THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE [1968 / 2015] [Blu-ray] [UK Release] Brilliant! Decades Ahead Of It’s Time! Their First Big Screen Adventure in Colour! Breath-taking Entertainment . . . It’ Great!
The International Rescue team is back in another action packed adventure! The combined efforts of the entire team is at full stretch, they'll need to be on top form with the cunning assistance of Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward and Parker to defeat the ring of terrorist who've targeted International Rescue for destruction!
While on the maiden voyage of the fabulous new passenger vessel “SKYSHIP ONE,” Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward is shocked to discover that the crew has been killed and replaced by a ruthless gang of hijackers who want to use Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward to obtain classified information and launch Thunderbirds to their destruction. As the hijackers’ super-plane circles the globe on a collision course with catastrophe, Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward must outwit her captors and send an urgent SOS to her fearless cohorts at International Rescue before it’s too late! With the 2015 remake of the TV series back on UK screens now, this enduring classic is presented on Blu-ray for the first time ever in the United Kingdom. Narrated by Keith Alexander.
FILM FACT: Voice acting was recorded in six days at the Anvil Films Recording Studio at Denham in Buckinghamshire, where dialogue for Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons would also be recorded. Dialogue for characters returning from Thunderbirds Are Go, such as the Tracy family, Tracy Island's other residents, Lady Penelope, Parker and the Hood is, with two exceptions, provided by the same actors. Barry Gray considered the musical score for ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE’ superior to that of ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ since its depiction of round-the-world travel provided scope for a large number of musical themes. Music was recorded in six sessions at the Olympic Studios at Barnes, London, between the 1st and 5th February, 1968, with an orchestra of 56 members. A rendition of the 19th-century song "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" accompanies the aerial shots which chart Alan and Tin-Tin's departure from Tracy Island at the start of the film. Director David Lane wanted the movements of the Tiger Moth to simulate a dance in mid-air, and to this end played the song on loudspeakers from the shooting helicopter to inspire the stunt pilot.
Voice Cast: Peter Dyneley (Jeff Tracy), Shane Rimmer (Scott Tracy / Steward Carter), Sylvia Anderson (Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward), Jeremy Wilkin (Virgil Tracy / Steward Lane / Steward Martin (impostor), Matt Zimmerman (Alan Tracy / Steward Martin / Steward Hogarth (impostor), David Graham (Gordon Tracy / Brains / Parker / Kyrano / Indian Stall-Keeper), Keith Alexander (John Tracy / Narrator / Steward Carter (impostor) / Missile Base Announcer), Christine Finn (Tin-Tin Kyrano / Indian Fortune-Teller), Gary Files (The Hood / "Black Phantom" / Captain Foster (original) / Steward Hogarth (original) / Steward Lane (impostor), John Carson (Captain Foster impostor) and Geoffrey Keen (NWAC President James Glenn)
Director: David Lane
Producers: Sylvia Anderson and Gerry Anderson (uncredited)
Screenplay: Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson
Composer: Barry Gray
Cinematography: Harry Oakes, B.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Techniscope) (Supermarionation)
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio,
English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo Audio
English: 1.0 DTS-HD Master Audio [Original Mono]
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 89 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Fabulous Films
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: In this Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson animated adventure ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE’ [1968], the International Rescue team is faced with one of its toughest challenges yet, as the revolutionary lighter-than-air craft “Skyship One” is hijacked while on her maiden voyage around the world. Against backdrops including the Statue of Liberty and the Sphinx, Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, Parker, Alan and Tin-Tin fight the hijackers from on-board, while the rest of the team tries to stop the airship crashing into a missile silo.
‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE’ marks the second foray onto the big screen for the cult series Thunderbirds, following ‘Thunderbirds are Go,’ and while it's difficult not to be impressed by the hard work and patience that's gone into making the film, there's not much here to appeal to non-fans of the series.
The film's screenplay has been co-written by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson, who is the creator of the Thunderbirds TV show. And while devotees of the series would probably argue the movie is an accurate representation of the series was all about, that's precisely the problem with the animated film. Though director David Lane imbues ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE’ with a distinctly cinematic feel, the film's storyline is decidedly low-rent; i.e. it feels as though it'd be more at home on the small screen. This is compounded by the fact that there just isn't enough happening here to keep the viewer engaged for 89 minutes, as though Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson took a script from the show and expanded it to feature length.
