Boomerang France Stuff: Videos, Images, Puzzles

And now for a big update which has been overdue for some time. I've been quite busy lately, so the time I've had to spare for this site has mainly been used for smaller news posts regarding premiere dates around the globe. Meanwhile, though, my Spanish neighbor Daniel over at the Adelante GadgetoBlog has done a nice job of reporting some developments which I haven't had time and energy to write properly about here. These news are all related to Boomerang France and Super RTL, the broadcasters of the reboot in France and Germany, respectively... and in this post, I'll brief quickly through the Boomerang France stuff. We're starting with the recently created "Inspecteur Gadget" playlist on Boomerang FR, the network's official YouTube channel. Three videos are up so far, and I suspect more will be added. Here they are in order...

The French theme song/intro sequence for the new series. This was published on YouTube on January 2, but actually uploaded a few weeks before and shared on December 30 on Boomerang France's Facebook page, which is where Daniel discovered it. Interestingly, this is not a translated version of the new English-language theme, but rather an orchestration of Shuki Levy's original composition... complete with lyrics from the 1983 French theme and custom-made sound effects. (Oh, and the video is without credits on top and in full 1080p HD.) I'll have more to say on this French theme song later. Daniel's commentary, in Spanish, can be read here.



The first three minutes of episode 1a, "Gadget 2.0 Part 1", was also published on YouTube the same day as the intro sequence, on January 2. I actually stopped watching this clip after the intro when I found it, not wanting spoilers in a language I don't speak. Daniel, on the other hand, has posted a review of the clip (also with warning of spoilers). I'll point out one detail right away, though: this version of the intro - very likely the one used for television airings - has both written credits and no sound effects, as a contrast to the "générique" video above.



A generic teaser published on YouTube the same day as the two videos above - but which was actually uploaded to Boomerang France's Facebook site on December 22. Since the Facebook upload has slightly higher resolution, I'm embedding that version here:

Post by Boomerang TV.

This, then, leads us over to Boomerang France's Facebook site, which confusingly is just called "Boomerang TV". Teasers for the new series have been popping up there in the form of images and videos since December 15, apparently. Here are some of them...

From December 15, this first teaser is a silhouette version
of the Gadget copter promo image which can be seen here.

You've all seen the image above countless times, of course, but this version - shared on Facebook on December 19 - replaces the original English title logo with the French one. I'll agree with Daniel that the logo here feels flatter and less natural than in the English-language pic, where the title was given a three-dimensional perspective that felt natural considering how Gadget was holding it. The French logo has likely been inserted in a much more rushed fashion.

From January 1. The caption says, as you
might have guessed, "Happy New Year!"

The following two images are quite clearly framegrabs from "Gadget 2.0", as they were used to advertise for the premiere episode back on January 3. I'm including them here since they don't seem to spoil much of anything, but rather pique the curiosity:

Below, from January 7, some promo art of Dr Claw and Talon in a rather interesting style... it seems drawn lines have been added on top of the CGI rendering. The caption asks, "What is the name of Insspector Gadget's greatest enemy?" (And speaking of names, Talon is named "Tristan" in the French dub of the series. Just thought I'd mention it here since I haven't elsewhere.)

And here's a Facebook video called "Les gentils" from January 14, focusing on Penny and Brain ("Les gentils" = "The Good Guys" or something to that effect). It could already be seen on Boomerangtv.fr, but this version has much better quality. I'd say it contains no major spoilers... though obviously, if you want no spoilers of scenes at all, don't watch it.

Post by Boomerang TV.

Since I mentioned boomerangtv.fr, a quick look at the Gadget stuff on Boomerang France's official web site could also be appropriate. For small kids, there's a games section where you can play an Inspecteur Gadget quiz (hey, I got 6 out of 6 correct even without speaking French! I feel good now) as well as three puzzle games.

More interestingly, though, some low-res promo videos can be found. In addition to a general "La bande-annonce" ad for the new series (which we've already seen in full HD) and "Les gentils", there's "Les gadgets" and "Les méchants" ("The Bad Guys")". The latter does admittedly contain some scenes which I will call unnecessary spoilers, so decide for yourself if you wanna watch.

And THAT should be all for now. WHEW. I think I'm going to bed...

Final add-on: Boomerang France's current Facebook banner. The YouTube banner is also a variant of this.
(Not sure why the 10:25 airing time is off by 5 minutes, though.)