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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you want to hear a modernization of the Barry Gray children's comedy sound with a touch of Hans Zimmer's synthetic and dramatic sensibilities. Avoid it... if you detest the stock music of John Debney and Robert Rodriguez for this genre, and aren't interested in hearing Zimmer's adequate, but not very different take on it. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Director Jonathan Frakes has been reported in the past as being a Hans Zimmer fan (leading to wild, but baseless speculation about Zimmer's participation in scoring one of Jerry Goldsmith's later Star Trek projects), and Zimmer is primed for Thunderbirds should it blast off with audiences and become a franchise. For Zimmer, the film would be yet another opportunity to venture into a type of project that he had never attempted before. The children's comedy genre is foreign territory for Zimmer, and this score's mere existence alone merits interest for Zimmer collectors. He has mentioned his 1992 score for Radio Flyer as just this type of challenge, and in both that instance and with Thunderbirds, Zimmer has had an attitude of diving into the project one note at a time and just seeing what happens. And, in both cases, his performance has turned out for the better. There are other comparisons between Thunderbirds and Radio Flyer that could easily arise for experienced Zimmer listeners. If you put aside the fact that Radio Flyer was a terrible film for its subject matter, its score still had an undeniably (and almost sickeningly) charming and upbeat attitude. Thunderbirds is very much the same way, constantly reaching for the next major key note, the next statement of positive theme, the next tingling sound effect. The score mimics the bright and cheesy elements of the film in the same ways that the film mimics the television series. In short, Thunderbirds is Zimmer's first large scale slapstick action score with a touch of that masculinity that defines much of his work. Mostly gone are the broad electronic swooshes that you hear in his concurrent score for King Arthur and in their place are children's action cues that border on John Debney's silliness at the highest and Zimmer's own Toys at the lowest. Thunderbirds is Zimmer's merging of My Favorite Martian and Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids 3 into a serviceable, but not particularly special score. Zinging sound effects, electronic choppiness, and short bursts of orchestral energy are often set over modern synth rhythms. In many ways, Zimmer has produced the stereotypical John Debney score in its loyalty to orchestral action while also using the synths to draw in the younger audiences (be aware that there are more electronics in parts than orchestral elements). It does dissolve into mayhem at times, although the score's character is consistent throughout. Zimmer establishes that character right at the start, adapting the Barry Gray television theme in authentic cheesiness in the opening cue and finally putting his own awesomely cool spin on it in "F.A.B.," the final score track on the album. The score does solidify its orchestral performances in the last three cues, with "Major Disaster" and "Bank of England" providing the only lengthy connections to Zimmer's usual choral depth and broad brass themes. Overall, the score is a strong one for Zimmer, but has some of the listenability problems inherent in the children's comedy genre. Aside from the Busted song performance at the end, there are no major detractions. At the same time, the score has only about 10 minutes of truly interesting thematic material from Zimmer that stands apart from this otherwise stock modernization of the Barry Gray genre sound. ***
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