10/31/2023 0 Comments Inspector gadget chopper movieBut the film has ruined the reputation of the wonderful cartoon. I wanted to slip on a banana peel and become the greatest detective ever. I learned a lot of geography and history from the spin-off Inspector Gadget's Field Trip. ![]() ![]() It was, and still is, one of my favorite cartoons, if not my absolute favorite. As it exists it doesn't deserve to be considered part of the "Gadget Legacy". If it had seriously had a great plot or went crazy enough to make it seem like a "cartoon on film" it might have been enjoyable. The motion picture became murky and took itself FAR too seriously. The original was a wacky cartoon with a very lighthearted attitude. The effects were reasonable and perhaps the ONLY thing I liked about the movie seeing a live-action version of the gadgets in action! What was missing was a story and treatment which made it funny or charming or interesting. Besides being miscast all around (who on Earth though Broderick was even close to the role?) it just didn't make the grade. Afterwords I wished it had never been made. Naturally I was very interested in seeing the film version. While it admittedly had its faults, it was rather enjoyable. I used to have a fascination with the cartoon back in college when it was being made. Because I love the old Gadget, I hate this. Whatever this movie is supposed to be, it is NOT, repeat NOT, the real Inspector Gadget. not children of 10-12 months like this movie. Gadget should be targeted for children of 10-12 years. Someone should tell Disney that "children's movie" doesn't imply "total lack of any brain usage". Disney obviously recognised that the Gadget cartoons were a comedy, so they made the film a comedy too, but they took out all the clever running gags (like the assignment paper exploding in the Chief's face) and replaced them with Gadget being a moron, the Gadgetmobile being a wise-ass, and "Claw" showing off. As if to add insult to the injury, Disney introduced the "new" Gadgetmobile - it doesn't look, function or think like the old Gadgetmobile at all, it's just the canonical "comic relief" figure. The whole movie is just Gadget acting silly for silliness's sake and lusting after Brenda. What would help would be a better storyline to replace it - but as you guessed, Disney failed in that too. Add to this the fact that the "Claw" seen in this film and the classic Dr Claw are almost diagonally opposite and you'll see this is going to be nowhere near the original storyline. And right in the beginning we see Disney's blatant attempt to turn every story ever into a love affair between a man and a woman - they introduce Brenda, who only serves to make this movie Disney-compatible. The horrors start from the first minutes of the film - having Gadget as a security guard called John Brown doesn't help identifying him as the classic Inspector Gadget. The most glaring errors are the characters - Penny does not have her book, Brain has been reduced from a character to a fancy prop, Dr Claw is more a show-off than an evil villain, etc. About the only thing common with this and the original Gadget cartoons is the names. ![]() Once again, Disney manages to make a children's movie which totally ignores its background. For a perfect marriage of sophisticated writing and unsurpassable special effects, check out "Toy Story 2." And see what "Inspector Gadget" might indeed have been. Of the actors, Broderick and Rupert Everett cannot be faulted since both provide a degree of enthusiasm wholly unwarranted by the inferior screenplay with which they are saddled. Even the newly "hipified" gadget mobile comes across as a charmless, grating irritant as he provides a constant stream of witless one-liners as running commentary to the action. Gadget is surrounded by a gallery of dull, poorly written caricatures ranging from a giddy, self-absorbed mayor, to a gruff, shortsighted chief of police, and an effete mad scientist bent on creating an army of indestructible gadget warriors, with which, of course, he (ho hum) plans to rule the world. What the movie makers couldn't (or, at least, wouldn't) come up with is a decent script - without which all the greatest special effects in the world cannot a quality film make. Despite a few glaringly bad shots utilizing rear screen projection, the visuals that help to realize the infinite gadgets at the inspector's disposal are genuinely jaw-dropping. Thanks to current state-of-the-art special effects, the filmmakers manage to effectively translate the cartoonish aspects of the original to the live action format. Children and adults alike are decidedly ill served by "Inspector Gadget," a frenetic but genuinely mirthless live action take on the popular Saturday morning cartoon series that mires poor Matthew Broderick in the role of a nerdish do-gooder who gets the chance to live out his heroic fantasies when he is converted into a one-man, self-contained crime fighting cybernetic arsenal.
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