 |
|
| Zimmer |
|
|
Thunderbirds: (Hans Zimmer) When the original
"Thunderbirds" television series aired from 1964-1966 in Britain, it used a
technique called "supermarionation" that combined marionettes, models, and
special effects to create the illusion of live-action actors and big budget
sequences. The series featured the special task force of the Tracy family,
residing on a remote, lush Pacific Island and utilizing five sophisticated
"Thunderbird" vehicles that would be called upon by world governments to
save humanity while doing so in relative obscurity. The fantasy show ran for
only 32 episodes and was made into two subsequent (but not very popular)
films in the 1960's. The series has remained dormant for decades, but
Universal, having witnessed the awesome success of the
Spy Kids
franchise, decided to fund a live-action pilot film for
Thunderbirds
that it hopes will spawn a franchise of successful ventures. In keeping with
the formula that brought success to the
Spy Kids films, the ages of
the boys in the film of
Thunderbirds will be a bit younger to appeal
to the pre-teen crowd. Even more interestingly, the production remains loyal
to the brightly colored and cartoonish nature of the vehicles, choosing not
to update the technology or radically reinvent the five majors at the center
of the story. People who found the television series intolerably silly might
find the new film version to be too cheesy for their liking.
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.
***
| Bias Check: | For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 2.98 (in 51 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 217,675 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
