Inspector Gadget is a media franchise that began in 1983 with the DIC Entertainment animated television series, Inspector Gadget. Since the original series, there have been many spin-offs based on the show, including additional animated series, video games and films.
The franchise follows the adventures of a powerful but dimwitted cyborg police inspector as he investigates the criminal schemes of Dr. Claw and his organization, MAD, as they fruitlessly attempt to stop him. However, neither side is aware (until recently) that it is Gadget's niece, Penny, and her dog, Brain, who are truly responsible for thwarting MAD.
Main characters
Inspector Gadget
The main protagonist of the franchise. Gadget is a human being with thousands of high-tech gadgets installed in his body. Gadget is very powerful and loyal to his career as a lawman, but he is also very dim-witted, clueless, incompetent, oblivious, and gullible. While Penny and Brain secretly do all the real detective work, Gadget has a knack of inadvertently saving the day, usually oblivious to the fact that he's saving the day. Gadget loves his family more than anything and would do anything to keep them from harm, especially Penny. He was voiced by Don Adams in the original series and Inspector Gadget's Field Trip, Gary Owens in the original series' pilot episode, Maurice LaMarche in the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Gadget and the Gadgetinis, various DIC Kids Network bumpers, and the direct-to-video animated films following Adams' retirement from voicing Gadget. For the 2015 series, the voice of Gadget is provided by Ivan Sherry. In Disney's live-action films, Gadget's real name is John Brown. He is portrayed by Matthew Broderick in the first film and French Stewart in the sequel.
Dr. Claw
Dr. Claw is the main antagonist of the franchise. He is the leader of an evil crime syndicate called MAD. As his name states, he has a claw for his right arm and that is the only part of his body that is shown. His face is never seen at all except in the live action film, and on a Dr. Claw action figure (the face was covered by a sticker on the box, which meant the toy had to be bought for his face to be seen). He is very murderous, sinister, dark, sadistic, and greedy, and will do anything to rule the world and destroy Gadget. In Gadget and the Gadgetinis, he reveals that he thinks Gadget's idiocy is an act to taunt him. In the 2015 series, he is noticeably less competent and malicious and the crimes he commits are a lot more petty. He has been voiced by Frank Welker, Brian Drummond, and Martin Roach. In the first live action film, where he is portrayed by Rupert Everett, his name is revealed to be Sanford Scolex; Tony Martin subsequently took over the role of Dr. Claw in the sequel.
Penny
Penny is Gadget's know-it-all niece and the one who really stops Claw's evil schemes. She uses many high tech devices to help her secretly solve the cases and stop the bad guys such as; a computer book, a video watch, a laptop, and a holographic tablet. However, her meddling often leads to her getting captured by the bad guys, which leaves Brain to rescue her. She is 10 in the original series, 12 in Gadget and the Gadgetinis, 16 in Biggest Caper Ever, and 14 and 15 in the 2015 series. Penny loves her uncle more than anything, which is why she is always ready to help him behind his back, but on a few occasions she gets annoyed by his stupidity. In Biggest Caper Ever, she is notably more selfish and unlike any other incarnation, she doesn't try to help her uncle at all. In the 2015 series, she has become an agent in training and is more physically active than in previous incarnations and she has a crush on Claw's nephew, Talon. For the original series, her voice was portrayed by Mona Marshall in the pilot episode, Cree Summer in the first season, and Holly Berger in the second season. Erica Horn provided her voice in Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas. From 2001 to 2005, she was voiced by Tegan Moss. Tara Strong voices her in the 2015 series. For the live action film, she was portrayed by Michelle Trachtenberg, and Caitlin Wachs in the sequel.
Brain
Brain is Penny's dog and best friend. He is the only one who knows that Penny is the one who really saves the world and usually has the job of keeping Gadget safe on his missions while Penny investigates M.A.D's crimes. He usually disguises himself when following Gadget, which often causes Gadget to think he's a M.A.D Agent. He is absent in Gadget and the Gadgetinis and only shows up in pictures. The reason he is absent is because after all the years of secretly helping Gadget, he has become phobic of gadgets, the Inspector, and the word itself. He ran away to a riverside shack to get away from Gadget. He returned in the episode, No Brainer, where Penny made him a translation collar in order to help find Gadget. However, he does return in later spinoffs. His voice was played in the original series by Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche in Gadget and the Gadgetinis, and Scott McCord in the 2015 series. Lee Tockar voiced him in Biggest Caper Ever. In the live action films, he was first voiced by Don Adams, the voice of Inspector Gadget from the original series, and then by Jeff Bennett in the sequel.
