Coming to a theater near you: TEAM AMERICA!

Posted by Les on Friday, July 30, 2004 at 07:57 PM. Read 493 times. Tags:
{name} pic

I’m a big fan of the old Thunderbirds television series where a bunch of puppets make up the team known as International Rescue and go around doing heroic things. Needless to say I was excited about the just released Thunderbirds Movie despite it being a live-action adaptation. Unfortunately, it seems the new movie pretty much sucks according to the ratings racked up over at Rotten Tomatoes. It seems the movie is more akin to Spy Kids than the TV show it’s supposed to recreate. As Roger Ebert explains it: “Thunderbirds" is to “Spy Kids” as Austin Powers is to James Bond. Which, for a fan like me, is a big disappointment.

So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that there will be a major motion picture coming out this fall that appears to pay homage to the cheesy-but-fun ideals of the original Thunderbirds including a cast consisting entirely of “Supermarionates” complete with visible wires. Surprisingly enough it’s come from the folks who created South Park and it’s called TEAM AMERICA! It looks silly as hell and the intent seems to be parody of the highest order, but then a movie with a bunch of puppets running around like James Bond is probably ripe for parody. After watching the trailer my spirits were lifted a bit. With any luck it’ll turn out to be everything the Thunderbirds Movie should have been.

Permalink · 5 Comments · · · · · · · · · · · ·

Comments:

Page 1 of 1 pages

Spocko United States Posted on 07/30/2004 at 09:41 PM

Spocko pic

Yes! I’ll be taking my boy to see that one.

I was really looking forward to Thunderbirds too but the more I see previews for it the more I feel like it’ll be a waste of cash.

Team America is go!

deadscot United States Posted on 07/30/2004 at 09:44 PM

deadscot pic

I can almost squint my eyes and picture you as ‘The Hood’. 

Shows like this can never be recreated on the big screen.  It would have to be done as a ‘pet’ project out of sheer appreciation for the original in order for it to succeed.

captcha = ‘union’ Hmm...What would the puppeteers ‘union’ think?

***Dave United States Posted on 07/31/2004 at 08:39 AM

***Dave pic

Re: Thunderbirds—I’ve been fearing the “Spy Kids” approach since early on in the trailer process.  Of course, the original is hardly Citizen Kane, either, and seeing the ships in action may well be worth at least a matinee admission.  It’s tentatively on the schedule for this afternoon, so I’ll let you know.

Re: Team America, I caught a panel on it at the San Diego Comic-Con, and they played the first five minutes of the film or so.  It looks like a hoot (though I could see why some Tbird fans would be appalled, too, by its tone).

Greg United States Posted on 07/31/2004 at 05:09 PM

Greg pic

I am so there in line for “Team America” tickets come October.
Re: Thunderbirds live action movie...man, I was so disappointed when I saw the trailer. All the computer graphics just looked so low budget to me. Kind of like watching “The Last Starfighter” now. Sure back then the graphics were cutting edge, but now they’ll definitely dated. (side note: the universal translator in “The Last Starfighter” - $3.99 digital watch innards)

Tish Australia Posted on 08/02/2004 at 06:56 AM

Tish pic

They missed a golden opportunity by not casting Joanna Lumley as Lady Penelope…

Page 1 of 1 pages

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

 @ 
<a>
Close Tags

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below:


Next entry: Coming soon to Thunderbird: RSS integration!

Previous entry: Comment Spammers try something new.

<< Back to main

Stupid Evil Bastard