Boomerang in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to Premiere the Gadget Reboot on February 16, 2015

Some surpricing (for me, at least) developments: Seems Super RTL will not be the only channel to air the reboot in Germany. I've come across a German-language PDF press release of February "Programmhighlights" on Boomerang, with Inspector Gadget as one of them. For some reason the PDF's url doesn't seem to show anything, but here's the relevant part via Google Cache:

„Inspector Gadget“
Senderpremiere der ersten Staffel ab Montag,
16. Februar, immer montags bis freitags um 16:10 Uhr 

Inspektor Gagdet ist wieder da! Der lustige Detektiv mit den
vielen technischen Spielereien ist ab 16. Februar immer mon-
tags bis freitags um 16:10 Uhr bei Boomerang zu sehen. In der
ersten Staffel stürzt sich Inspektor Gadget in den Kampf ge-
gen den bösen Dr. Kralle. Seine Ungeschicklichkeit steht ihm
dabei jedoch immer wieder im Weg, weshalb ihn seine Nichte
mit der Hilfe ihres Computer-Buches öfter aus der Patsche
ziehen muss.

First part in English: 

Broadcast premiere of the first season on Monday, February 16, every Monday to Friday at 16:10 

There's some contact information for the PR coordinator for Boomerang Germany, Austria and Switzerland at the bottom, which is what leads me to assume that this information goes for all three countries. And adding to that, I have some actual TV schedules for Germany and Austria. The schedules both offer one contradiction to the above press release, though: The airing time is stated as 16:35 in the afternoon, rather than 16:10. Here's a snapshot of TVinfo's Boomerang schedule for February 16, 2015 (as well as the next three days):

Meanwhile, the Boomerang guide at Sky Österreich (go to February 16 in the calendar) shows the exact same shedule for Austria. Here's a program page for the first scheduled broadcast of "Gadget 2.0".

Notably, this Germany-Austria-Switzerland debut is on the same date as both the UK and Italy Gadget premieres, but does not appear to be synchronized with those countries.

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.)

Boomerang UK to Premiere The New Inspector Gadget Series on February 16, 2015 at 8AM

This according to the Cartoon Network fan site RegularCapital, which just posted a fresh press release from today from Turner UK. As in several other areas, the new Gadget series is set to start concurrently with Boomerang's major rebrand in Great Britain, which takes place on Monday, February 16. Here's the relevant part of the press release:

Inspector Gadget

New Show
From 16th February at 8am for Half-term
Brand new CGI animated series, Inspector Gadget, follows everyone’s favourite clueless detective; who doesn’t really know how to use the various gadgets built into his body. He usually overcomes perilous situations by sheer luck, or with help from his faithful niece Penny and intelligent dog Brain.

Always nice to see another premiere date confirmed... the list keeps growing.

Teletoon Canada Premieres the New Inspector Gadget in... June 2015!

This information comes from character animator Scott Baltjes over on his Flickr account, underneath a photo which was taken on December 12, 2014 (and uploaded on December 15). And before I post his full quote, I kinda feel like showcasing the photo. Remember those cardboard cutouts in DHX Halifax's hallways of Gadget, Penny and Brain (among other characters)? Well, turns out the DHX empoyees decided to dress up Gadget a bit for a recent Christmas party:

Now then - here's Baltjes' image description, including that very interesting Teletoon Canada information...

DHXmas Party 

Inspector Gadget - airing on Teletoon here in Canada June 2015. Everywhere else in January or February.

The interesting thing here is not only how much later the Teletoon Canada premiere will be than for every other country announced so far (which Baltjes even acknowledges himself with "Everywhere else in January or February")... but also that it mirrors information announced in the French press last summer. Back then, it was reported on numerous French news sites that the public channel France 3 had purchased the new series, and would air it in the fall of 2015, following the tentative Candian premiere in June. Here's a Google-translated quote from an Ozap.com piece from July 9, 2014 (which I already posted about here):

This new series of 52 episodes of 11 minutes will be delivered in June 2015 by the Canadian production but it will take a few months to France 3 for the translation, dubbing and production of a less dated theme song. The channel should therefore not broadcast "Inspector Gadget" 2.0 before fall 2015.

The June 2015 part matches what Baltjes is saying about Teletoon. Considering that, could the part about France 3 actually be true as well? I had assumed that Boomerang France broadcasting the reboot automatically meant that the France 3 deal had fallen through... but maybe not. One of this blog's readers, Nbu, presented a theory regarding this a little while back:

About the France 3 deal : it's likely F3 purchased the series for a second release, meaning Gadget will come on it later that year, maybe september 2015.

If Nbu's assumption here is correct, then perhaps both Boomerang and France 3 aquired broadcast rights for the new series... with the agreement that it would premiere first on the paid Boomerang channel early in 2015, then get a second, free launch by France 3 in the fall. Considering Gadget's huge popularity among French audiences, it sort of feels logical to give the reboot the most wide-spread release possible.

Anyway, the info on Teletoon Canada seems more than legit, so I'm adding that to my list of upcoming premieres in the news margin. I'm more than a little surpriced, honestly, that the network which actually commssioned the new Gadget series will seemingly be the last (or one of the last) to premiere it... but then again, maybe Teletoon's summer 2015 launch was planned before any Boomerang premiere dates were set.

