Inspector Gadget

The classic 1983 Inspector Gadget was one of my all-time favorite animated TV shows growing up. However, this revival series from WildBrain is incredibly monotonous and insulting. It focuses too much on childish writing and lacked heart. #1: the titular character, Inspector Gadget, never has any significance in any episode, and feels like he's been reduced to a forgettable side character. #2: the main villain, Dr. Claw, has been reduce to being painfully ignorant, juvenile and less threatening, and acts even more incompetent than his henchmen or nephew combined. #3: Dr. Claw's nephew, Talon, is incredibly arrogant and annoying, and his love/hate rivalry with Penny feels cliched and forced. #4: Gadget's niece Penny, and well as Brain, take up way too much of the spotlight, and act like she's the main character of the series instead of her uncle. #5: Literally every episode is about Dr. Claw doing malicious things for the most boring and juvenile reasons, then Penny and Brain do all the competent work while Gadget does absolutely nothing but saves the day with dumb luck all the time, rinse and repeat. Plus, seasons three and four made me rage quit. #6: The writing also lacks sincerity, opting for shallow, juvenile and contrived plot lines. Plus, any actual humor or character growth has been sacrificed for cheap jokes and outdated cliches. Finally, bizarrely this Canadian series is only available on Netflix in America, but aired reruns on Universal Kids after the show ended in late 2018. So releasing a Canadian cable TV show on an American streaming platform feels pointless. The only positive thing about this reboot is that one of the animators that worked on this show, Alex Henderson, later made one of my favorite independent animated short films on YouTube, The Rhino and the Redbill. So in conclusion, the 2015 Inspector Gadget reboot is incredibly lackluster and disappointing.

Inspector Gadget was always silly so I can't be mad at the silliness in the new show. The jokes aren't horrible most of the time and Gadget himself is his normal useless brand of crazy. The animation is a nice stylized upgrade. Penny's technology upgrade is great, I wondered how they would work with her old book and this is a nice change. Speaking of Penny, always great to hear Tara Strong at work. Gadget's voice is a great impression of the original. The introduction of Talon struck me as a little off though, he is growing on me but he is like a goofy version of Scott from Austin Powers while Dr. Claw is more like Dr. Evil. I do like how he is competent though giving Penny a challenge. And of course most of the day's problems are solved due to Gadget being basically a creature of chaos with unpredictable actions. So it is far from perfect, the theme is lacking too, but over all there are far worse things out there.

I admit that when I saw the first few episodes that I was not all that impressed by this sequel series. I missed the original theme song and the characters were just not quite the same. However, as the series moved into Season 2, and then Season 3, it gets better (or maybe you just adjust to the characters I don't know). You just have to get past expecting this to be some kind of reboot and see this for what it is; a newly designed series of Inspector Gadget.

This series has some subtle adult content going on between Penny and Talon. Most kids, however, would be oblivious to what is happening.

Inspector Gadget is even funnier in his level of bumbling into solving the cases he is assigned. Dr. Claw is just as silly as Gadget in choosing his villainous capers too.

Bottom line: Some humor is more subtle than others. This humor in this series is not subtle; this series is designed to be so outwardly silly that you laugh at what is happening. Once you realize this, it is quite enjoyable to watch!

THINGS THAT ARE WORSE:

They completely changed the theme song and not for the better.

Gadget is just not quite the same and he isn't very prominent in the episodes. Plus his gadgets seem to be a great deal more lame than they were in the original.

Penny is featured too much and she relies heavily on a hand held computer.

Brain seems to be stupid and always angry.

Dr. Claw is quite lame and really not that menacing.

The chief is always getting blown up and he seems to be rather unnecessary.

Penny's friend is hardly ever in the stories and she is just kind of window dressing.

The stories are not very interesting.

Perhaps much younger kids will enjoy it. I am an adult and my whole family always enjoyed the original cartoon series. None of us really care for this version.

This show is very good. My wife and I grew up with the original series and I see this as an improvement. We have a 4 year old daughter and she loves it. The show is perfect for say 3-6 year old kids and fun also. I like the updates the more involvement of Penny the addition of Talon. The show actually has a running theme you can follow it. My daughter wants to play Inspector Gadget quite often she has seen all the episodes on Netflix more than once. We recently saw some of the old show on Hulu and viewing the two this is just so much better. Gadget in the original was just too dumb they left him dumb but in a more believable way. The people that hate this show I just think they don't have kids and see what kids shows are like and how good this is in comparison. I hope they make more episodes.