Unlike the film ‘Thunderbirds are Go,’ ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE’ takes the emphasis off Jeff Tracy and places it on a couple of periphery characters, like Brains and Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward. Brains, is the resident scientist and inventor, has come up with a design for an airship called “Skyship One” which is scheduled to make its maiden voyage with Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward and a few of the Tracy kids aboard. But a group of dastardly villains have killed the ship's crew and plan to surreptitiously use Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward to ambush the Thunderbirds.
Plot wise, that is about the extent of it. As was the case with ‘Thunderbirds are Go,’ the animated film lingers on dialogue-free sequences, i.e. planes taking off, for much longer than it has any right to. Though the widescreen cinematography is undeniably quite impressive, the elongation of such moments doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than to stretch out the film's running time. Coupled with the fact that Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson's are 100% propensity for technical dialogue, and if with basically a children's film, that undoubtedly might bore modern young children to tears.
Certainly, the first half of ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE’ is indulgent and dramatically weak, especially the scenes with Parker being befuddled by the pilotless biplane are silly and the middle of the film is almost entirely taken up by travelogue scenes as the airship cruises around the world. There is almost nothing else going on, apart from the taping of Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward’s conversations, and these scenes never amount to anything more than a half-hour time filler. That said, the film improves markedly once it reaches the climax – the rescue scenes aboard the tower are excitingly mounted and it is certainly much more of a dramatically coherent climax than ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ had. The effects, model work and the patented Gerry Anderson explosions that everything goes up in are all top-notch.
What the film ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE’ does lack is the kitsch scenes like the images of the Thunderbirds puppets cavorting with puppets of “The Shadows” in the first animated film. Certainly, the “SKYSHIP ONE” does display some alarmingly garish psychedelic interior decoration. Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward’s wardrobe is interesting. The two animated films had a much bigger budget than the Television series, allowing an elaborate array of costume changes, outfitting Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward’s at the height of contemporary glamour. One of the pluses of the travelogue scenes are some excellent shots of the airship crossing in front of the Grand Canyon, The Sphinx, the Statue of Liberty and so on. It is all capped off by a typically loud and thunderously brilliant didactic Barry Gray’s music film score.
Blu-ray Image Quality – Fabulous Films has once again brought you ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE,’ with an excellent presentation of the animated film in the theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio and an also wonderful 1080p Technicolor image resolution. Sharpness is excellent revealing much detail in the formation of the puppets, and colour is generally strong throughout without it ever becoming unmanageable. Contrast is perfectly consistent in this Blu-ray release. There are occasional dust specks and small scratches, but nothing to write home about to detract from watching this brilliant animated film. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Fabulous Films offers you two audio soundtracks that consist of 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 1.0 DTS-HD Master Audio [Original Mono], which gives you a choice to compare the two. Though the mono mix is likely the ones that cinema goers would have experienced, the re-purposed surround mixes offer better than average fidelity and some surround activity in the rear speakers, though the front soundstage is by far the more prevalent in the design. The dialogue is always clear and concise and has been placed in the centre channel. The delightful music by Barry Gray, in ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE,’ gets a nice spread throughout the soundstage. There is a decent bass in the mix, too, for some added impact. No age-related artefacts crop up at all.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Audio Commentary with Producer Sylvia Anderson and Director David Lane: Here we are first introduced personally to producer Sylvia Anderson and who produced ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE’ and of course was heavily involved with the puppet lady Penelope, and hopes you enjoy watching the film with the audio commentary. Next up we get introduced to the direct David Lane of produced ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE.’ They both comment that watching the film is like going down memory lane and David Lane comments that is definitely has a different look to the first Thunderbird film, especially this one is more informal, and Sylvia Anderson reckons it was because she was not breathing down the necks of the film crew. When we first get a show of Tracy Island, Sylvia Anderson informs us that they had shot 32 episodes of the Thunderbirds TV Series and also informs us that different voices were used in ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE,’ plus you had a commentary added at the start of the film, which did not happen in the first Thunderbird film. With the film ‘THUDERBIRDS ARE GO!: THE MOVIE’ they thought they had a hit on their hands, but sadly it did not happen, as the public kept away because they thought the film would be just like an episode of the Thunderbirds TV Series, but of course of course over time the two Thunderbird films have become cult classics. Sylvia and David praise Derek Meddings [Special Effects Designer] for his fantastic on the brilliant models. They also praise the lush music film score by Barry Gray, as they feel it was like the old Hollywood film scores. With the merchandising, they made loads of Lady Penelope dolls and outfits, they also produced well over 2,000,000 Dinky Toys of the Rolls Royse FAB1 car and at the time it was a fantastic time for the toy manufactories. When we get to the interior scene in “SKYSHIP ONE” bar room, where you see the glass floor, well there was over 700 different coloured ping pong balls, caught fire because of the heavy duty arc lighting and the burnt ping pong balls smelt horrendous and very acrid smell, especially for the puppeteers up in the gantry. With the scenes we see the very large explosions in the Film and TV Series; they were extremely popular with the fans. But when Lew Grade and some executives visited the set one and experienced a massive explosion, which was so big and loud, that everyone got covered in dust. David Lane really enjoyed filming the escape scene from “SKYSHIP ONE,” where everyone climbs aboard the de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth 1930s biplane, just before the “SKYSHIP ONE” crashes to the ground below, but with the real Tiger Moth biplane filming it had life size dummies tied to the plane. So all in all it was a F.A.B. journey viewing the film with the audio commentary and it was also fascinating hearing the comments from Sylvia Anderson and David lane, especially the interesting insight information about the behind-the-scene information on the making of ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE.’
