The Supercar documentary "Full Boost Vertical - The Supercar Story" was produced in the UK by a group of very dedicated fans. The result of their work is a stunningly detailed look into the show and the people who brought it to life. The documentary contains numerous cast and crew interviews as well as a great deal of additional material. What follows is a detailed review of the DVD. Second Update! Now with added screenshots!

When I first heard about the documentary "Full Boost Vertical - The Supercar Story", I was at once both surprised, curious and skeptical that such an ambitious project could be completed to a standard worthy of the show. Could a privately funded documentary produced by a 19 year old possibly show us something we have not all seen or read numerous times before? Would it stand up to repeat viewings?

A quick look at the contents listed below will assure you of what became apparent as soon as the DVD arrived. This was the result of a labour of love and contains as much content as is humanly possible.

The documentary comes in the standard plastic DVD case with 2 DVDs. The first contains the documentary itself, running time is about 2 hours. The second disc contains a fascinating collection of items including foreign language variants, colourized scenes and a huge photo gallery. Total running time is in excess of 200 minutes, almost 3 1/2 hours! The DVD is available in both PAL (UK TV format) and NTSC (USA/Japan) and are region 0, e.g. not locked. The DVD Discs come with a 12 page colour booklet in standard plastic DVD wallet holder. The colour booklet contains an overview of show and production history as well as list of contributors and an episode guide.

DISC CONTENTS

DISC 1

• PART ONE
  
• titles
• preparing for launch
• beaker's character bureau
• strings attached fly by wire
• musical maestro
• advert break
  
• PART TWO
• voices from the past
• supercar "take one"
• supercar "take two"
• the runaway success
• the sky's the limit
• end titles

DISC 2

• BEHIND THE SCENES
• opening titles rushes
• closing titles rushes
• AP Films studio walkthrough
  
• TITLE SEQUENCES
• french titles
• spanish titles
• sound effects only
• blank titles
• intermission card
  
• SUPERCOLOR SCENES
• tracking of masterspy
• crash landing
• fireball xl5
  
• PHOTO GALLERIES
• production black and white
• production colour
• stavordales colour
• publicity black and white
• publicity colour
• alan patillo
• merchandise
• viewmaster
  
• AUDIO FEATURES
• flight of fancy
• sabotage

DISC 1 - DOCUMENTARY

The documentary itself is quite long, but is broken up into chapters so it is easy to watch one or two chapters at a time and then continue a bit later. Despite the running time around 2 hours, it is done in a way that sucks you in and you will find yourself sitting through the entire show in one sitting. The documentary does something admirable: it lets the cast and crew members speak for themselves, no narration is used in the documentary so basically what you end up with is the whole story of the production of Supercar told by the actual people who worked on it.

People who appear in the documentary include:

• Bob Bell - Assistant Art Director
• John Blundall - Sculptor
• Martin Bower - Fan/Model Maker on Space:1999
• David Elliott - Editor/Director/Production Supervisor
• Graydon Gould - Voice Artist
• David Graham - Voice Artist
• Bill Harris -Editor/Director
• Bill James - Set Builder
• Julien Lugrin - Camera Operator
• Alan Pattillo - Editor/Director
• Alan Perry Camera Assistant
• John Read - Lighting Cameraman
• Desmond Saunders - Editor/Director
• John and jean Taylor - Sound Recordists
• Mary Turner - Sculptor and Puppeteer
• Roger Woodburn - Puppeteer/Special Effects
• Hugh Woodhouse - Writer
• Martin Woodhouse - Writer

Notable in their omission are Gerry and/or Sylvia Anderson. Due to the fact that most crew members are faithful to either Gerry or Sylvia, inclusion of one may have resulted in lack of participation from others. Ultimately, although their abscence is apparent, hearing from the people in the list above allows us to glimpse deeper into the history of the show and hear about things from a different perspective. Gerry and Sylvia's absence doesn't really detract from the programme and probably allows for the other comments to come out unfiltered.

The narrative of the documentary takes us to the AP studios, now a tyre workshop and we get to see a very well done CGI (Computer Generated Image) animation showing how the studio was set up. This becomes very helpful when we see numerous crew members visiting the facility as it is today (early 2004) and recollecting where the various stages were and how the production team did their work. We get a good introduction to the various characters and see how the show got its start.

