New Year's

No long-winded new year's piece here -- appropriate as that might be, considering that this year, and especially this past month, has ended up becoming the blog's busiest ever. No, I just wanted to make a short observation of what the first day of the new year will bring: Tomorrow, according to the press, the first, full-fledged premiere of Inspector Gadget's reboot will air on Boomerang Asia. The Asian launch will reportedly include the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Myanmar, so watch for it if you're in any of those countries. One detail I don't know regarding this, though, is the exact airing schedules. I have not been able to find any online TV guides for Boomerang Asia, though I'm sure they're out there somewhere. If anyone knows when Inspector Gadget's first airing (presumably episode 1, "Gadget 2.0") will take place on January 1, please let us know in the comments. I may not have time to do another update before tomorrow, but the information will be there, at least.

Speaking of which: the Cartoon Network Asia site has added a bunch of preview clips from half-hours 1 and 2 in their video section, available to watch for those living in the region. They're no doubt spoiler-heavy, though; so again, proceed at your own risk. (Annoyingly, I can find no TV schedule for Boomerang Asia on the site, only for Cartoon Network. Considering that the site has tons of preview clips for both CN and Boomerang, wouldn't it make sense to also include a TV guide for Boomerang?)

Finally, here's an unrelated, though weirdly appropriate note to end on. I've posted this 2005 Boomerang UK ad for the original series before, but it's worth reprising, as it remains one of the most creative TV spots I've seen for the show. (The best-quality version can be seen here, but it's inembeddable, so I'm posting a Cartoon Network recording below.) And why do I find this appropriate? Well, everything the announcer says at the end (with the possible exception of "4pm") rings true for today...

Anyhow, that's it for this year. As the reboot's premiere draws nerve-wreckingly closer for every country around the globe, and fans everywhere sweatingly await the results, there's really only one more thing to say...

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!

45 Seconds of Inspector Gadget Showreel Animation From DHX Halifax

Here's a video I'm embarrassed not to have featured earlier. It was quiely uploaded to the 'net back on October 15 - and by "quietly", I mean that it's not publicly listed on YouTube. It is however available to watch via DHX Halifax's official studio site, which is where I came across it almost two months ago. And yeah, that's the embarrassing part right there: I found this in early November, but didn't post about it then because I felt I should focus on the World Screen clip commentary first, before going on to comment on even more animated footage. In retrospect, I should just have posted it -- commentary or no commentary. I didn't realize it then, but this post ended up getting so delayed that one of my diligent anonymous readers beat me to it, and shared the video in a comment ages ago (good job, by the way!).

Ah well. The silver lining is, I have yet another video to post about before tomorrow's full-fledged premiere airing on Boomerang Asia! Even better, this contains a lot of fun animation, all in sharp 720p HD. So skip to 00:49 in the below embedding to get to the Inspector Gadget section of DHX Halifax's showreel - or click here to watch from that point on YouTube.

This being a showreel, I get a feeling that it gives a truer representation of the new series than the World Screen video, which featured the intro sequence and the start of one episode. Here, as a contrast, the clips are likely sourced from multiple episodes, and specifically selected to show off the Halifax studio's work. With that in mind, I thought I'd include a few ramblings on pieces of animation that I liked, or found otherwise interesting.

I love the shot right at the start where Gadget takes off with his copter. Great anticipation, great bouncy feel to the copter blades, great timing.

(Oh, and: Motion blur. Commonly used these days, it seems, to make CGI animation come off as more cartoony, though it can make it a pain to get decent-looking framegrabs.)

The nice, bouncy quality of the copter blades is even more apparent in this shot at the end, where we also see a disguised Brain skiing after Gadget.

And speaking of following Gadget: the slapstick scene with Brain hanging on to the flying Inspector for his dear life is very fun to watch. Great animation of the frantically running/sliding Brain there. Of course I love how the obstacles just keep building up for him, which is sort a of a nature law when you're Brain.