Special Feature: Gerry Anderson's Countdown to Thunderbirds [2015] [1080i] [1.78:1] [14:08] With this particular special feature, it is broken up into five separate section and the first one has Gerry Anderson [Producer] talking to a hidden presenter. He first tells us that every time he is greeted by people, they always ask him how he came to make “SUPERMARIONATION” pictures, well it all came about by splitting the word up in three words, which were “SUPER,” “MARIONETTE” and “ANIMATION” and Gerry Anderson says that it was just that simple. Next up Gerry Anderson tells us that he started his career in the film industry as a sound editor. Then with a few friends started up his own Production Company, and there were originally only five people altogether, and for ages they just had to sit around and wait for something to happen and work to come in. Then one day if by magic, a young lady turned up at their office, and informed them that she had 52 scripts, each lasting 15 minutes long for a Television Series and mainly aimed at children and was to have puppets in them, and that turned out to ‘The Adventures of Twizzle’ [1958], and Gerry Anderson says that he was totally ashamed of what they had produced. The next project was ‘Torchy the Battery Boy’ [1957], and was a massive successful TV series and got front page publicity in the TV Times. One thing Gerry Anderson hated with these early puppets, is how the head worked, especially with the head jerking back when they spoke, and felt it was not a very professional way of doing the puppets, and eventually they had an electronic device fitted in the head, which made the mouth work in a much more professional way of working the puppets. Gerry was not happy with the wire being visible and a Company he was dealing with was able to produce black wiring that would not be visible on the TV screen. Eventually Gerry met up with Lew Grade, who was the Chairman of Associated Television and Gerry informs us that he was finally summoned into Lew Grades office. With Reg Hill, who was the business partner of Gerry Anderson, had a script for ‘Supercar’ [1961-1962], and showed it to Lew Grade who wanted to know how much it was going to cost, and Gerry Anderson said £3,000 and Lew Grade shouted at him in saying, “that is absolutely ridiculous, and I cannot pay that sort of money,” so Gerry Anderson went home and stayed up all night trying to figure out what can be trimmed from the cost, but eventually next morning went back to Lew Grade’s office and informed him that he could make the TV series for one third the cost and Lew Grade agreed to the deal and Gerry Anderson made 26 episodes of ‘Supercar’ and was huge success. After ‘Supercar,’ Gerry Anderson hit on an idea for a TV series about a secret organisation called “International Rescue” after seeing a news broadcast on his television screen about some trapped miners in Germany, well after some persuasion Lew Grade backed his idea, especially explaining what the different vehicles did, in the meantime Gerry Anderson sent a brief to Derek Meddings, who got set to start making the Thunderbirds models. So when everything was ready, they went into producing 30 minutes episodes in duration. Eventually when the first episode was ready, Gerry Anderson took it to Lew Grade’s private viewing theatre, but when it was finished being projected, Lew Grade turned to Gerry and shouted at him saying, “this is not a Television show” and after a long pause said, “Gerry, this is a feature film,” and Gerry Anderson was totally vindicated in his pursuit in producing something totally unique and special. Gerry Anderson talks about the character “Parker” and how he came about and Gerry use to go to this lovely pub regular called “The King’s Arms” which was next to the River Thames, for lunch, and they had this wonderful wine waiter who was a cockney with a “posh” voice and was always dropping his “H’s” and they decided that this was the voice they wanted, so Gerry Anderson sent David Graham [Voice Artist] regular trips on the Companies expenses to mimic the wine waiters voice to a “T,” but over time they wondered if they should inform Arthur the wine waiter about using his voice for the character “Parker,” but they never did and when Arthur eventually passed away, he never knew about this situation. And this brings us to the end of this very informative and interesting special feature.
