Inspector Gadget

[newsmanfan]

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So, on a whim this past week, I started looking around for anything new on this series, which was a childhood fave of mine. All through my early teens (when it first aired) I would run in from the pool each day in the summer to watch it, despite the formulaic nature of the stories, despite the fact that I'd never heard then of "Get Smart," and despite my astonishment that Dr Claw could simply NOT find good henchmen...

And WOWSERS there's a lot of cool stuff out! Several folks on DeviantArt have reimagined the Inspector as a noir-esque or as a post-apocalyptic bad-A mofo. Musicians have covered the theme song in heavy metal and dubstep. And then, oh and then, there's THIS (which, were it real, I would be drooling over...oops, sorry, I already am...*wipes off touchpad on laptop*):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kUD6duInobE

ACK!
Now THIS is what Gadget ought to have been! (And no. The Disney films don't count; they were awful.)

Any other fans wanna sound off?

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[Drtooth]

You came to the right guy.

It completely sucks that the US never got Gadget and the Gadgetinis. While not a huge improvement over Gadget, it had some interesting concepts. Brain the Dog is a broken down nervous wreck that gets fits of terror just having Gadget's name mentioned... that's something that I'm of two minds of... but then there was the episode where Dr. Claw sent an agent back in time to erase Gadget from history by never letting his parents meet, and Gadget accidentally falls back in the same time period and almost erases Dr. Claw by preventing his parents from meeting.

I really wish there was a bigger IG comeback. There was a T-shirt and a graphic novel, and that was it. Even the crummy live action movie had some decent merchandise. I love the Disney Store Bean Bags. They even had some sort of Pez like Lollipop thing with an Inspector Gadget head (cartoon version, thankfully).

I hate the fact Fox screwed up the DVD rights, and they're just sitting on them. Someone needs to scoop those rights up and release the rest of the series on DVD. Especially the hard to find season 2. Sure, it's not as good as season 1, but there's that great Godfather parody episode, and an episode where Dr. Claw gets told off by an old lady villain.

 

[snichols1973]

Between the two Disney films, IG2 was much more faithful to the TV series than its predecessor:

In the first movie, Gadget and Claw would have origins, and pre-character identities (John Brown and Sanford Scolex, respectively), while IG2 simply refers to them as Inspector Gadget and Dr. Claw, removing the alter-ego alias elements from the first film, and depicting Dr. Claw as a criminal mastermind whose face is never shown, with more emphasis on his obscurity....

In addition, the gadgets in IG2 seem to malfunction more often, as depicted in the original animated series.....

 

[Drtooth]

And they did mention a few Mad Agents by name. I'll give them credit for that. Still, would it have killed them to do the tiniest bit of research? They couldn't even get the name of the town (Metro City) or Gadget's catchphrase (WowserS! They couldn't even get the freaking "S") right. But then again, making Brain a real dog ruined the film to begin with. The second one tried, but it still got stuff wrong.

The thing that bugs me is that they actually incorporated the talking Gadgetmobile into the 2 telefilms. To be fair, Bernie Mac was actually funny in Gadget's Biggest Case.

 

[newsmanfan]

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Just watched Gadget's Last Case this week. Takes a while to really get going, but Claw stole every scene he was in ("NEVER interrupt me when I'm in the middle of an anti-Gadget rant!") and there were some lovely details (stills I snagged show pics of Digit and Fidget on Penny's bedroom wall; Gadget sucks his extension-hand thumb when he sleeps; the "go go Gadget arsenal" included a plunger and a tiny slingshot). Best exchange:
Penny: Uncle Gadget, Dr Claw has been behind nearly EVERY crime Metro City has ever had...
Gadget*triumphantly*: And so a pattern emerges!

There were also some great Get Smart jokes ("That's the SECOND-biggest...I've ever seen").

I've caught a couple of Gadgetini episodes on Youtube and liked them. The TV Trope entries for both shows are hilarious, too. (check em out: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget?from=Main.InspectorGadget Conspiracy theories: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/InspectorGadget
Gadgetinis: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...heGadgetinis?from=Main.GadgetAndTheGadgetinis )

Yeah, very little out there to grab up. I may have to get the region 2 Gadgetinis dvd and ask a friend of mine with a dual-region player to burn me a playable copy. Annoying.

Working on a piece of fan art for this which will also be an in-joke for fans of Serenity/Firefly. Will post when it's done.
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[Drtooth]

It really stinks he didn't have the big merchandising revival that other 80's cartoons got. There's some T-shirt I never found in my size and that's about it. I really wish there was some big 30th anniversary stuff, but I severely doubt it. I'd love a remade version of the 1980's Gadget figure that had all the accessories. My *&^% Friend broke mine.

Some of the WMG conspiracy theory things actually make some sense, but I'm surprised no one said this... my big fan theory? The blonde computer hacker girl from Criminal Minds is Penny grown up. The character's name is Penelope... and what's the informal variant of Penelope?

 

[newsmanfan]

According to the studio which now owns the rights, there WILL be a revival! No recent news, but as of last fall, there's this:
http://nexttime-gadget.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-new-inspector-gadget-tv-series-is.html

Sounds promising! Hope US viewers will get to see it.

On a completely bizarre note, I recently drew & colored this. Just a humorous look at what Gadget would do if his fame boosted enough that Cosmo asked for a centerfold:
http://newsiefan.deviantart.com/art/Go-Go-Gadget-Centerfold-363945790?q=gallery:newsiefan&qo=0

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[Drtooth]

They had better the shell go through with it this time. I was very disappointed that the last one went no where.

gadget really needed a revival after those awful movies, and those two pretty good but under the radar ones. There hasn't been any merchandise except for that comic and the illusive T-shirt since the first film. I really wish I got that actual animated Gadget poster they released back then.

 

[newsmanfan]

I'm hunting down the comics. Going to ask Mr Lamarche whether he's been approached to voice the character again, IF Cookie Jar really is going through with it this year!

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[newsmanfan]

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I may be the only one who cares, but...NEW SERIES PICS RELEASED!

http://nexttime-gadget.blogspot.com/2013/06/teletoon-officially-announces-inspector.html

Good article with high-quality pics of the CGI and a more detailed descrip of the new show. Plus, the entire original series will be released in Sept on DVD! So far, all amazon lists are 4 volumes (3 for the first season and one for the second) at $20 a pop. (Gulp.) Hoping there'll be a nice boxed set with extras as well.

No word yet on voices. Hoping that Maurice La Marche and Brian Drummond will return! I can't imagine anyone else doing Gadget or Claw.
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