Numerous crew members who are no longer with us are included by way of old interviews or video clips, including one of Barry Gray singing a special version of the theme at Fanderson 82! Every crew member seems very willing to discuss the show and share their opinion, like the writers Hugh and Martin Woodhouse being eliminated from the second season in an effort to save money! There are many very interesting anecdotal moments, but again and again it is because we are hearing it from the people themselves that this becomes all the more compelling. Many of the original puppets appear in the background along with a number of (probably recent) large scale models of Supercar itself.

In addition to the walkthrough of the studio, we are also treated to an animation showing how the voice synchronisation was accomplished. Hearing about the various tweaks involved makes it seem that much more real and understandable.

Even if you do not consider Supercar to be your favorite Anderson show, this documentary provides a great deal of information that directly relates to the later shows, including how the underwater tank shots were accomplished. Despite the long running time of the documentary, all of it is very good and something that any fan of the show would appreciate. All aspects of the production are covered in the documentary, from pre-production, casting, characters, plots, locations, effects, sets, puppet construction, voice sync to merchandising and beyond.

I think it is amazing that so many cast and crew members appear in the documentary so long after the original production. Sadly, Juilen Lugrin who appears in the documentary, passed away shortly after filming and never got to see the finished product.

DISC 2 - EXTRAS

The second disc is crammed with an impressive amount of material. Bear in mind that this is a TV series made over 40 years ago. This second disc includes additional footage such as the the complete unedited titles footage complete with clapper, titles in various languages, and three short but welcome clips showing colourised footage from Supercar and Fireball XL5. The Fireball XL5 clip was done in the early 1990s as an experiment when colourisation was somewhat popular. The process is extremely time consuming and consequently expensive. The colours are very nice but a bit too vibrant for my taste. The Supercar ones were created specifically for this set in an effort to resolve the perennial question: "what might Supercar have looked like had it been in colour?" What is interesting about these clips is that they make the show look much more recent and even seems to add depth to the scenes. Additionally, the CGI walkthrough is presented in its entirety along with narration from Alan Pattillo as he describes exactly how the studio was set up.

A huge number of photos are included on the second disc, including both official photos, behind the scenes shots as well as photos by the Stavordales puppeteers and even some from Alan Pattillo's personal archive. As a result, there are many photos that have not been seen in public before. Photos of merchandise items includes artwork from the Gold Key comics both in their final form and without the text. The complete 3D viewmaster Supercar story is even included. Rounding off the second DVD are two audio adventures, "Flight of Fancy" and "Sabotage". I cannot imagine that there is anything available that was not included on this extras disc! All of the film clips, audio and photos are of high quality.

The only problem I found with this disc is that the photos are not accessible as a DVD-ROM, making it impossible (or at least very difficult) to view any of the photos on a computer.

CONCLUSION

The documentary is certainly worthy of broadcast and is something you will find yourself viewing more than once. The quality of the documentary and extras is very impressive. If you are a fan of Supercar or have an interest in any of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation productions, you must pick this gem up now. I understand that if sales of this are good, they may consider producing documentaries for other Supermarionation shows. Now that is something we would all like to see.

This is the "must have" item for any fan of the show and should be up there alongside the Fanderson soundtrack CD, Johnny Lightning car and the comic. Interestingly, Fanderson had no participation in the production and does not even seem to be interested in notifying its members of the DVD. I don't know or care why, but frankly I hope the situation is corrected in the next FAB.

RATING: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - 5 out of 5
VALUE FOR MONEY: Excellent
PICTURE QUALITY: Very Good
SOUND QUALITY: Very Good
EXTRAS: Excellent

HOW TO GET THE DOCUMENTARY

If you are in the UK, or want the PAL version, it can only be ordered from Tenth Planet. 23.99

If you are in the US, or want the NTSC version, it can only be ordered from Fab Gear USA. $39.99

Additionally, a "special" version is currently on ebay, featuring autographs and a brand new story by Hugh and Martin Woodhouse!!!