Special Feature: Thunderbirds 6: Lady Penelope [2004] [480i] [1.37:1] [9:50] With this special feature, is brought to you by M-G-M Home Entertainment. Here we have contributions from the likes of Sylvia Anderson [Producer] who talks about the majority of people who wrote the scripts for the male puppets and have no idea how to write scripts for the female puppets. We also get lots of clips from the two Thunderbird films. At the same time of the Thunderbird films, the James Bond franchise started to happen and they thought the Thunderbird films fitted perfectly. Sylvia Anderson talks about the Lady Penelope character and how the puppet progressed over time, and also talks about the loveable rogue chauffer Parker and how he came about. Mary Turner [Puppet Coordinator] talks about how they made Lady Penelope, especially expanding her character over the period of the two Thunderbird films, and Mary Turner also informs us that Sylvia Anderson loved the Mary Turner design of the clothes for Lady Penelope. David Lane [Director] informs us that Gerry and Sylvia Anderson were always after quality style, especially Lady Penelope, who was especially styled on the old Hollywood musical female stars. Sylvia Anderson talks a lot about the fabulous Pink Rolls Royce and had to get special permission from Rolls Royce to be allowed to build the model and totally respected their wishes not to down grade it, especially respecting the Rolls Royce Company’s wishes. Richard Hollis [Film Historian] talks extensively about the TV Series franchise, which was mainly aimed at the American TV market, and especially having the male puppets having American accents, but Gerry and Sylvia Anderson still wanted to retain a lot of British quirky values.
Special Feature: Thunderbirds 6: Building Better Puppets [2004] [480i] [1.37:1] [8:09] Once again, this special feature, is brought to you by M-G-M Home Entertainment. Once again we get contributions from people like Sylvia Anderson [Producer] in telling us there had be all kinds of puppets in films a very long time ago, but they had no experiencing working with their puppets in films, but gained a great deal of experience when working on the two Thunderbird films with lots of trials and errors. Mary Turner [Puppet Coordinator] informs us that they wanted the Thunderbird puppets to look and human like as possible, and too a very long time to get it just right. With the two Thunderbird films, the puppets were improving quite considerable, over the puppets used in the “Thunderbirds” TV series. Also with the Thunderbird films, they had to perfect the lighting just right, so that most of the time you do not see the black wires working the puppets. David lane [Director] says that because puppets cannot move naturally like real people, that are why most of the time you see the puppets just posing, but when they did try to move the puppets, they got into a lot of trouble. But when you see close ups of the puppets, nine times out of ten, they were worked by hand below the puppet with a special set up, which helped to give the puppets a more natural movement. Richard Hollis [Film Historian] talks about the Cliff Richard and The Shadows puppets in the first Thunderbird film, and informs us that they were not very well known in America, compared to the Beatles, but Gerry Anderson was really aiming the Thunderbird films for British audiences, especially the fans of Cliff Richard. But for a final word from Sylvia Anderson, informs us that doing the two Thunderbird films was a very happy and joyous experience.
Special Feature: Photo Gallery [2004] [480i] [1.37:1] [2:29] here we get to view lots of colour and black-and-white publicity photos of the puppets from the film and also lots of behind-the-scene of the making of ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE.’ While viewing the images, you get to hear the amazing Barry Gray film score in the background.
Special Feature: A Call From Stanley Kubrick [2004] [480i] [1.37:1] [00:55] Sylvia Anderson [Producer] talks about the time they was making the TV Series ‘UFO,’ and got an unexpected call from the director Stanley Kubrick, and ask Sylvia Anderson to come and have lunch with him, but with a hesitant “YES” from Sylvia Anderson, informed Stanley Kubrick that they could help him with his special effects, but still asked Stanley Kubrick if he was still interested in asking Sylvia Anderson out to lunch, but suddenly got a loud shout down the receiver with the word “NO” and put the receiver down and Sylvia Anderson guessed from that, that he was not at all interested anymore and felt that did not go too well.
