Cool Fan Animation: Go Go Gadget Neck

Hey, check out this great fan animation of Gadget by ShinyStrawberry over on DeviantArt!

"Gadget animation" by ShinyStrawberry (Feb 22, 2016)

Off-model, obviously – and the start especially could use some more inbetweens – but I love the lively, spontaneous feeling of this. Very nice timing and bounce to the Gadget neck animation in particular. I wouldn't mind seeing more fan animation in this vein.

The style on Gadget reminds me a little bit of the specific visual design seen in Season One episodes of the original show which were animation-directed by Shingo Araki. (I once misidentified Araki as likely to have worked on an episode like "The Japanese Connection", but have since learned otherwise, thanks in part to the "Les séries de notre enfance" book.) Here are a couple of episode stills showing off Araki's distinctive style:

From "Did You Myth Me?"

From "The Coo-Coo-Clock Caper"

Just A Thought...

I'm currently a bit intrigued with this ten-year-old fan art by animation artist Andrew Dickman on DeviantArt. Gadget's basic design in this piece looks fascinatingly close to his redesign in the new TV series, don't you think?

This drawing was published all the way back on May 15, 2004, so it's almost certainly a complete coincidence. But I mean, REALLY. Especially the short coat, but also the slim style of the legs, arms, and fingers, and even the simplified chin, reminds me directly of Gadget's new series look.

Please note: While I've edited it somewhat for this comparison,
the black-and-white artwork here belongs 100% to Andrew Dickman.

Not that I'm an expert on Inspector Gadget fan art... maybe there are dozens of similar-looking pieces out there. But I do find it intriguing how alike people's design ideas can be. While I suppose there IS a chance that some of DHX's designers have seen the 2004 piece by Andrew, it feels just as likely that the similarities happened by coincidence. Ricardo Adrégo once suggested a practical animation reason for shortening the coat for the new CGI series: "Shrinking the trenchcoat at the bottom saves precious rendering time since the program doesnt have to calculate the collision simulation." That makes as much sense as any potential explanation I've heard... though I suppose someone also thought the shorter version looked cool.

You may have picked up on me NOT exactly being the biggest fan of the shortened coat. I think it looks far less iconic than the 1983 coat, and honestly, I wish they'd kept it long. In that regard, this stylish, classic-looking 2006 piece by Andrew is more up my alley (though those shoes sure are goofy-looking)...

Coolest. Dr Claw Sculpture. Ever!

Check out this amazing fan-made sculpture of Doctor Claw, done by "Kaziam" over at the He-man.org forums. I love the attention to detail... this definitely deserves being made into an official collector's figure.

...but who - or what - is hiding behind that chair? Apparently the sculptor couldn't quite resist presenting his own "conspiracy theory"...

... even though, of course, the original series presents proof that Quimby and Claw were two different persons. Oh well. That's still a pretty darn impressive Chief Quimby figure, despite the manic look in his eyes.

Illustrated Homages to Bruno Bianchi and Shingo Araki

Since the death of Gadget creator Bruno Bianchi, a lot of illustrated homages have popped up on the web... and I felt it was only appropriate to showcase some of these heartfelt tributes here. Some of the sites paying homage to Bianchi did so to animator Shingo Araki at the same time, so in those cases I have also posted the Araki tributes.

Over at a French site called Mekavolt, I found some really neat tribute art to Bruno Bianchi and Shingo Araki illustrated by site owner/animator "Bena" (who also knew Bruno Bianchi personally according to the tribute post). I really like the mood in this tribute drawing to Bianchi. Putting Gadget's trenchcoat and the Gadget hand in there is actually quite a beautiful touch.

Here's Bena's Shingo Araki tribute, too (and here's the link to the source post). Again, really nicely done.

[UPDATE (August 29, 2013): The Mekavolt site recently disappeared from the web - and so did the two tribute drawings which I had copied directly to my blog from the site. Happily, though, both drawings as well as the written tribute to Bianchi are still available on Bena's DeviantArt page (enabling me to save the images from there and re-post them from my harddrive). Here's the link to the Bruno Bianchi tribute, and here's the Shingo Araki tribute.]

The touching artwork below - from the blog of David Gilson - pays homage to both Bruno Bianchi and Shingo Araki, but also to the famous Zdenek Miler (creator of "The Little Mole") and Gilson's young collegaue Jean Vincent. 

This simple, yet effective color sketch of Gadget thanking Bruno for his achievements was done by "Nikooz" of the French blog Drink 'N' Draw Paris (click here to see the tribute post with the original black-and-white sketch as well!)

Nikooz also did a similar homage to Shingo Araki, starring the title character from another classic DiC series, Ulysses 31 (again, click here to see the source post which also includes the black-and-white sketch).

Finally, this loosely rendered pencil drawing by "Piotr" of the French blog Mégalomine incorporates characters from both Bianchi and Araki's animated series to make a combined tribute. 

[UPDATE (February 18, 2013): The Mégalomine blog changed its internet location a while back, causing the picture I had copied from the old version of the blog to disappear. So I'm re-posting the picture from my own harddrive, to make sure it stays up this time. Here's the new link for the source post.]

Hope you enjoyed the homages... I'll post more if I find them. :) 

The Master of Disguise-O

Let me begin this post by saying that I'm absolutely, positively no fan of the Icelandic children's series Lazytown. However - sync one of their songs to clips of M.A.D. Agent Presto Change-O from the classic Gadget episode The Infiltration, and you somehow get a very appealing mix...

This AMV was done by YouTube user BevinKB back in 2007 and, while the video quality may be somewhat lacking, the syncing and timing is great. Not to mention believable: I certainly wouldn't put it past a self-absorbed villain like Presto Change-O to sing such a narcissistic song about himself. 

(Okay, okay! I'll post the original Lazytown video, too, so you can compare. Gotta admit the villain is actually a bit amusing to watch while performing this song...)

(What's that? You want to hear the song in its original Icelandic version, too? Fine! Okay! But just because it's so damn catchy. I can't believe I just said that about a Lazytown song.)

UPDATE (February 18, 2013): The original YouTube video I had embedded for the English Master of Disguise scene from Lazytown has long since vanished. I probably wouldn't have bothered to fix this if it hadn't been for the fact that the song is up on Lazytown's official YouTube channel. But since it is, I thought I might as well...