Great Inspector Gadget Cel For the Hard Core Fan

If you're willing to pay $194.71 or more for an animation cel, here's your chance to throw yourself into the bidding competition over this beautiful, original Inspector Gadget cel currently listed on Ebay (but only for a day or so more, so don't hesitate if you want to join in on the fun!). Taken from the second regular series episode, Down on the Farm, it shows Penny and Brain in action (or rather, after action) blowing up the door to M.A.D.'s secret rocket base.

It's an extremely steep price for one cel (too steep for me), but this particular offer is pretty interesting as you get the full background for the original frame in separate layers.

This gives you a chance to study the background without the characters on top of it...

...and you can even reconstruct the blown-up tower by removing the layers with the smoke and the hole and adding a layer with the door! Great behind-the-scenes-look at the process of shooting animation!

Below are the matching screen shots from the official DVD edition. Man, just look how faded and ugly these screen shots become when compared to the beautiful original cel (below bottom). I wonder if we'll ever see the Inspector Gadget series in a properly restored, CLEAR version.

I'd seriously re-watch every episode of the show right now if I had the chance to see them in the strong, fresh colors and clean lines which the above cel offers. Maybe one magical day in the future, we'll see such a restoration of the episodes happen...