THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO (1966) ** Well, yeah sure but, you know, what kind of director would want to work with marionettes? Yeah, they don't show up on the set with a hangover, and there aren't ego issues or political baggage, but; well, their lips and head barely even move. They're considerably less expressive than cartoons. They aren't the charm of the thing though, the charm is that it makes you remember being a kid, when you threw together a Sunday afternoon plot with whatever toys were lying around. The best bit is probably when Lady Penelope guns down a helicopter from her amphibious pink Rolls Royce, but the Cliff Richard dream sequence is also entertaining. Something about getting old makes it harder for most of us to flex those imagination muscles, but the big kids running things behind these scenes are full of fine plans. Lots of most excellent airplane and generator noises, and they were doing pretty good with the marching band stuff at the beginning, until they forgot about it. That's the problem with kids, and art-rock bands and Irish writers: they just can't keep to the plot. Which shouldn't be categorized as a criticism or complaint.
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