Also, let's hear it for the beautifully designed night shot of Penny showing off her acrobatic skills. (I could have done without the last camera angle shift, though.)

By the way, who's Penny's friend below? Inspector Gadget's version of Monique? Come to think of it, this version of Penny does seem to veer a tad towards Disney's Kim Possible overall, considering her physical 'action hero' abilities. Penny's outfit in the above night shot even reminds me a bit of Kim's season 4 battle suit. I hope the similarities between the characters will not be too strong.

We also see that Claw's nephew Talon, despite being evil, will get his comic relief moments as well - which I'm sure is there to make him more likeable (and less threatening) to both Penny and the viewers.

Notice that Talon has apparently infiltrated Gadget's headquarters here. Hmmm.

...but at the same time, Talon is not only comic relief. If the below scene is any indication, his relationship/battling with Penny will also provide its share of action.

Plus, we get an action-oriented taste of what Penny's modern-day computer book can do. (I still don't think we know the name of that thing, by the way.)

On the other hand, a few moments in the animation seemed less-than-great to me. One is the scene of Gadget extending his legs to ski over a huge rock: something about the animation and movement there struck me as a bit stiff and lifeless. It was about the only moment in the video where I felt pulled out of the illusion of action.

I also think M.A.D. Cat's lower body here is posed rather stiffly and awkwardly. I like his facial expressions, though.

In the scene where Gadget legs suddenly push him upwards, I was puzzled to see this happen without any sort of anticipation on Gadget's part. No bending down to get ready for the jump, as I would have expected. For that reason, the clip looks a bit strange to me; though I'm willing to wait and watch it in context. (After all, maybe Gadget is actually trying to activate a different gadget here, resulting in the spring legs inadvertedly popping out.)

Regardless, I looove the elasticity of these spring legs. They've always been one of the funniest parts of Gadget's design to me, and it's great to see them back after the boringly streamlined, non-spring legs in Gadgetinis.

Overall, despite my nitpickings with a few scenes, this showreel does give off a good impression. There's a lot of good-looking animation here, some of it quite impressive for television CGI. While not 100% perfect, I'd say this bodes well for the visual side of the new Inspector Gadget series.

Updated New Series Episode Guide (Including The Correct Title For #6b)

Foxtel's shedule for Boomerang Australia has now reached January 12, meaning that a few more episode titles of the new series is included in the guide. One thing which surpriced me is that Inspector Gadget will actually not only air on weekdays in Australia, as previously announced; but on every single day of the week, including the weekends. After half-hours 1-5 are aired - during Monday, January 5 to Friday, January 10 - the 4:30 pm schedule will continue right on during Saturday and Sunday with episodes 6 and 7, before being followed by episode 8 on Monday.

In addition to that revised info, I found this update worthwile for a couple of reasons. One, I've changed episode 2b's title to simply "Game Over, Man", which is its onscreen title on World Screen, and almost certainly the correct version. Two, Boomerang Australia's guide finally reveals the correct title for episode 6b (see 'Sat 10 Jan'), which was erroneously listed as "Sucks Like Mad" in Super RTL's German guide. Its actual title is "A Claw For Talon", which matches the translated German title, "Eine Krallen-Hand für Titus". And speaking of Super RTL, TV Info has updated its German schedule with half-hours 8 and 9. Below is the full updated guide pieced together from both sources. (Note that I'm not including the German titles this time around. They can be found on TV Info's site for those who are interested.)