Chief Quimby
Chief Quimby is Gadget's boss and the chief of police. He usually pops up to give Gadget his missions with papers that tell his messages. When Gadget finishes reading them, they self-destruct and blow up in Quimby's face, literally. He appears at the end to congratulate Gadget and give him full credit for stopping Claw. He never knows that Penny did all the work, even though she always calls him. In Gadget and the Gadgetinis, he has become an agent for the CIA. In the 2015 series, he is given glasses, and his hair is blonde instead of brown. His voice in the original series was provided by John Stephenson in the pilot, Dan Hennessey in the first season, and Maurice LaMarche for the remainder of the series. Jim Byrnes voiced him in Inspector Gadget's Last Case. He is voiced by Derek McGrath in the 2015 series. In the live action films, he was first portrayed by Dabney Coleman, and Mark Mitchell in the sequel.
Cast
Series and television specials
Inspector Gadget
The original animated television series in the franchise, Inspector Gadget, debuted in 1983 and introduced audiences to the adventures of a clumsy, simple-witted bionic detective named Inspector Gadget â€" a human being with various bionic gadgets built into his body. Gadget's nemesis is Doctor Claw, the leader of an evil organization, known as "M.A.D."
Inspector Gadget was the first cartoon show from DiC Entertainment to be produced directly for syndication. Its two seasons originally ran from 1983 to 1986 and remained in syndication into the late 1990s. It continues to air successfully in reruns around the world.
Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas
In 1992, DiC produced an animated Christmas special based on the series, Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas. In the special, Dr. Claw has locked up Santa Claus at the North Pole and hypnotized his elves, forcing them to break all toys that are being produced. Christmas will be ruined unless Dr. Claw is stopped. Inspector Gadget, Penny, and Brain travel to the North Pole in an attempt to stop Dr. Claw and save Christmas. This special was nominated for an Emmy. Don Adams, Frank Welker, Erica Horn and Maurice LaMarche provide the voices for the characters.
Gadget Boy & Heather
The 1995 Gadget Boy and Heather series was a spin off from the original show. The series is about a younger version of Gadget, "Gadget Boy" (also voiced by Don Adams). Instead of Penny and Brain the Dog, Gadget Boy was assisted by the resourceful Heather (voiced by Tara Strong). Just as maladroit as his adult self is, Gadget Boy was usually bailed out of situations by the more practical Heather, though he was also helped greatly by his myriad high-tech gadgets and extendable arms and legs. In this series, traditional nemesis Dr. Claw was replaced by the villainess Spydra. In addition, the chief, Strombolli had a "fax tie" that exploded after the mission was read, continuing the running gag from the original series in which Chief Quimby would get blown up by an exploding message.
Gadget Boy's Adventures in History
Two years later, in 1997, Gadget Boy & Heather spawned an educational spinoff, Gadget Boy's Adventures in History, which aired on The History Channel. This series marked the last time Don Adams would perform a voice role for an animated Gadget series eight years before his death in 2005.
Inspector Gadget's Field Trip
In 1996, Gadget took students around the world in this series of 50 field trips, mainly created to market to stations to fulfill the FCC E/I requirements. The show put an animated Inspector Gadget on top of live-action filming of the locations that Gadget guided viewers through. Don Adams returned as Gadget's voice while Penny, Brain, Chief Quimby, Capeman and Dr. Claw are entirely absent.
Gadget and the Gadgetinis
In 2002, the French studio SIP Animation (Saban International Paris), in cooperation with DiC, produced 52 episodes of the new TV series Gadget and the Gadgetinis. The series debuted on the French channel M6 in September 2002 and was aired on Fox Kids channels across Europe from 2003. It has never been broadcast or released in the United States.
Inspector Gadget (again voiced by Maurice LaMarche) is now a member of an organization called "WOMP" (World Organization of Mega Powers) and is now, Lieutenant Gadget. He is still aided in his work by Penny (who is now twelve years old), as well as the new robot characters Digit and Fidget, the titular Gadgetinis invented by Penny, due to Brain running away. It follows the same plot as the original series, with the dim witted Gadget attempting to fight crime on his own, while Penny and her helpers secretly do all the work. Doctor Claw, now with the first name George, returns as the main villain, with his relatives introduced in some episodes. In some stories, he is replaced by other villains.
The production values of this series were higher than any of the previous revivals and spinoff series. Also, the original creators of Inspector Gadget were all involved: Andy Heyward was one of the executive producers; Jean Chalopin wrote or co-wrote all the episodes, in addition to being credited as the new show's creator; whereas Bruno Bianchi directed and produced the series.
Inspector Gadget (2015)
A new CGI-animated Inspector Gadget TV series has been in development since at least the start of 2012, possibly earlier. It was commissioned by Teletoon Canada, which will air the show, and put into preproduction by The Cookie Jar Company. In January 2012, the in-development show was mentioned by Ray Sharma, the CEO of XMG Studio, which produced the hit mobile game "Inspector Gadget: M.A.D. Dash". Sharma described how the success of the game had resulted in a new TV series being in the making: "We did 1 million downloads in a week, and it's reinvigorated the TV brand with a new TV series in production."
