Vintage Merchandise: It's Greek to Everybody

This must be one of the weirder merchandise illustrations I've seen in a while... but somehow it still has a cool vibe to it. Up for sale on Ebay (directly from Greece) is this Greek edition of an Inspector Gadget board game that was released in the 80s. They get a lot of strange touches into this cover drawing: All of Gadget's clothing has the wrong colors (except for the pants), Penny's eyes look REALLY freaky (and dead)... and then you have M.A.D. Cat, who's actually integrated into the Greek Inspector Gadget logo, from which he pops out and grins at our heroes like the Chechire Cat from "Alice in Wonderland". (Is M.A.D. Cat a fan, I wonder?) Gadget even points at him with a playful smile... now what the heck is THAT supposed to mean? Of course, he probably doesn't know that M.A.D. Cat belongs to Dr. Claw, but I almost get the feeling that he's saying: "You rascal, you... sitting on top of my logo like that!"



It's hard to explain why I kinda like this drawing, but then again, a lot of stuff in this world is hard to explain...

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Gadget, Nozzaire & the Gadgetinis Storyboards

Came across a couple of Gadgetinis storyboards at the French blog BOO! Illustrations! I've never seen storyboards from Gadget & the Gadgetinis before, so I thought I'd showcase them here for those interested. I assume they were done by the person running the blog, a storyboard artist, illustrator and teacher who simply calls him or herself "Boo".

     Not sure which episode this first board is from (as I've still not seen the entire series)... so if anyone can identify the exact episode, please do so in the comments!

The second storyboard below, though, I managed to recognize. It's from episode 50, "Operation Get Gadget", about 5 1/2 minutes in. Briefly explained, this scene is about Gadget's superior in the spinoff, Colonel Nozzaire, being hit by some high-tech radio waves (shot at him by an off-screen MAD agent) which hypnotises the colonel into wanting one thing only: To destroy Gadget. Pretty bad timing, considering that Nozzaire had just brought Gadget some chocolate to apologize for his generally aggressive attitude. And just as Gadget receives this chocolate, the colonel is hit...

I can't seem to find the episode online anywhere... but below, you can check out the matching screenshots from the finished scene. (By the way, for anyone caring about such small details: Note that the short close-up of Gadget eating yet another chocolate (panel 6-7 in the above storyboard) was dropped from the final scene.)

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"Cro et Bronto" - Bruno Bianchi's Very First Cartoon Series?

Wow, I stand corrected! In my December 10 post, reminiscing about Gadget's late creator Bruno Bianchi, I wrote that the original Inspector Gadget series was Bianchi's first outing as a director. That's what I always thought... but it appears not to be the case. Bruno Bianchi actually had experience from directing at least one TV cartoon series before Inspector Gadget! Presenting... CRO et BRONTO from 1980!

This show is interesting to Inspector Gadget fans not only because of the involvement of Bruno Bianchi, but also as a piece of ancient DiC history! Yep, this cartoon was of course made by DiC, where Bianchi had already been working since 1977. First broadcast in March of 1980, Cro et Bronto was a co-production between DiC and Antenna 2, the French channel that aired all of the show's 45 episodes, running for 1 minute and 20 seconds each. Below is the series' title screen:

I've never seen this show and it appears extremely hard to see at all. In fact, I can't locate a single clip of it online, not even an intro - and that in itself is saying a lot. The only proper information available anywhere seems to be on the French cartoon site Planete Jeunesse, which at least provide an article containting a few detailed facts and some screenshots.

According to Planete Jeunesse, Cro et Bronto was clearly inspired by chase cartoons from the classic Hollywood era (think Chuck Jones' Roadrunner-Wile E. Coyote cartoons as well as Tex Avery and a plethora of others). It had no dialogue and focused entirely on slapstick comedy accompanied by music. The plots center around a hungry little stone age man named Cro and his obsessive attempts to catch and eat the dinosaur Bronto. Oh, but there is a twist to this predator-prey setup: Bronto, a peace-loving and plant-eating brontosaurus, actually has a crush on Cro... and never realizes that Cro is out to harm him (or her?)! Wow, Bronto's absent-minded personality almost reminds me of... Inspector Gadget!... 

And, needless to say, Cro's ambitious plans and traps for capturing Bronto has a tendency to backfire on him...

                               

The series was co-directed by Bruno Bianchi and Edouard David, with music by Claude Mann. Interestingly enough, Edouard David would go on to collaborate with Bruno Bianchi on the main character designs for Inspector Gadget. Knowing this, it wouldn't surprice me at all if Bianchi and David also did the character designs for Cro and Bronto. The designs in these screenshots certainly feel like Bianchi's style.

To finish off, here's an excerpt of a French comic book adaptation of the cartoon, originally published in the magazine Télé Récré A2 (and found online over at the blog Le Grenier de Récré A2). This comic book version is credited by Planete Jenuesse as part of the reason why Cro and Bronto is still remembered by some viewers today, since they apparently vanished from the television screens long ago. For the record, Télé Récré A2 was a magazine adapting the TV cartoons from Antenna 2's program block of the same name into comic book stories. Unlike the TV series, Cro and Bronto talk a lot... and they appear to have a semi-friendly relationship in some of these pages. What's the deal, is Cro out to catch Bronto or to mock him? Maybe the comic book artist (someone called Gen-Clo, according to the source blog) toyed a little with the characters' personalities...

Hope you enjoyed this slightly Gadget-related post about one of Bruno Bianchi's earlier projects. It may not be Inspector Gadget, but this show is certainly fascinating as a piece of DiC history I was never aware of before, as well as (possibly) Bruno Bianchi's first work as a cartoon director. (Don't quote me on that, though... I've been wrong before!)

The cover for a record edition featuring Cro et Bronto's theme song. I'd 

love to at least hear the song, but like the series itself, it seems pretty 

unfindable online...

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Viper's Inspector Gadget Comic Gets Published in Spain

Well... what do you know?

It seems that Viper Comics' first Inspector Gadget issue (yes, issue -- I still can't get myself to call it a graphic novel when it's only 40+ pages long) is going abroad. If I'm interpreting the facts I've found correctly, the comics department of the Barcelonian publishing house La Galera is publishing "Inspector Gadget: Gadget on the Orient Express" in Spanish (left) and Catalan (right) language editions on February 21, 2012.



I'm sorta surpriced to see this happening in Spain before a country like France, which is probably still the place in the world where Gadget's popularity ranks the highest. On the other hand, it's nice to see the Inspector's new comic book extend its reach outside the United States, even if the comic itself is not exactly perfect.

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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.

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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"

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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.

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