Supermarionation
Super Mario Nation ( short for super marionette animation) is a special technique for performing puppets as it appeared in the films and television series of the British Sylvia and Gerry Anderson used.
Technology
The puppets used in this system are provided with particularly thin threads which are hard to see ( unlike, for example, in the Augsburg Puppet Theatre ). They also have moving eyes and mouths that enable a synchronized to the language movement.
The mouth movements are effected by an electromagnet. Through the installation of the magnet and the associated mechanics for the eyes, the heads of the dolls in the initial phase had to be initially slightly oversized. From the series " Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons " the solenoid was moved to the body of the doll, so that the heads could have the correct proportions.
Since the other movements of the puppets could not be electrically controlled also find their actions instead mostly within rooms or vehicles where only a little "walking " movement is necessary. In the films, the hands and arms of the puppets are in various close-ups also " doubled for " real people by the hands and arms.
History
The term was coined by Gerry Anderson, probably based on Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion technique Super Dynamation, among other uses in Jason and the Argonauts (1963). Later, the technique was used in an improved form for Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Outstanding of the so -produced series is Thunderbirds (1965 ), the miniature effects used that surprise even 40 years after its first presentation. Responsible for the realization of these effects was Derek Meddings, who later who also worked on effects for the James Bond and Superman movies.
Supermarionation television series
- Four Feather Falls ITV Network - 1959/1960, 39 episodes of 15 minutes each
- Supercar ATV and ITV Network - 1961/1962, 39 episodes of 30 minutes each
- Fireball XL5 ITC Network - 1962, 39 episodes of 30 minutes each
- Stingray ( German title: Command Stingray ) ATV and ITV Network - 1964/1965, 39 episodes of 30 minutes each (first Supermarionation series in color)
- Thunderbirds ITV Network - 1964/1966, 32 episodes of 50 minutes ( but often further subdivided ).
- Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons ( German title: Captain Scarlet and the Revenge of the Mysterons ) ITV Network - 1967/1968, 32 episodes of 25 minutes each.
- Joe 90 ITV Network - 1968, 30 episodes of 30 minutes each.
- The Secret Service ITV Network - 1969, 13 episodes of 30 minutes each.
- The Investigator 1973 unsent pilot film, 25 minutes.
The later series Terra Hawks (39 episodes of 30 minutes each ) used a different construction puppets that were operated from below. The procedure was then called Super Macro Mation.
Movies
- Thunderbirds Are GO ( 1966), 93 Minutes / German title "Fire Birds Ready To Start " (1971)
- Thunderbird Six (1968), 89 minutes
- Thunderbirds (2004 ), real film, 95 minutes, starring Ben Kingsley as the villain The Hood.