[rating=7.00]
The Tracy brothers are about to continue the adventure they started way back in 1965, as the new animated series Thunderbirds Are Go launches today on Amazon Prime. Like its predecessor, Thunderbirds, the story focuses on International Rescue, now manned solely by the five Tracy brothers as they keep our planet safe by land, sea, air, and space. There’s a slight narrative that runs throughout the first 13 episodes, particularly in the clunky debut, which runs two full-length episodes back to back, re-establishing the characters, and setting the stage that the brothers’ father, John Tracy, has gone missing.
Once the overstuffed premiere is out of the way, Thunderbirds Are Go really starts to find its stride early on, as episodes pare down the needless complexity and lets its characters take turn in the spotlight in each new episode. As before, the stories are fairly simple: a problem is discovered, the most qualified Tracy brother goes to fix it, things get complicated, and they have to use their wits, and their teamwork, to solve it, thus saving the day.
The show’s action sequences are pretty top notch, and creates intricate, technology-filled worlds that made the seven-year-old in me smile with delight. Speaking of, the move away from a more serialized storyline will probably do well for Amazon’s intended audience, giving kids a show with brand new adventures for them to binge-watch one right after the other in stand-alone, bite-sized nuggets.
Aside from the whereabouts of John Tracy, the larger narrative also focuses on the mysterious Kayo, voiced by Angel Coulby, International Rescue’s covert ops agent, whose involvement in a much larger plot is hinted at throughout, while it escalates nicely. Oscar winner Rosamund Pike voices the diplomatic face of International Rescue, Lady Penelope, while David Graham reprises his role from he original Thunderbirds as Parker, her driver.
While the characters are computer generated, they’re made to look like the marionettes that captured everyone’s imaginations a half-century ago. The show also incorporates scale-models interspersed with the CG, which gives a real sense of visual nostalgia without going overboard. It does suffer from a bit of a diversity problem, with five white, male, day-saving characters, Kayo is the only one who breaks the mold.
There’s also Brains, voiced by Kayvan Novak, who comes off more like their IT guy as opposed to renowned scientist and inventor. He’s also of Indian descent, and he stutters. It honestly feels like they could have left one of those off. And yes, I realize most of these were traits the original character had, but not everything needs to be viewed nostalgically through a rose colored lens, you know?
Overall, Thunderbirds Are Go does what it sets out to do, create a new adventures out of a familiar platform, while maybe even reinvigorating some interest by curious new fans as to the show’s puppet-on-a-string roots. It’s ideal for kids, as well as the the perfect antidote for those of us old enough to miss their old cartoon-filled Saturday mornings.
