Thunderbirds Are Go!

Stayed home sick Thursday – clogged head, cloudy thoughts, generally achy. Found “Thunderbirds Are Go!” videos at the video store, rented a few. Wow wow wow! These are so good. Sci-fi stop-motion puppet supercharged rescue action, filmed in “Supermarionation.” Tremendous attention to detail, super-stiff 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.”

This stuff was made in ’64, I should have seen it as a boy but didn’t – we didn’t have TV through most of my childhood. Don’t want to deprive our kid of this though – want to buy all 36 episodes, but the DVDs are expensive. Amy loved watching these as much as I did – they’re visually gorgeous.

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