When Dr. Claw escapes from prison, Inspector Gadget is rendered
​obsolete with the creation of a new, modern Gadget android.

FAMILY/SCI-FI

Inspector Gadget 2 (2003)

Directed by Alex Zamm

Written by Ron Anderson, William Robertson, Alex Zamm

Starring French Stewart, Elaine Hendrix, Tony Martin,
Caitlin Wachs, Mark Mitchell, Sigrid Thornton, Bruce Spence,
​John Batchelor, James Wardlaw, D.L. Hughley

Sequel to 1999's Inspector Gadget

Based on the 1983-1986 TV series

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Connor Eyzaguirre

August 15, 2022

6/10

The dregs of cinema used to be found in the "direct-to-video" section at your local video store. They're the films nobody believed in, not even the studios. Inspector Gadget 2 is no exception. It's a live-action cartoon and barely qualifies as a movie. Apparently, it's far more faithful to the original vision of the cartoon than its predecessor, but that's neither here nor there for me. It's a collection of moments that attempt to be funny or goofy, but nothing really adds up to a coherent story. But you know what? It's a fun watch. And yeah, I did have this on DVD as a child, so that's obviously going to taint my opinion of both Gadget films. I don't care.

French Stewart dons the helicopter hat of Inspector Gadget this time around, delivering a far goofier and dimwitted Gadget than Broderick did. Since he's an older model, he's full of glitches now, and nobody seems to care, particularly the inventor of the Gadget program, Baxter (Spence), who I guess replaced Brenda Bradford at some point since she's never mentioned again. Baxter's solution is to build a brand new model, G2 (Hendrix), who replaces Gadget. But Dr. Claw (Martin) has big plans this time around, and it's going to take two Gadgets to stop him. The two fall in love, which is weird because G2 isn't a cyborg. She's all robot. So, the invention of self-aware artificial intelligence just gets completely ignored. Just thought that was funny.

Obviously, this was made for children. Obviously, it's intentionally over-the-top. So just accept that. I did, and it did wonders. Both of these films are a delightful, nostalgic-filled double feature that reminds me there's still a spark of life in that cold, cold heart. Gotta keep that childlike innocence alive, and watching Harry Solomon from 3rd Rock be a goofy cyborg for an hour and a half is a good way to do that.