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in: The Anniversary Episodes, TV Seasons, 50th Anniversary

The Anniversary Episodes

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Thunderbirds: The Anniversary Episodes (initially titled Thunderbirds 1965) is a series of three newly-shot Thunderbirds episodes adapted from original Century 21 Records audio stories. Produced in order to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Thunderbirds, the production faithfully recreated puppets, set and models in order to create authentic episodes that could have been made in the 1960s. Endorsed by rights-holders ITV, the series was funded through Kickstarter and greatly exceeded its original budget, becoming the highest funded British film and media project on the platform at the time[1], and allowed the creation of three episodes instead of just one as had been originally proposed.

It was produced by Pod 4 Films[2] and saw Stephen La Rivière and Justin T. Lee, who had previously worked on the Filmed in Supermarionation documentary, direct episodes, alongside returning classic Thunderbirds director David Elliott. Elliott was not the only original crew member to return - Mary Turner would return as a puppeteer and Judith Shutt would be credited as a sculptor. For added authenticity, it was filmed at one of the original AP Films studios on the Slough Trading Estate.

In an aim to match the look of the original series, 35mm film was used for some shots, while many puppet shots were filmed using the Arriflex D-21; a film-like digital camera, similar in size and weight to the Arriflex 35 IIC used for the original series, which allowed for similar camera placements. Furthermore, the same camera dolly that had been used for the original series had been reused[3].

Despite being completed in 2016, a general release of the series by ITV, who held the distribution rights, remained elusive: only a small run of DVDs and Blu-rays were made available to Kickstarter backers at part of the initial funding campaign. The episodes would eventually make their way onto Britbox UK on August 20th, 2020; and widespread home-media releases would appear in Japan in early 2022 (as Thunderbirds 55), and in the 60th anniversary collectors edition Blu-ray.

The series had a sequel of sorts for 2019's Thunderbirds Day, in which the linking narration from audio stories Thunderbird 1 (adapting Trapped in the Sky), The End of the Road and The Vault of Death was filmed with Scott Tracy, Brains and Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward. This material also suffers similar availability problems, and has occasionally resurfaced during subsequent Thunderbirds Day celebrations.

To celebrate the 55th anniversary of classic Thunderbirds' first broadcast in Japan, the anniversary episodes were repacked into a single film entitled Thunderbirds 55. Released in January 2022, this anniversary was chosen as 5 in Japanese is spoken as go, making the spoken title Thunderbirds GoGo.

Cast[]

Episodes[]

New classic 1960sThunderbirds episodes to be made

Crew[]

Puppets[]

References[]

  1. ↑ Kickstarter's list of most-funded projects. In 2020 it was exceeded by documentary Search of Tomorrow, but it still remains the 3rd most funded.
  2. ↑ The company was succeeded by Century 21 Films, which now claims co-production credit alongside Justin and Lindsay Lee's Gazelle Automations.
  3. ↑ FilmConvert interview with Justin T. Lee

External Links[]

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