maiden voyage. On a brighter note, this looks great even when it’s being whimsical (a pop art-style spherically-themed room, a Swiss cafe with models trains delivering the food etc.) mainly due to it being really well framed in proper widescreen – though of course, the odds against this telly version not being panned and scanned are astronomical, so most of that will go for a Burton. Ho hum. Oh yes, and for that twist – and boy is it crashingly inevitable – Thunderbird 2 rolls out its pod containing the top secret untested Thunderbird 6, which turns out to be – a biplane. Piloted by Brains. Yep, that’s the hilarious comedy ending to this film, and we reckon this kind of forced jollity – be honest, Gerry Anderson was never a naturally funny man – is what led to the interest in the ‘Birds drying up, and these lavish films going rapidly down the dumper. Oh, and it also turns out Tin-Tin is really a man. Er, we mean – man, is this a good movie.
Richard Davies
December 14, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Supposedly both the Thunderbirds films were liked by almost everyone apart from the target audience.