Thunderbirds (2004) - Universal Studios - April 7, 2020

[rdodolak]

Universal Studios Home Entertainment will be releasing Thunderbirds (2004) on April 7, 2020 through the MOD program.

Take off with the Thunderbirds! Armed with the latest high-tech vehicles and gadgets, the Tracy family tackles global rescue operations on a daily basis. When their archenemy, "The Hood" (Ben Kingsley), sabotages the Thunderbirds as part of his master plan to rob the world's richest banks, it's up to Alan, the youngest Tracy, to spring into action before disaster strikes. Loaded with non-stop thrills, you'll love the full-throttle family adventure that has fans cheering Thunderbirds are GO!

BD-50

Special Features:

• Creating the Action
• Tracy Island Revealed
• Lady P. and Parker: Fun and Stunts
• Fab1: More Than a Car
• Lady Penelope's Pink World
• "Busted" Music Video
• Feature Commentary with Director Jonathan Frakes

[Matthew.H]

That's a blast from the past.

[Gold Ranger]

Never saw it, loved the old show.

[Mikezilla3k]

Blu-Ray.com Database listing:


I think, if it's still gonna continue somewhere else besides Netflix. that the makers of the MST3K reboot should do this film. As a tribute to Gerry Anderson (who made Invaders From The Deep, the first film showed on MST3K. He hated the film)

[Aclea]

It's Thunderbirds in name only: International Rescue don't do any rescuing and most of the film is a crap scifi-ish Home Alone knockoff. But it's hard to feel much sympathy for Anderson, whose bridge burning tantrums in the development Hell stage as a consultant were a big factor in why the film went so wrong by helping to screw up the earlier more faithful proposed versions until he was shown the door.

[shinobipopcorn]

Hmm... I mean, I like Thunderbirds, I like Bill Paxton, I like Jonathan Frakes (who doesn't?), but this one was a bit of a dud. Focusing on a baby Alan was probably part of the problem, although the girl from High School Musical wasn't too bad.

[Optimus-Prime-Rox]

Would love a Team America & Thunderbirds crossover movie.😀

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Aclea

It's Thunderbirds in name only: International Rescue don't do any rescuing and most of the film is a crap scifi-ish Home Alone knockoff. But it's hard to feel much sympathy for Anderson, whose bridge burning tantrums in the development Hell stage as a consultant were a big factor in why the film went so wrong by helping to screw up the earlier more faithful proposed versions until he was shown the door.

This was a huge disappointment. I was put off by the idea of having the Tracys all being kids, but I gave it a chance with an open mind and it didn't work for me at all. It's not Anderson I would feel sympathy for, but the fans of the old show.

[Killer Meteor]

Is there a reason MST3k's version of Invaders from the Deep isn't on DVD?

[rdodolak]

$15.97 @ Bull Moose

https://www.bullmoose.com/p/34429905/

[rdodolak]

Special Features:

• Creating the Action
• Tracy Island Revealed
• Lady P. and Parker: Fun and Stunts
• Fab1: More Than a Car
• Lady Penelope's Pink World
• "Busted" Music Video
• Feature Commentary with Director Jonathan Frakes

[ZANTHERA]

I wanted to make a post for anyone who is a fan of this film and might find this information useful. This is very likely an extremely specific situation, like mine, where I transfer my films and their bonus features to a hard drive to have quick and easy access to them, but here it is anyway.

I have bought both the UK Blu-ray from 2019, as well as this US Blu-ray from 2020, and found that unfortunately, the UK release is fairly poor quality for a Blu-ray. While US Blu-ray is higher quality, it could be better itself.

The UK Blu-ray has a video bit rate of 15,000 kbps to 30,000 kbps, with a video stream size of only 10 GB for being on a 25 GB disc, which is rather odd. As a result, there is significant macro blocking visible for the vast majority of the film, since there are many scenes with dark backgrounds. The blocking is also very noticeable on the red surfaces, and given The Hood has a great big red coat, it is visible in every scene he's in, and is especially awful during the scenes inside the baddies submarine.

The US release has a video bit rate of 23,200 kbps to 38,200 kbps, with a video stream size of 15.4 GB, giving it a noticeable improvement over the UK release. There is some minor macro blocking here and there, but in general, it is the superior release by a decent amount. The issues with reds in the picture are not present nearly as much here, though the red scenes mentioned before show a bit more strain in the picture, so some blocking is still noticeable here.

