Friday 2 December 2022

ANIME OR CGI: EVOLVING 21

 

Here's the 1982 intro to the Japanese animated Thunderbirds 2086 TV show. I never saw it. I do like the vehicles - where they made into toys? It all looks sort of ahead of its time to me. Is that fair?

By comparison, and maybe its an unfair one, here's the intro to the New Captain Scarlet series from 2005. I didn't see this either.  I've seen some of the vehicles since onscreen and as toys and they aren't too bad. I have to say the show's CGI faces look awful. What do you think?

12 comments:

  1. Never saw the Thunderbirds one, but New Captain Scarlet is actually quite good. Yes, the faces are a bit iffy, but some of the story ideas are really good and there are some nice character scenes (for example, Scarlet repeatedly watching cctv footage of himself being killed and trying to come to terms with it). I like it.

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    1. I'll take your word for it Kev. I do like the vehicles. I've seen the Rhinoceros boxed, a sort of SPV. As for CGI, those early efforts to get mouths right were tricky. CGI mouths must be hard to do. Much much later in the film Justice League, Superman's mouth was even worse, where they tried to cover up his moustache!

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    2. Mouths are very tricky to animate as it is not just the lips moving, but the jaw, the shape of your lower face changes, skin around the mouth is changing, and as emotion in your voice is conveyed, your whole face is involved, Yet animators tend to focus on just the lips (old technique) despite trying to emulate 3d/real life. The New CS does have some rather iffy faces but it makes up for it with some good pacing and storylines. I think the New CS was mostly hindered by a low budget so character models were not as detailed.

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    3. Did you see it in the US Lance?

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  2. Regarding Thunderbirds 2086, that is ITC's name for the Japanese series Scientific Rescue Team TechnoVoyager (Kagaku Kyūjo Tai Tekunoboijā). It was loosely inspired by the original Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series Thunderbirds. The series was dubbed in English by ITC Entertainment, the original company who produced Thunderbirds, but is not officially recognised as part of Thunderbirds canon, due to the non-involvement of either Gerry or Sylvia Anderson. Despite this the English dub of the series contains music and sound effects from Anderson's series' Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. A total of 24 episodes were produced, but only 18 were shown on Fuji TV in 1982.

    The CGI bits in the opening were added by ITC as they massively edited the opening but (much like Speed Racer/Mach Go Go Go) kept the original music but in this case it is the instrumental version of TB Love. That said, it is a nice way to bring a first time viewer into the series with the background info.

    The only merchandise I am aware of was a soundtrack album for the Japanese version. Here in Houston, TB 2086 was an early Sunday morning show so it was less likely to have a lot of viewers and the low episode count would keep it from being a daily syndicated show.

    You can catch the original 1st episodes of Technoboyager and Thunderbirds 2086 here:
    https://archive.org/details/technovoyager-1982-collection/Scientific+Rescue+Team+TechnoVoyager+(1982)+%5BTSHS%5D+episode+01+(DVD+rip)+%5BABEAE683%5D.mp4

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  3. Me again, just an fyi but it appears that the whole run of TB2086 is on youtube and in decent quality.

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    1. One for a wet Sunday in January methinks Lance. Thanks!

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  4. Ron Thornton of New Captain Scarlet was also involved with the fx in Babylon 5

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    1. Cheers Dave. B5 is not a show I know well.

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  5. Sorry, you could not pay me to even peek at a CGI version of Captain Scarlet. Stories are nothing, its the incredible visuals (plus the boss Barry Gray music) that made the Supermarionation programs so special. Taking those characters and tossing them into some crummy computer-animated thing is bordering on sacrilegious, to me anyways. The puppets, the vehicles, that fabulous miniature world was THE reason those programs are legend. Supermarionation forever!

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    1. So you won't be watching New Captain Scarlet then Zigg! Ha ha.

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