THUNDERBIRDS

Based on a TV and film series created by Gerry Anderson that was distinctive for acting out James Bond plots with marionettes, the live-action THUNDERBIRDS movie proves pleasant enough. Aimed toward younger viewers without insulting adults, it's got an agreeable mixture of camp and playfulness. Much of the fun here is in seeing how production designer John Beard tweaks the look of machines invented for '50s and '60s puppet scifi for use by live actors.

The script for THUNDERBIRDS by Willam Osborne and Michael McCullers, from a story by Peter Hewitt and Osborne, which is in turn based on the series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, makes the youngest of the five Tracy offspring still a schoolboy. Alan Tracy (Brady Corbet) longs to join his four older brothers and their brave father Jeff Tracy (Bill Paxton) on the Thunderbirds' famous worldwide rescue missions, but he is deemed too young and inexperienced. Home for the holidays, Alan and best friend Fermat (Soren Fulton) manage to get themselves into trouble, but remain undetected when the Tracy island sanctuary is invaded by the Hood (Ben Kingsley), a nefarious criminal who wants to rob the Bank of London and frame Jeff Tracy in the process. When the Hood manages to trap Jeff and his other sons on an orbiting space station that's quickly running out of air, it's up to Alan, Fermat and plucky servants' daughter Tintin (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) to save the day.

Director Jonathan Frakes has proved himself good with gadgets in previous bigscreen outings. He demonstrates here that he knows how to get both a mild "wow" factor and a gentle chuckle out of the impossibly shiny super-craft and settings, which have a SPY KIDS sense of things that a 10-year-old would find very cool. The cast are all on the same wavelength, with Corbet fine at youthful earnestness, Kingsley having a ball as the often downright serene yet explosive baddie, Paxton doing a solid '50s square-jawed hero with precision and a droll turn from Sophia Myles, whose unflappable Lady Penelope drives around in what looks like a giant Barbie car. Anthony Edwards, as the Tracy in-house scientist, is very funny and looks to be having a blast in a performance that seems like a fond nod to his work in the REVENGE OF THE NERDS films.

There is plenty of action, shrewdly calibrated to be exciting in the manner of a '60s adventure thrilling but not disturbing. The filmmakers wind up sending up the form without puncturing it, a fairly neat trick. In the end, grownups can see THUNDERBIRDS as an affectionate parody of the movies we grew up with, while viewers young enough to not have been inundated with this kind of thing yet can likely enjoy it straight.