When I saw some pre-marketing for Thunderbirds Are Go!, the revival of the Thunderbirds at London Toy Fair in January 2015, my interest was piqued and I started hoping for something along the lines of the original series. Then I received my screener for the new series and started watching it. This time around, maquettes are involved by the characters are animated. The stories are still simple, following the Tracy family as they save people and the world one adventure at a time.
Unfortunately, and this may be because I am well above the target demographic, I was not entertained by the stories told. It was definitely not for me. However, I do believe that fans of animation should like this a lot. The animation looks slick, the textures are great on their clothes, but their eyes look a bit dead. As a fan of the original series, this animation looks good but is a let down from the original style, with puppets which had a ton of charm. This show looks slick but lacks the charm of the original. The first episode concentrates on introducing the whole team and Miss Penelope (voiced by Rosamund Pike).
They show the going from hanging out to changing into their mission outfits and getting into their vehicules. This all looks very cool and all, but this is repeated a few times during the episode, which kids might not mind but grown ups will find repetitive. The story was very simple with a little bit of tension, but nothing to keep the adult mind occupied for long. The language however was fairly complex, making some terms hard to understand for some small children. The dialogue is well written and will not annoy adults, the voice acting is decent. The characters were not fully fleshed out in the first episode but enough was shown to give them personality and differentiate each member of the team.
As I do not want to give too much away, I will leave this very very short compared with my usual reviews. The first episode of Thunderbirds Are Go! should be interesting for kids but the parents will most likely find themselves yearning for the series of yore with its charm and quirks.