The family’s super fastjet, the Thunderbird 1, is always first to arrive on the scene. Framestore found that the original designs from the TV show still worked well. All images © 2004 Universal Studios. All rights reserved. Credit: Framesto

Sorry Batmobile fans, but the two coolest cars of the 1960s were made in Britain. In that time, movie buffs dreamt of James Bond's gadget-ridden Aston Martin, while television fans were crazy for Lady Penelope's pink six-wheeled Rolls-Royce in Thunderbirds. Conceived by Gerry Anderson (Space 1999), Thunderbirds told the adventures of Jeff Tracy, a billionaire who secretly runs the International Rescue organization with his five sons. Responding to emergency calls from around the world, the Tracys hurry to the rescue with amazing flying machines — the Thunderbirds. In a world full of spies and conspirators, they can count on the many talents of their agent in London, the beautiful Lady Penelope and her remarkable car.

Wildly popular throughout Europe, the series originally aired from 1964 to 1966 and was entirely realized with miniatures. Vehicles, sets and landscapes were created by (soon-to-be) miniature effects guru Derek Meddings and his crew, while characters were beautifully crafted wire puppets. Since the mid 1990s, producers had been trying to remake the show as a feature film and different options had been explored, including CGI and stop motion animation. When the project was finally greenlit, Thunderbirds was to reach the big screen as a live-action feature film directed by Jonathan Frakes.

Framestore CFC’s Mark Nelmes (left) and Mike McGee served as the film’s vfx supervisors. They decided to design the vehicles in CGI because minatures would look too much like the dated TV series.

Updating Landmark Machines
The ambitious visual effects work was assigned to Framestore CFC in London, the largest effects company in Europe. Supervising the effort were Mark Nelmes and Mike McGee. "I remember that I deeply enjoyed watching the original show on television, but I was never a real fan," explains Nelmes. "On his part, Mike was completely hooked: he had all the merchandising, from pajamas to bed sheets to wallpaper! I remember playing Thunderbirds toys and being impressed by their design, the fact that the wings, the legs, and the other parts were able to fold in and out because there was a space in the body for them to do so. The machines were fantastical, but they all made sense from a mechanical point of view. There was logic behind them. This was an approach that I absolutely wanted to pursue in the vehicles that we were creating for the movie."

The design of the original Thunderbirds was so successful — and so popular — that only discreet updates were deemed necessary. The new version of the vehicles looks the same, but they now have a lot more attributes. "When making the series, the original effects crew had the chance to work in a fantasy world," remarks Nelmes. "The size of the ships actually varied from one sequence to the next. There were many scale changes. We had far less opportunities to "cheat" in the movie version, as the new vehicles needed to blend in the real world. They had to appear alongside human performers, not puppets, which made it a lot more difficult."