Episode 1
1a. Gadget 2.0 Part 1
1b. Gadget 2.0 Part 2

Episode 2
2a. Towering Towers
2b. Game Over, Man

Episode 3
3a. Rock Out
3b. Strike A Pose

Episode 4
4a. Better Class Of MAD
4b. Cough Due To Claw

Episode 5
5a. Dog Show Days Are Over
5b. One Bad Apple

Episode 6
6a. Sucks Like MAD
6b. A Claw For Talon

Episode 7
7a. Gadget's Da Bomb
7b. Gadget Management

Episode 8

8a. Diamonds are a MAD's Best Friend

8b. Ticked Off

Episode 9

9a. You Know the Drill

9b. Operation HQ Reunion

As I was typing the above info on Boomerang Australia's daily schedule, I couldn't help but think of the following. This TV series went into pre-production in late 2011 or early 2012. (Probably the former, considering that the earliest known statement about it is from January 2012, and it was likely being developed for at least a little while prior to that.) The series has taken about three years to develop and produce. And now, all of its 26 half-hours will be aired on Boomerang Australia in less than four weeks. Kinda funny looking at it from that perspective.

Creditless New Series Intro Sequence

Part 2 of my commentary on the new series ("The Intro Sequence") is getting delayed because I'm suddenly expanding on what I'd already written, and enjoying doing so. To give you a small teaser; compared with Part 1, this will be less of a rant and more of a here's-what-I-like-here's-what-I-don't-like piece. Not to mention that it will contain one of the certified trademarks of this blog - Obsessive Detail Observation™.

Anyway, to tide you over in the meantime, I thought I'd share something very much related: A 720p HD version of the intro which I found over on the Canadian news site CBC News, published on December 22 with the following title/caption: "Meet the new Inspector Gadget / DHX Media shared this sneak peek of their new Inspector Gadget opening sequence." What's interesting about this version is not only higher resolution than the World Screen clip (in fact, that bit is kind of annoying since CBC's video player takes about 20 seconds to shift to HD), but also that it doesn't have any written credits on top of the image, like the version on World Screen does. The intro used in the actual episodes will almost certainly be the World Screen variant, so this feels like a nice bonus view, letting us focus more on the animation. Just have patience when you start watching. If your viewing experience is anything like mine, the HD quality should appear about 20 seconds in...

Positive Review of Boomerang Australia's "Gadget 2.0 Part 1" Pre-Premiere [Caution: Spoilers]

That went fast. Boomerang Australia's sneak peek premiere of the new Inspector Gadget series was yesterday, and the first review of "Gadget 2.0 Part 1" has already been online for a while. In fact, according to YouTube, this 4-minute video was published on December 26, before the sneak peek even aired on the 27th! This leads me to believe that the guy running the "TV Station X" YouTube channel has invented a time machine. (Or it might have to do with time zones, but don't take my word for that.)

You'll notice I'm only linking to the video instead of embedding it here. That's because I don't necessarily recommend watching it. If you don't want to know more about the first episode's storyline before you experience it for yourself, then it's best not to watch this review. I watched one minute of it and already I was hearing plot details I didn't want to know. I did, however, watch enough to understand that the reviewer really liked "Gadget 2.0 Part 1"... to the degree that he says, "it's really good - definitely really good compared to the old episodes of Inspector Gadget.". Wellll... we'll see about that. Anyway, proceed at your own risk if you want to watch the whole thing. I've seen enough for now.

My Commentary on World Screen's Inspector Gadget Reboot Clip, Part 1: The New Theme Song

Does anyone still care about this? I sure hope so, 'cause I finally finished it! Of course, 99.99% of the people reading this will undoubtedly have watched World Screen's 3-minute clip of the new series by now. This video - the first extended preview that DHX released of their Gadget reboot, as a teaser for October's MIPCOM market - was posted online at the end of September, and that's also when I reported about it and promised a full commentary. A lot of unforeseen delays got in the way of that promise, but I always intended to keep it.

When I suddenly and unexpectedly found the World Screen video months ago, it was something of an indescribable moment for me. I had been gathering the smallest little snippets of information related to the new TV series for 2 1/2 years... and suddenly, here was a full, three-minute clip of an episode! I think, partly, that's why I felt I couldn't just jot my thoughts down together with my news post - it was just so big. In retrospect, I really should have. I hated falling behind with the commentary for as long as I did; and the delay of course led me to become more ambitious than I would have otherwise, causing me to take even longer to finish. Sigh. In fact, I realized as I was finalizing this that it was long enough to divide naturally into three posts/parts - which I'm also doing to give each part more focus. The first subject of discussion here is one that's especially close to me personally. Hope you enjoy it... or, well, get something out of it.