In September 2012, Cookie Jar issued a short press release about the upcoming series, as part of the advertising for it during the MIPCOM market that October, stating: "Cookie Jar Entertainment is celebrating Inspector Gadget’s 30th anniversary with the launch of a brand-new series with its Canadian broadcast partner TELETOON. The series will again revolve around the iconic bionic bumbling detective." On June 9, 2013, Teletoon officially announced the reboot show with two press pictures of Gadget's new look as well as a press release: "MAD Agents, look out! Criminals, beware! Bystanders … take cover! Inspector Gadget is back to battle Dr. Claw with all-new gadgets â€" and all-new gadget-related chaos. But the loveable, bumbling, accidentally-destructive Inspector is not alone in the fight to take down MAD. His ever trusty police-dog, Brain, is still by his side and he's getting extra crime-fighting help from his new partner, Inspector-in-training Penny (voiced by Tara Strong). With MAD more powerful than ever and with the arrival of Dr. Claw's evil-genius (and totally crush-worthy) nephew, Penny and Brain will need to use every ounce of their training to keep the world safe from Dr. Claw … and Gadget."
Unlike the other shows, Penny is more of the protagonist and Dr. Claw is as incompetent and useless as Gadget (if not more so). The series is being produced by DHX Media, which purchased Cookie Jar in 2012. According to a DHX Media distribution catalogue released as a PDF on January 15, 2014, the show premiered in 2015 on Netflix.
On December 4, 2014, it was announced that the series has 26 episodes and that it would air on Boomerang's international channels in 2015. The series premiered on Boomerang in Australia on January 5, 2015.
Films
Live action
Inspector Gadget was adapted into a 1999 live-action film by Walt Disney Pictures, starring Matthew Broderick as the title character and Rupert Everett as Doctor Claw. As opposed to the animated series, where Gadget is bumbling and clueless and Claw's face is never shown, Gadget appears to be more reliable and competent in detective work and Claw's face appears many times in the film.
A second film, Inspector Gadget 2 featured many changes from the first one, such as Doctor Bradford no longer assisting Gadget or being his romantic interest, instead being replaced by a well-meaning and upbeat scientist named Baxter. Being a year later in the movie's timeline, Gadget had begun displaying his cartoon namesake's glitches by receiving the wrong gadget when he calls out a specific device. He falls in love with his intended replacement: the fully robotic G2. Furthermore, none of the cast from the first film returned to their roles except D.L. Hughley.
Disney and Lin Pictures are making a new live-action movie with Dan Lin producing.
Inspector Gadget: Gadget's Greatest Gadgets
Released on VHS in 1999 to coincide with Disney's live-action theatrical film, Inspector Gadget: Gadget's Greatest Gadgets takes the format of a clip show in which Gadget has a flashback to his past adventures in the original TV series, using footage from episodes "The Capeman Cometh", "Prince of the Gypsies", and "Gadget's Gadgets". Maurice LaMarche did Inspector Gadget's voice in the modern segment, marking his first cartoon voice appearance as Gadget, who had previously been voiced by Don Adams while Adams is retired from voicing Inspector Gadget. Original series actors Cree Summer and Frank Welker voiced Penny and Dr Claw in the modern segments.
Inspector Gadget's Last Case
In 2002, DiC released a full-length animated feature film called Inspector Gadget's Last Case, directed by Michael Maliani. It premiered on television on Nickelodeon Sunday Movie Toons and was released on DVD and VHS shortly afterward by MGM Home Entertainment. The film is about Lt. Gadget giving up his beloved but aging Gadgetmobile, while his archenemy Dr. Claw uses a competing crime fighter to discredit Gadget and cost him his badge. Penny and Brain make appearances as minor supporting characters. In this, Gadget is more competent, yet he is still bumbling, similar to his persona in the pilot episode and his Mathew Broderick counterpart. This film uses the same character designs as the concurrent Gadget & The Gadgetinis TV series, which debuted on the French channel M6 and the UK's Channel 5 in the fall of 2002. Maurice LaMarche reprised the role of Lt. Gadget in this film and Jaleel White voices Gadgetmobile.
Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever
2005's Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever was the first Inspector Gadget animated production to be completely rendered using 3D computer animation, and returned Gadget to his position as a police inspector in Metro City. Brain and Chief Quimby also return as does Penny, now 16 years old. Lt. Gadget is again voiced by Maurice LaMarche and Penny and Claw are once again voiced by Tegan Moss and Brian Drummond, while Bernie Mac voiced the Gadgetmobile. The plot features Dr. Claw breaking out of jail with the help of a specially hired Scottish agent named Bombaboy. He and Bombaboy seek out a pterodactyl to get revenge on his captors and launch yet another scheme to conquer the world. In this film, Gadget is much more stupid, oblivious, and useless and Penny is much more selfish, in fact neither of them save the day or do anything at all to stop the pterodactyl. The working title for this movie was Inspector Gadget Saves the Day... Maybe. It was originally intended to be the first in a series of several animated Inspector Gadget movies, but apparently due to weak sales, no subsequent films were released.
Video games
The first game developed based on the series was Inspector Gadget and the Circus of Fear developed by Beam Software and scheduled for release by Melbourne House in the UK in 1987 for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. It resembled the arcade title Metro-Cross and was a left-to-right scrolling racing/jumping game with a quasi-isometric forced 3d perspective. Although the game was completed, and preview copies were reviewed (unfavourably) in the computing press, it was scrapped on the verge of release. The game featured a cameo by the titular character from the Horace series of games. An adventure game based on the series, Inspector Gadget: Mission 1 - Global Terror! was eventually released on the PC in 1990 by a company called Azeroth.
An LCD Electronic Inspector Gadget developed by Bandai was released in 1984.
An NES game was planned for release by Hudson Soft, but was quietly cancelled. Instead, Hudson released an SNES game in 1993 simply called Inspector Gadget. The game features a rare glimpse of Dr. Claw's face.
Years later, Ubisoft released Inspector Gadget: Gadget's Crazy Maze for the PlayStation and Inspector Gadget: Operation Madkactus, for the Game Boy Color. DreamCatcher Interactive and Magic Pockets released another game, Inspector Gadget: Advance Mission for Game Boy Advance.
Light and Shadow Productions also released Inspector Gadget: Mad Robots Invasion for the PlayStation 2 and Inspector Gadget Racers, a racing game for the Game Boy Advance.
Gadget and the Gadgetinis was the first game based on one of the animated spin-offs and was released for the PlayStation 2 and PC in Europe.
Inspector Gadget's MAD Dash was released for iOS devices, iPhone and iPod Touch, by XMG Studio in 2010. It features Shuki Levy's original theme music and also includes original voices from the show. In the same game, Doctor Claw reveals his face and is once again given the first name George.
Music
In 1985, two early rap albums were released with The Inspector Gadget Theme heavily sampled. Brownsville rap group Bad Boys & K-Love, made a record on Starlite Records called "Bad Boys", which was featured on the UK hip hop compilation "Street Sounds Electro 9." And also earlier that same year The Kartoon Krew released "Inspector Gadget" on ZYX Music, which actually had vocal samples and quotes from the popular cartoon series, which were reenacted by the Rap Group for the song. Following the trend, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh used samples of Inspector Gadget on their single The Show. The theme song since then has been heavily sampled.
Books
A new Inspector Gadget comic book, based on the original 1983 TV series, was launched in the U.S. by Viper Comics in 2011. A preview issue was published as part of the Free Comic Book Day on May 7, 2011; the entire story was then released officially in August as a 48-page comic book titled "Inspector Gadget: Gadget on the Orient Express". The comic book was written by Dale Mettam and illustrated by José Cobá. No follow-up issues have been released to date.
Other appearances
On an 1989 episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, another DiC production, a live action bumper segment titled "Defective Gadgetry" had a guest appearance by Inspector Gadget, in which he came to the Mario Bros. for help in repairing him. Maurice LaMarche (who would assume the voice role in "Inspector Gadget: Gadget's Greatest Gadgets" ten years later) plays Gadget in this segment. A second live-action segment, "Treasure of the Sierra Brooklyn" had Gadget returning to help the Mario Bros. find a lost treasure.
The Robot Chicken episode "Adoption's an Option" featured a sketch featuring the Inspector Gadget characters in a parody of The Terminator. In this sketch, Gadget replaces a faulty part with a Cyberdyne part, only to be turned into an unstoppable killing machine when Skynet goes online. The sketch goes on to revolve around Penny and Brain trying to avoid being killed by the now-evil Gadget, eventually killing him in a factory. Meanwhile, Mad Cat dies of leukemia; at the end of the show, Dr. Claw blames Gadget for Mad Cat's death. Ironically, Dr. Claw claims that he somehow found out it was Penny and Brain who were behind all of Gadget's successful missions, and planned to gain control of Inspector Gadget via Skynet, and use him to kill them using the Cyberdyne technology that gained control of him. (Penny is voiced by Cree Summer and Brain & Dr. Claw by Frank Welker, who were the original voice actors for the characters).
References
External links
- Inspector Gadget on Internet Movie Database
- Inspector Gadget's Last Case on Internet Movie Database
- Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever on Internet Movie Database