Boomerang Italy Premieres the New "Ispettore Gadget" on February 16, 2015 at 19:00

And we're back! I'm beginning to realize it is not humanly possible for me to feature properly every bit of news popping up these days (as I'm busier than I was during Christmas and already behind), but I'll try to race through some of them. Here's one about another country/channel joining the broadcast lineup, namely Boomerang Italy. According to the Italian news site tvblog.it:

L'Ispettore Gadget, la nuova serie in prima tv da febbraio su Boomerang 

(...) Per le nuove generazioni arriva l'occasione di conoscere il personaggio che ha segnato l'infanzia dei bambini degli anni '80 e '90. La novità è l'arrivo del remake realizzato da DHX Media, in Cgi, in onda dal 16 febbraio tutti i giorni dal lunedì al venerdì alle 19.00 su Boomerang.

In English:

Inspector Gadget, the new series in TV premiere from February on Boomerang 

(...) For the new generations, get the chance to learn about the character that marked the childhood of children of the 80s and 90s. The news is the arrival of the remake by DHX Media, in CGI, airing from February 16 every day from Monday to Friday at 19.00 on Boomerang.

So now you know, all you hundreds of Italian Gadget fans undoubtedly reading this. Hey, anyone think they'll get Cristina D'Avena to sing a new Italian theme tune? The one she did in 1993 for the original series seems to have caught on pretty well...

Boomerang in Africa (EMEA) Premieres Inspector Gadget's Reboot at 16:15 on January 14 (Plus Images of Historic Value!)

More schedule specifcations! The following was reported about a week ago by DStv, which is Africa's "leading multichannel digital satellite television operator", according to its info section:

Inspector Gadget
Boomerang (302)

Wed, 14 January 16:15 

Inspector Gadget has been fighting crime since before most DStv Kids were born - but Boomerang has a rebooted, CGI version of the old-school classic to go with their new look.

On Wednesday 14 January at 16:15, kids can catch Inspector Gadget as he takes on his arch nemesis, Dr CLAW.

While I'm not 100% sure, I assume this timeslot for Boomerang in Africa also includes Boomerang EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, Africa) in general; considering that January 14 matches the Boomerang EMEA date we already knew. 

By the way: a longer DStv write-up on the reboot, published on January 1, includes a few images of potential interest. One is the 'waving' pose of Gadget which we've seen a gazillion times before, though without any background this time around...

...but the second image is much more interesting to me. Regular readers might recognize it - this is actually the very image that we saw from a different, low-quality perspective last June, when Penny and Brain's new character designs were first revealed on the web. At the time, all we got was a photo of some cardboard characters displayed in DHX Halifax's offices, but man, was it exciting just being able to see Penny and Brain back then! And now, we have a much better view of that original, first glimpse. Just for that, I'd say this pic even has some historic value.

In fact, making the view complete, let's add in the image that was used on Gadget's cardboard display as well. This nice-quality version popped up recently on Super RTL's toggo.de...

And finally, here's the original press photo from June:

June 2014. Those were the days. A low-res photo like this could cause intense excitement.

German-Language Trailer and Official Show Site Courtesy of Super RTL's Toggo

Happy new series year! We're kicking off 2015 with an all-new trailer, this one giving a taste of the German dub, as it advertises for Super RTL's airing of Inspector Gadget from January 9 onwards:



The video was uploaded yesterday by Toggo, the official YouTube channel for Super RTL's program block of the same name, which airs children's entertainment aimed at 6- to 13-year-olds in the afternoons and evenings. Of course, it's within this block the Inspector Gadget reboot will air at 19:45 (7:45 pm) every Friday and Saturday. And interestingly, Toggo's web site also has an official Inspector Gadget show section, the first I've seen for the reboot. Here's a snapshot of the main page:

All the main characters - Gadget, Penny Brain, Dr Claw, Talon, Chief Quimby and M.A.D. Cat - provide short, German-written presentations of themselves (you can see Gadget's above). Oh, and there's also an absolutely exhilarating "Agenten-Mission" game at the bottom of the page:

An exclusive Inspector Gadget video was supposed to start playing as my reward for finding and clicking on ALL
FIVE M.A.D. agents in the game (!), but nothing is showing on the screen, alas. Either the video only plays in the
German region or it doesn't play at all right now.

The site is clearly targeted towards small kids, but it's still fun to see a web page devoted to the series. I'm guessing more of these will pop up shortly on broadcasters' sites around the globe.

As for the video trailer up above, I found it quite fun. Now that more and more trailers are popping up, it's nice to finally see the animation in full 1080p HD, which it is of course intended for.

Several characters get logos for their names in the trailer, but strangely enough not Brain.
Is even Talon more important??

Yikes! What's going on here? I'm almost afraid to find out.

Always nice to see Brain and Penny working together.

I also kinda like the character presentation images on Toggo.de, which include yet another set of logo names resembling the show's title logo somewhat. Just for the heck of it, here's the whole bunch...