THE NEW THEME SONG

I'll have to get this off my chest first - and those who know what I think of the original series' music will probably not be very surpriced. I think the new theme song is not right. I'm not going to call it terrible, but it is, frankly, a huge disappointment to me.

And here is why: IT'S NOT THE ORIGINAL COMPOSITION. It's not the wonderful theme written by Shuki Levy. Just to be 100% clear, I'm not talking about the orchestration here, but about the actual melody. The song. Sure, there is a refrain in the new theme song sounding superficially close to the classic Inspector Gadget theme... but that refrain is in truth not emulating Levy's composition. Instead, as many fans have already remarked on both here and elsewhere, it's emulating "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by famous Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.

And before anyone starts arguing that "In the Hall of the Mountain King" has the same melody as "Inspector Gadget" - because, believe it or not, some people on the internet do - let me just say right away that it doesn't. Yes, there are indeed some very obvious similarities. It might well be that Levy was inspired by Grieg's piece when he wrote the Inspector Gadget theme... though to be fair, I've never heard Levy himself confirm this anywhere, and someone writing it on Wikipedia without a documented source doesn't make it a fact. For all we know, Levy might have channeled Grieg without being consciously aware of it... or it might even have been sheer coincidence that the pieces sound so alike. But I digress.

My point is: regardless of the similarities, there are also important differences between Levy and Grieg's pieces -- differences enough to make the "Inspector Gadget" theme and "In the Hall of the Mountain King" two SEPARATE and UNIQUE compositions. For one thing, while the refrain in both compositions starts out similarly, the Inspector Gadget refrain uses less beats, and ends up becoming a different melody. (Not sure if "beats" is the proper musical term here, but hopefully you get the point.) And of course, there are many other differences aside from the refrain. Let's listen to the new Inspector Gadget series' theme song again... and then, let's compare it to both Edvard Grieg's original masterpiece and Shuki Levy's original masterpiece:

The New Series Theme Song as heard in the World Screen video (embedded from Behind The Voice Actors):

In the Hall of the Mountain King ('I dovregubbens hall') by Edvard Grieg:

Inspector Gadget Theme (1983) by Shuki Levy (embedded from Levy's site):

In the new series' theme song, especially near the end, it's painfully clear that the composer is adapting "In the Hall of the Mountain King" rather than "Inspector Gadget". Not just the main refrain, either: The beats at 00:32 in the intro, where Dr Claw slams his fist into the desk and Talon does a surpriced take, are lifted directly from the tail end of Grieg's piece.

You might argue, "Why expect a reboot to use the original Inspector Gadget theme, when the soundtrack music is owned by a different company?" Well, there is that... but that situation is a bit different than it used to be. Yes, it's true that the original music for Inspector Gadget - including the famous theme song - has always had separate owners from the TV series. Back in the 80s, the music's owner was Haim Saban and Shuki Levy's company Saban Records, through which the score was produced. This posed a problem for the Gadget franchise later. Due to a conflict that occurred between DiC and Saban in the early 90s, Saban stopped providing music for DiC's shows in 1991 - and none of the Gadget reboots and spinoffs that DiC produced after that point could use Shuki Levy's original music or compositions, including the famous theme song. For a long while, it seemed like this would always be the case...

