Product Details

• Actors: Peter Dyneley, David Graham, Shane Rimmer, Ray Barrett, Christine Finn
• Writers: Sylvia Anderson, Gerry Anderson
• Format: Animated, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• DVD Release Date: February 27, 2001
• Run Time: 312 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000524FJ
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #41,259 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #5 in	Movies & TV > Kids & Family > Characters & Series > Thunderbirds
  #16 in	Movies & TV > Television > A&E Home Video > Gerry Anderson
  #46 in	Movies & TV > Television > A&E Home Video > Series

• For more information about "Thunderbirds - Set 1" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

• This is item 1 in The Thunderbirds DVD Boxed Sets Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
"Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a master class in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in color and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, predating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armageddon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishizing gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here. As for the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (license plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catchphrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company.) The puppet stunt work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood.

On this DVD: International Rescue's very first adventure provides a template for all the rest: in "Trapped in the Sky," an experimental new aircraft becomes the target of an evil Bond-style megalomaniac who wants to get his hands on all the neat gear operated by the Tracey siblings. The show introduces, in fetishistic detail, the recurring set-pieces: Thunderbird 1 taking off from the roll-back swimming pool, the question of which pod Thunderbird 2 will use this week--the mole, or the submarine, perhaps?--and so on. Nostalgia fans will be pleased to learn that despite digital remastering the puppet strings are still in evidence, and no amount of high-tech restoration could remove the clunky expository 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."

In the second episode, "Pit of Peril," an absurdly impractical U.S. Army vehicle falls into the eponymous pit, necessitating use of pod 5, the mole. Joy! Four more episodes are included. --Mark Walker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thunderbirds are go!, December 6, 2000

By A Customer

For all you Gerry Anderson fans out there take note: this is the classic Thunderbirds TV series that is immensely popular everywhere in the world but the U.S. it seems. If you have never seen this, watch it and you will understand why it's so popular. The model effects are amazing and the vehicles/spacecraft are the coolest around! The series was recently remastered and broadcast on television in England. My understanding is that this should be the remastered series. Amazon, wake up and label this--people can't buy it if they can't find it!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thunderbirds "International Rescue", December 23, 2000

A Kid's Review

I am 43 years old and this is my Christmas present. Folks this is the one you cannot miss out on. Back in the 60's this was the coolest, most far advanced show for all ages. For years I have been waiting for this release. Hopefully we can purchase all 32 episodes. Once you meet the "Tracy Family" you will never see anything like them. Your kids will love this series. And this will bring back your childhood memories. F.A.B.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thunderbirds - a retrospective, May 1, 2001

By	Gerry O'neill (Morrisville, NC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As a child in England I would race home from school, eat my food and settle down in front of the television set for the latest Gerry Anderson epic production whether it was Torchy the battery boy, Fireball XL5. or in later years UFO and Space 1999. Forget the sixties music, what about the sixties science fiction.

Thunderbirds to me is the pivotal Gerry Anderson production. Whatever was to come later from "SUPERMARIONATION" albeit Joe 90 or Captain Scarlet (always a personal favourite), or involving real people Thunderbirds marked the turning point.

Until that time the shows involved single setting stories but with Thunderbirds it was clear that this was a much more ambitious project. Not only was the scope of Anderson's concept much grander but the concept itself was transformed into something much more sophisticated than a simple battle between good and evil. The two dimensional characters assumed a greater depth and complexity. The future as seen by Anderson was no longer purely technologically advanced but was darker and more threatening than any future he had previosly painted. The need for secrecy and the repeating them of being in disguise postulated a society threatened by potential terrorists epitomised by the Hood, of unmistaken Asian origin.

From here, following Thunderbirds success both on television and on the big screen, the Andersons went on to develop their creations in a much bigger way. While the shows were state of the art puppeteering, the stories were better and ran for an hour rather than thirty minutes, the machines were once pure fantasy and yet...

Thunderbirds on DVD is a great idea. Perhaps running them on television would be a better one. Perhaps running a number of the Anderson creations a better one still. Gerry Anderson, like Arthur C. Clarke before him, is another of those prescient men for whom their time has come.

P.S. They are fun to watch too