Gadgetastic!

alexkravchenko

These are the characters as follows:

Gadget: A cyborg police detective with a Maxwell Smart-like personality (hence Don Adams' previous role) and Clouseau attire, who always bumbles about on his assignments (except on a couple of extremely rare occasions)

Penny: Gadget's precocious, brave, intelligent, (rather cute) little niece who is the one well and truly responsible for thwarting M.A.D's evil schemes, even though she lets her uncle take all the credit

Brain: Gadget and Penny's bipedal dog and loyal companion who usually assists Penny in helping her thwart M.A.D's evil schemes, and whenever he is in disguise, usually fools Gadget into thinking he is either a M.A.D agent or another type of person

Chief Quimby: Gadget's boss and Metro City police chief who, whenever after he gives Gadget his assignment, ends up getting blown up in the face by it. He also congratulates Gadget after all the "work" he's done, not knowing it is really Penny that saved the day, despite often being contacted by her

Dr. Claw: The deep, gruffly-voiced leader of the evil organisation M.A.D (a parody of SPECTRE from the James Bond films, and THRUSH from The Man From U.N.C.L.E), and Gadget's mortal enemy, is short tempered, devious, sinister and whose face is never seen. Only his arms and cat are. (Much inspired by Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld)

How can you not love a list like this?

Even though Gadget is officially the main protagonist of the series, it is pretty much effectively Penny that is the protagonist. It's just the feeling of it, whenever you watch this series. I mean, whilst Gadget is bumbling about during an assignment, it is Penny that is doing all the real McCoy detective work (albeit secretly), with a little help from Brain. And yet, that's the sheer beauty of this series.

Despite often getting captured and left in perilous situations by enemy agents whilst snooping around (much inspired by The Man From U.N.C.L.E), Penny is a VIC (Very Important Character) in this series, and is one of the characters that makes it come alive. She is one of my top favourite female TV characters, along with Agent 99 from Get Smart.

Also, me being an absolute petrol-head, I just love the Gadgetmobile (which I think best resembles a 1983 Toyota Celica Supra), Gadget's equivalent of James Bond's Aston Martin DB5. Although, unlike the DB5, a car of which I shall always cherish, the Gadgetmobile can be converted from a minivan into, uh... well... the Gadgetmobile.

And the soundtrack? Oh, the soundtrack! It's absolutely to die for!

I loved Inspector Gadget when I was younger, and I still do today. Albeit, more now than I ever did at the time when I was younger.

10 out of 10? Nah! I'll go further than that: 15 out of 10!

As Gadget's real life and secret agent counterpart Maxwell Smart would say: "And... loving it!"

Inspector Gadget is more than just a cartoon... it's a piece of history.

score 10/10

alexkravchenko 23 April 2017

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3692103/