...however... a few years after DiC was purchased by Cookie Jar (in 2008), I was suddenly filled with hope regarding the theme song situation. Cookie Jar, then later DHX, put out a couple of pretty cool official iOS games. The first, 2010's "Inspector Gadget - M.A.D. Dash", used Levy's theme song outright; the second, 2013's "Inspector Gadget - M.A.D. Grab", used a remade theme song adapted directly from Levy (part of that remake can be heard in this animated ad). Finally, it seemed to me, someone in charge had realized how important Shuki Levy's theme song is to the Gadget franchise -- and more importantly, had spent the necessary dough to licence the music from its current owner. Today's owner, by the way, is Warner Chappell, as seen in the below end credits snapshot from the "Inspector Gadget - M.A.D. Grab" game:

So: If DHX can afford to license Shuki Levy's theme song for a low-budget iOS game, then they should certainly be able to afford it for a full-fledged, high-budget TV series. Which leads me to believe (or at least speculate) that it was actually a creative choise by them to do a similar-sounding, yet different theme song for the reboot series, rather than something they had to do because of copyrights. Maybe I'm wrong and it still has something to do with copyrights -- but as I said, I just don't get why DHX would NOT pay the music fee for an actual TV series, when they DID pay the fee for a little iOS game. It makes no sense. 

In truth, this makes no sense either way. The new theme song is nowhere near as good, catchy or memorable as Levy's amazing original. To me, the 1983 "Inspector Gadget" is one of the greatest theme songs ever composed for television. I'm far from the only one of that opinion either. So what on earth were they hoping to achieve by doing a different-yet-obviously-similar song? The mind boggles. 

The worst part is, the superficial similarities make the new theme song come off as cheap. Now, based on my thoughts above, I can't quite get myself to believe that they did this to save money. But considering that the new theme song sounds superficially close to the 1983 theme, but different - and also considering that it adapts a similar-sounding piece of public domain, classical music - it does kind of give off that feeling. And that's never a good thing, regardless of the reasoning behind the scenes.

Well! That's how I feel about the new Inspector Gadget series' theme song. Have I made it loud and clear yet that I'm very disappointed? I had really, genuinely, expected an actual remix of Shuki Levy's work; and the substitute offered is nowhere near good enough. Now the question remains... will I rant my way through the rest of this commentary as well, or will I actually find something I like in parts 2 and 3? Only one way to find out. Tune in tomorrow for... Part 2: The Intro Sequence!

Boomerang EMEA Premieres the Reboot on January 14, 2015

Quick post here to get this update in: The other day, I noticed a Toonzone comment in the 'Boomerang International News and Discussion Thread' stating, "Inspector Gadget premieres on Wednesday January 14th on Boomerang EMEA." I couldn't see any source link for the info, but since then, I've come across the following info on Cable Vision, the site of the leading cable TV company in Lebanon:

Inspector Gadget
on channel BOOMERANG (...)

Premiere show: 1/14/2015 wednesday @5:15pm
From Monday 19/2015 to Friday 23/2015 @5:15pm and 7:40am
Repetition on Saturday 24/2015 and Sunday 25/2015 @7:40am, 6:05pm, 8:10 pm

Inspector Gadget is back! Catch him in action in this rebooted CGI show. Dr Claw has reactivated his global crime syndicate MAD and only the bumbling Swiss-army-knife detective can stop him! With his rocket roller-skates, his niece Penny and her dog, Brain, Gadget must combat his sinister foe before Claw and his nephew TALON can take over the world!

The premiere date matches the Toonzone comment... so I guess this is indeed the date for Boomerang EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), even if Lebanon is a country in Western Asia. However; as far as I know, Lebanon is not one of the countries covered in the already mentioned Boomerang Asia deal, so I suppose Cable Vision provides the EMEA feed to Lebanese viewers.

(Final note: I've reported before that "Boomerang Europe" will premiere the series on February 2. If I understand correctly, that date is indeed still valid; but encompasses only the Boomerang CEE feed (Central and Eastern Europe), which operates independently from Boomerang EMEA. At least I think that's how it works. If anyone knows better, feel free to correct me. For now, I'm changing the "Boomerang Europe" premiere date in the news margin to "Boomerang CEE"...)