Special Feature: A Television Tribute [2004] [480i] [1.37:1] [00:29] Once again we get to hear Sylvia Anderson talk about the now sadly deceased and very funny Dudley Moore [Composer/Musician] and Peter Cook [Comedian] who did a lovely parody sketch of the Thunderbirds puppets on the “Not Only…But Also” BBC TV Series, entitled "Superthunderstingcar." Especially where you had the a Lady Penelope puppet trying to smoke a cigarette and the other puppets walking through doors and Gerry and Sylvia Anderson thought it was very funny a great tribute.
Special Feature: Tiger Moth Featurette [2004] [480i] [1.37:1] [6:18] Once again, we have a special feature, which is brought to you by M-G-M Home Entertainment. This time concentrating on the de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth 1930s biplane used in the ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE.’ David Lane [Director] felt the first Thunderbird film ‘THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!: THE MOVIE’ there was a lot more action style presentation special effects, and concentrated on the hardware, whereas the second Thunderbird film wanted more humour brought in and especially bringing in the de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth 1930s biplane to give a different feel to the film, especially having more location shoots. But of course with bringing in the de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth 1930s biplane, they also had to also combine a model of the de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth 1930s biplane for the studio shots, so combining the two to look seamless. But we find out the person that flew the real de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth 1930s biplane was a lovely lady called Joan Lily Amelia Hughes, MBE (27 April 1918 – 16 August 1993) who was a fantastic flyer, which we see her do with the real de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth 1930s biplane and with great dexterity. In the Second World War Joan Lily Amelia Hughes was a World War II ferry pilot and one of Britain's first female test pilots and was an experienced aviator she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, and soon had more than 600 hours' experience ferrying aircraft around the country, especially Lancaster Bombers. With the trick flying stunts in the film, this was done by Joan Lily Amelia Hughes and at the time of the film they were building a new motorway, especially not having central reservations, so Gerry Anderson thought it would be a good idea to include this in the second Thunderbird film, but because the police wanted the Tiger Moth biplane to land under one of the bridges, but Joan Lily Amelia Hughes decided this would not happen and of course you see the place fly under the bridge, and because the police were angry took the film company to court, but because the judge was a massive big fan of the Thunderbirds TV Series, had the case dismissed and they never heard from the police again, so all in all, justice and common sense one the day. Once again Richard Hollis [Film Historian] talks about the difference with this film compared to the first Thunderbird film, with the second one it was a more chatty character driven film. Throughout this special we get to see lots of behind-the-scene publicity shots and especially short clips of the de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth 1930s biplane aerobatic stunts in the ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE’ film.
Special Feature: Isolated Score Track [2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo]
Theatrical Trailer [1968] [1080i] [2.35:1] [1:58] This is the Original USA Theatrical Trailer for ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE.’ This is a great presentation and certainly gives you a flavour of what the high octane of what to expect when you get to view the film.
BONUS: This is a stunning beautiful designed 16 page booklet entitled “International Rescue Zone Report – 02.” It contains fascinating interesting articles entitles “Thundering Into Your Sights – THUNDERBIRD 6;” “21st Century Wonder – SKYSHIP ONE;” “Film Music With Gary Gray;” “THUNDERBIRD 6 – FAB Facts;” and “Film Credits.” It also has lots of great colour production photos and the fabulous ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE’ cinema poster.
PLUS: Brilliant designed Blu-ray Cover, with lots of production photos, especially on the inside of the cover.
Finally, viewers who grew up watching 'Thunderbirds' TV Series may still regard both the show and of course the two Thunderbird films with great nostalgia and affection. Fans should be very pleased with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Fabulous Films Blu-ray feature of ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE,’ which presents the film with a very respectful video image transfer to showcase the elaborate and intricate puppetry work much better than on the horrible inferior DVD ever could. Newer viewers may be put off a bit by the programmes inherent corniness, but the this particular film provides a good demonstration of why the Thunderbird franchise still has a devoted cult following almost five decades later. I suspect that the 'Thunderbird' fan base will want to scoop this one up before it's gone. ‘THUNDERBIRD 6: THE MOVIE,’ is an enjoyable film with plenty charm and plenty of 1960s nostalgia. It’s a great addition to the Thunderbirds canon, providing one of the most original of all Thunderbirds stories. It is a light, funny film with all the ingredients of a classic Thunderbird’s adventure franchise and a great way to introduce new fans to the Thunderbirds, as sadly we will never see the likes of it ever again, and again it brought back so many happy memories when I use to watch avidly on a Saturday with the Thunderbirds TV Series. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
