Thunderbirds (2004 film)
Thunderbirds is a Universal Pictures release based on the Thunderbirds television series. The movie was released on July 31, 2004 in several countries, with later dates for others. The film uses live-action actors playing the Tracy brothers rather than the puppets used in the television series. The computer generated machines of the Tracy family act as a jump-off point into a "kids-save-the-world" plot following in the footsteps of Spy Kids. There is extensive use of computer-generated imagery to create the illusion that the Thunderbirds, the fantastic machines which give the name to the production, are real.
The movie is essentially a science fiction adventure aimed at the very young, but with a great number of "in jokes" and references for the older generation which grew up with the original series. Ben Kingsley portrays the arch villain known as "The Hood".
By August 2004 the film had taken a relitively low worldwide total of about $21m (£11m). It cost $42m (£22m) to produce. This poor performance was partly due to the film being dismissed exclusively to mid-afternoon screenings but mainly the poor reviews it received.
