Given their status as childhood icons for many people, any attempt to reimagine the Thunderbirds characters for a newer generation was always going to be divisive. So have a look at the Tracy brothers in the new show Thunderbirds Are Go! and figure out if your reaction falls into “interesting new versions!” or somewhere along the lines of this.
The new series, from the ITV Studios, Pukeko Pictures and the Weta team in New Zealand, blends regular model work with CG, anime-inflected versions of the characters in the hopes of smoothing out some of the weird transitions that used to occur between Gerry Anderson’s Supermarionation – which had puppets for most of the shots, then used real hands for close-ups.
Rosamund Pike is providing the voice for Lady Penelope, while Kayvan Novak steps in as Brains and The Maze Runner's Thomas Brodie-Sangster lends his vocal tones to John Tracy. And David Graham, who played Parker in the original 1960s series, is back on duty. ITV is clearly confident about this one, picking up a second set of 26 episodes for broadcast next year. The first is scheduled to arrive in the spring.