THUNDURUBURDURU

I am also having something of a renaissance 👀

Don't get your hopes too high, it's not a good movie, but the things they did right were done very RIGHT.

Lady Penelope is at her best in the movie. Both TOS and TAG Lady P could never be as iconic as 2004 Lady P, she was amazing. Parker too, 2004 Parker is my favorite Parker.

I especially enjoy The Hood in the movie, he's my favorite The Hood too. He has the best motivations behind his actions, the actor did a great job, and he has a perfect balance of true evil, revenge thirst and silliness.

Jeff is impeccable, I think showing a younger Jeff dealing with teenage Alan was the best thing this movie did. We also see Jeff in action, which I do particularly love in the context of the movie where both him and his kids are aged down a bit and Alan isn't yet part of IR. (But make no mistake, I personally really dislike Alan in this movie I can't stand him) (I compensate by absolutely adoring the little sunshine in TAG)

The CGI looks incredible, for being a 2004 movie it holds up very solidly and Thunderbird 3 and 5 in particular look stunning in my opinion.

(Except about Alan rip even though he is pretty annoying lmao)

Lady P and Parker are such highlights, everything about them is so spot on in the film - and unpopular opinion I actually really like the FAB 1 design eep

You’re so right about the Hood as well, he’s got the sinister silliness of a guy really relishing in doing horrible things and getting revenge and the balance is perfect.

He’s also straight up the most terrifying incarnation imo like he explicitly tries to murder the children multiple times, tortures Lady P and Parker in order to manipulate Alan and then is willing to fall into the blades of the mole just to traumatise Alan and damage his relationship with Jeff! The backstory does make it as well, really adds the oomf behind his actions that the other incarnations are lacking.

And 100% the parent-child exploration in this film is great, made even better by the wonderful version of Jeff they gave us. (The tension in that relationship is something I low-key miss when watching TAG)

I think what’s interesting about Alan in this film is how isolated he is, and for me that really underpins why he behaves the way that he does (even if that behaviour is objectively annoying and counterproductive)

Alan is isolated from his family, both by his age and by the fact he’s not a member of IR. We see this in the early scene where they’re having dinner together and his brothers are talking about all these experiences they’ve had together that Alan just can’t relate to.

Hes also isolated from them by virtue of the fact that he attends what’s implied to be boarding school, so he’s presumably gone for months at a time. They could call but I wonder how often they all speak to each other and how much of Alan’s interaction with his family is second hand through news clips.

He’s also isolated from his general peers at school, because his family are these cool basically superheroes but he can’t tell anyone that. He can’t relate to his peers potentially more normal dreams and aspirations because for Alan, he’s going to be a Thunderbird more likely than not but obviously no one believes him?

Then also imo he’s a bit isolated from TinTin and Fermat, TinTin moreso bc she obviously doesn’t go to school with the boys but both she and Fermat appear to have a good relationship with their parents, one that isn’t strained by the spectre of inevitable IR mission work. Like the contrast between Alan trying to tell Jeff about what they found on Thunderbird 1 and Fermat telling brains is like night and day.

Also contrast with TAG Alan who is homeschooled and allowed to participate in missions. He’s much more well adjusted to being left out of certain things because he’s allowed connection and participation most of the time! We see his brothers and Kayo supporting and encouraging him, but also keeping him focused on what’s important and showing him that there aren’t any shortcuts.

I think 2004 Alan is really hamstrung by his desperation to be a part of his own family, and it comes out as the inevitable teenage angst of struggling with self worth and wanting to prove himself. He’s so wrapped up in what he’s supposed to have with them that he’s constantly missing the opportunities to become closer to the people and activities around him.

That scene with Jeff is so interesting bc it does feel like the climax of a conflict that we as the audience haven’t seen. Like Alan is very annoying in that scene because he absolutely messed up and isn’t owning up to that properly BUT I think that scene exposes the real underlying insecurity in his relationship with Jeff in that he doesn’t feel like he’s important to his dad. He doesn’t feel like there’s anything he can do that’ll make Jeff happy with him! It seems like all they tell him to do is finish school but considering he’s at a boarding school it probably kind of sounds like “just go away until you’re older, then we’ll care about what you want” and idk that’s probably me reading too much into it

I do absolutely wish they’d taken a bit more time to acknowledge how Alan was feeling with someone and yeah the spy kids type plot didn’t give a lot of room for that, nor a lot of time to explore Alan’s competencies - like the main issue in the film is his attitude not his actual abilities most of the time and I wish there had also been a physical progression we could see with those but !

You gave me such an interesting insight on 2004 Alan actually! I still think the dialogue they gave him was pretty sloppy and could have expressed this better, but actually you're right about quite a lot of stuff. Poor Alan was isolated in the movie indeed, and it would have been great to have an actual resolution to that. Also the fact that he could fly thunderbird 1 hello???? Boy is smart and knows his craft, but they had him spent half of the movie running around... yeah I think this movie needs more fanworks to compensate all the wasted potential