reasons why, if you’re looking for a new cartoon to watch (or a new cartoon for your kids to watch), you should try Thunderbirds Are Go:
- It basically took everything that was awesome about the plot/characters of the original and updated them so there’s no more dubious Sixties vaguely sexist/racist stuff
- lots of women in command of things, including older women and women of colour, seriously there are quite a lot of ladies on this show who each have their own areas of specialization (science, spying, global defence, etc.)
- Among the voice talents are: Angel Coulby (Merlin) as Kayo, Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones/Maze Runner/etc) as John, Anjoa Andoh (Martha’s mum from Doctor Who) as Colonel Casey, and Rosamund Pike (recent Oscar nominee!) as Lady Penelope
- And the CGI/modelwork for the series was done by Weta Workshop, those folks who did Lord of the Rings
- I am lead to believe there’s a few easter eggs in there for fans of Space Exploration/NASA/etc
- (Although don’t expect any scientific accuracy)
- pretty much, as far as I know, zero jokes that are ever at any group’s expense/could be considered offensive? the main villain once wore women’s clothing as a disguise for practically an entire episode and no-one even commented on it
- opinions are divided as to the effectiveness of the CGI when used for the human characters, but the combination of CGI and models makes the background scenery of this show beautiful
- it’s just Nice! a lovely little show about how the future of the planet turned out pretty okay after all and the world’s richest people use their wealth and their awesome collection of machines, rockets and submarines to save people from disasters
- and also naturally there’s a massive dollop of Technology/Science Is Awesome And Can (And Should!) Be Used To Help And Advance Humanity
- (honestly? think The Martian, but a cartoon and with five Mark Watneys)
- it’ll never be in danger of cancellation because Thunderbirds has always been HUGE in Britain, but if you’re in the mood for a cartoon that is simultaneously really nice and gentle and full of explosions, you should watch Thunderbirds Are Go