Thunderbirds Megaset (1964-66)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Created by Gerry Anderson
Starring the Voices Of Sylvia Anderson, Ray Barrett, Peter Dyneley, Christine Finn, David Graham, David Holliday, Shane Rimmer, John Tate, Jeremy Wilkin, and Matt Zimmerman

Features:

• All thirty-two episodes from the series
  
• Two Original 1965 "Making of Thunderbirds" featurettes
  
• The History of Thunderbirds
  
• Gerry Anderson Biography/Filmography
  
• Character Biographies
  
• Production Stills/Photo Galleries
  

In case you hadn't noticed, the world is full of dangers; not only natural phenomena, but people, too. Well, what are we supposed to do if one of those dangers just happens to strike...sit there and take it? Well, not anymore. The International Rescue team named the Thunderbirds is here. Their very existence is Top Secret, so after you watch these televisions shows, there will probably be people at your door asking how you got your hands on such highly classified material (or maybe I'm just paranoid). Anyway, this team of elite rescue personnel can be deployed to anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes, not hours.

This was a groundbreaking series when it first aired. They truly brought the world of the marionette puppet (remember those puppets in Being John Malkovich?) into the 20th Century. The entire series was shot in miniature with each puppet being controlled from above with twelve foot cables. One of the things that made these puppets so groundbreaking was the fact that their facial features and mouths could be individually controlled by tiny radio transmitters that another set of puppeteers could manipulate from off camera. The artists that worked on this series really were innovators not only in the world of puppetry, but in the world of miniature filmmaking as well.

That having been said, the only thing I can remember about watching these reruns as a kid was the fact that the puppet's heads seemed too big for their bodies and they all looked like they had a mild form of Parkinson's Disease. These shows are not really all that good by today's standards...the only reason to watch this show today is for the nostalgia factor (and to prepare for the inevitable live action remake coming soon to your local cineplex). If you are a fan of the show from one of its original runs on TV, then you will absolutely love this set. If you are not, you will not see what the big deal is all about.

Well, I have to say the only thing that makes this set "mega" is the quantity of the source material, and not the quality (or even quantity) of the bonus stuff. The behind-the-scenes pieces on the first disc are repeated almost frame by frame on the third disc. They are both billed as featurettes, but the one on the first disc just has some more footage added to the beginning of it. In other words, you are not getting as much "behind-the-scenes" stuff as you might have thought you were. Having said that, it's not all that great either; it's really only good for posterity and not for the informative nature one would hope for as part of a "megaset" DVD collection.

It's not until you get to disc 12 that you get the real meat of the bonus material. There is a featurette on creator Gerry Anderson called "The Brains Behind the Thunderbirds." It's hosted, ironically enough, by the character named "Brains." It's a recently done production interspersed with vintage clips of scenes from the original episodes. You really should consider this a Cliff's Notes version of who the Thunderbirds are, what they do, why, and what equipment/vehicles they use. It's also blatantly obvious that the shots of Brain hosting the show are recently done because the Supermarionation doesn't look quite as good. And, just in case you didn't get enough of the launch sequences watching all thirty-two episodes of this set, you get to see them all over again in this featurette.

The other featurette, simply called "The Making of Thunderbirds", is chocked full of vintage behind-the-scenes footage and other little bits of info (like the fact that even though the DVD packaging credits Gerry Anderson, it was in fact he and his wife who co-created and co-wrote the series). Even though they are a bit hokey by today's standards, it is fabulous that they have captured these interviews with the creators and designers as part of this DVD package. This is the one that you really want to watch. In fact, I would say it would be worth it to watch this feature before you dive into the actual episodes themselves. The only thing that's wrong with this one is it's limited length--coming in at only about fifteen minutes.

Everything else is listed under the bonus features section of disc 12 and none of it what exactly what I had hoped for. It's all text on screen. With the film/biography of Gerry Anderson, I was hoping for a A&E-style documentary, but I was disappointed. The info presented is good, but it's just really boring. The best part of the text-based stuff is the "History of Thunderbirds" section, telling exactly how the television show was conceived and created. There is also a section that gives you the stats of the various Thunderbird vehicles, but other than that, the bonus material really boils down to the same kind of stuff that you see on most any other DVD; character biographies (I found it odd that there were no biographies about the actors that voiced the characters) and photo galleries (which actually span all twelve DVDs).

So, unless you are an absolutely hardcore fan of the original series, this is probably not the package for you. However, if you are a hardcore fan, make the purchase and rest assured that the bonus material provided will only leave you wanting more.