Cinemassacre + Inspector Gadget = Review

I just found out that James Rolfe of Cinemassacre (probably best known as The Angry Video Game Nerd) came out with an in-depth, 2-part review of the Inspector Gadget series back in November! He starts out by saying it's one of his favorite cartoons of the 80s (cool to hear!) and goes on to make a lot of other (mostly) good points about the show's storylines, its inspirations and its characters. Watch and enjoy!

UPDATE (December 18, 2012): The Youtube videos I had originally embedded are no longer up, so I'm embedding the review directly from Cinemassacre's official Blip Channel instead.

UPDATE #2 (November 30, 2015): The embeds I posted in 2012 no longer work, and for some reason I can't find any embedding options on Cinemassacre.com... so I decided to just link directly to the videos instead. Go here for Part 1, and here for Part 2.

More Wallpaper-Worthy Pictures from the Original Series

These 6 high quality pictures (three of which I used in the temporary banner for this blog) were originally found at the French site Tout Le Cine (click here to go to the 'Inspecteur Gadget' section). These pictures seem to be scans of original cels like the ones from THIS TV. Whatever the source, they look nice. (Well, perhaps except for the one with Corporal Capeman in it. You know... because Corporal Capeman is in it.)

From "Unhenged"

From "Gadget and the Red Rose"

From "Plantform of the Opera"

From "Plantform of the Opera"

From "Smeldorado"

From "Gadget Meets the Clan"

Vintage Merchandise: Dress Up The Gadget Characters

The "Gadgetocromos" sticker album, directly from Spain of 1983, allows you to change around the I.G. characters' wardrobes as much as you like! Wanna make Penny a 1/3 vampire? Simple: borrow the vampire part from Chief Quimby. From this very cool blog about Spanish sticker albums.

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.

High Quality Gadget Pictures from THIS

The official Inspector Gadget site over at the THIS TV network has a slideshow with many high-quality images from the original series. I think most of the images are scans of original cels... they look noticeably clearer and more colorful than DVD screenshots from the episodes. And, many of them work great as wallpapers! Here are the best-looking ones:

From "Clear Case"

From "A Bad Altitude"

From "The Emerald Duck"

From "Dry Spell"

Very cool image from a pan scene in "Sleeping Gas"

From "Snakin' All Over"

From "Don't Hold Your Breath". This image is flipped when compared to the original episode.

From "Tree Guesses"

From "Amusement Park"

From "The Coo Coo Clock Caper". I love the design in this one.

From "Clear Case"

From "Winter Olympics"/"Gadget in Winterland"

From "Gadget at the Circus"

From "Gadget at the Circus"

Gadget Girl?

Taking a break from my Bruno Bianchi tributes here, as I felt like sharing this image I just came across at MovieGoods:

I'm pretty certain this never existed officially, but I find the idea both a bit crazy and strangely intriguing. Gadget Girl's design seems to be partly inspired by Agent Heather from the lousy Inspector Gadget spinoff Gadget Boy, which probably also inspired the name for this... but that's where the similarities end, fortunately. The art and concept for this "Gadget Girl" poster looks much more interesting to me. What do you think?

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. :)