Yet another oddity, is the US release is on a 50 GB disc, but it doesn't even use 25 GB of it. Instead, the disc uses 24.1 GB for everything and lacks any additional languages. This release seems to have been made for a 25 GB disc originally, but was for some reason pressed as a 50 GB disc.

The audio for both is almost identical. There is only a very minor bit rate difference, with the UK release having DTS-HD Master audio at 4,245 kbps, and the US release having DTS-HD Master Audio at 4,468 kbps.

As for the bonus features, these are all the same as the DVD release. For these, I'd recommend getting the UK PAL DVD, as they were shot at 50i and have been frame dropped for the UK Blu-ray, which uses the NTSC special features as the majority of Blu-rays do. The US release does upscale them to be in a 1920 x 1080 window, but they have large black bars on all sides and are stretched, while also having the frame dropping and ghosting of the NTSC DVD bonus features.

You will also get the benefit of the slightly higher resolution of PAL being 576 tall, rather than 480, by going that route too. The US Blu-ray release bonus features, while being upscaled, are actually still a lot softer than the PAL DVD versions. They seem to have upscaled the NTSC DVD versions, so started from a lower resolution source when upscaling them. They have also got very noticeable interlacing bob, making some of the sketches they show very difficult to see properly, which is not an issue for the PAL DVD versions.

The PAL DVD bonus features are definitely recommended if you can very easily spot things like frame dropping, ghosting and interlacing bob, they are the way to go for the best versions of all the bonus features.

As a quick recap or TLDR. The US Blu-ray has much better picture quality, and for the best quality bonus features, the UK PAL DVD is what you need.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by ZANTHERA

I wanted to make a post for anyone who is a fan of this film and might find this information useful. This is very likely an extremely specific situation like mine where I transfer my films and their bonus features to a hard drive to have quick and easy access to them but here it is anyway.

I have bought both the UK Blu-ray from 2019 and this US Blu-ray from 2020 and found that unfortunately the UK release is fairly poor quality for a Blu-ray. The US Blu-ray is higher quality but could be better itself.

The UK Blu-ray has a video bit rate of 15,000 kbps to 30,000 kbps with a video stream size of only 10 GB for being on a 25 GB disc which is rather odd. As a result there is significant macro blocking visible for the vast majority of the film since there are many scenes with dark backgrounds, the blocking is also very noticeable on the red surfaces and given The Hood has a great big red coat it is visible in every scene he's in and is especially bad during the scenes inside the baddies submarine.

The US release has a video bit rate of 23,200 kbps to 38,200 kbps with a video stream size of 15.4 GB which does give it a noticeable improvement over the UK release. There is some minor macro blocking here and there but in general it is the superior release by a decent amount and the issues with reds in the picture is not present nearly as much here though the red scenes mentioned before show a bit more strain in the picture and some blocking is noticeable on surfaces here.

Yet another oddity is the US release is on a 50 GB disc but it doesn't even use 25 GB of it, instead the disc uses 24.1 GB for everything and lacks any additional languages. This release seems to have been made for a 25 GB disc originally but was for some reason pressed on a 50 GB disc.

The audio for both is almost identical with only a very minor bit rate difference with the UK release having DTS-HD Master audio at 4,245 kbps and the US release having DTS-HD Master Audio at 4,468 kbps.

As for the bonus features, these are all the same as the DVD release so for these I'd recommend getting the UK PAL DVD as they were shot at 50i and have been frame dropped for the UK Blu-ray which uses the NTSC special features as the majority of Blu-rays do. The US release does upscale them to be in a 1920 x 1080 window but they have large black bars on all sides and are stretched along with the frame dropping/ghosting of the NTSC DVD bonus features.

You will also get the benefit of the slightly higher resolution of PAL being 576 tall rather than 480 by going that route too. The US release bonus features while being upscaled are actually still a lot softer than the PAL versions as they seem to have upscaled the NTSC versions so started from a lower resolution source when upscaling them. They have also got very noticeable interlacing bob which makes some of the sketches they show very difficult to see which is not an issue for the PAL versions.

The PAL bonus features are definitely recommended if like me you can very easily spot things like frame dropping/ghosting and interlacing bob, they are the way to go for the best versions of all the bonus features.

As a quick recap or TLDR, the US Blu-ray has much better picture quality and for the best quality bonus features the UK PAL DVD is what you need.

I just got it from iTunes and I'm happy with it but thanks for sharing