Well the faithful Tom Joad living at the ol homestead sent in this report on the INSPECTOR GADGET script. There are some things here that will inevitably disturb the hell out of most of you (we) Gadget fiends. But I'm gonna hold off bashing till the script flies my way.
Tom Joad here, writing in with a bit of spy news. A funny thing happened to me as my sharecropping jalopy broke down for the umpteenth time the other day on I-35. I was leaning against her sun-cooked carcass chewing a fresh length of straw awaiting help from any passerby at all, as I glimpsed a pile of papers someone had left on the roadside. Curious, I ambled over to discover a script jutting forth from a knapsack someone had inadvertently forgotten. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was a script for the already-in-production INSPECTOR GADGET!!!
I knew I would be waiting for a while as no one apparently likes to stop to assist long-haired, bandana wearing individuals stranded on the interstate, so I began to read… and I’m pleased to say that it COULD make a good movie! I know that filming has commenced with Matthew Broderick as GADGET and Hank Azaria as CLAW; and this is what distressed me. Physically, Broderick would make a good GADGET, but as I read his lines I kept Broderick’s voice in mind and, well, it just didn’t quite click. Being a longtime fan of the cartoon, I had seen all the episodes over many bowls of cereal as I awaited the school bus in the mornings of my youth. So, one of my first questions after thinking over the casting decisions was, “Do we get to see CLAW? Or will it be Azaria’s gravelly voice and a mechanical hand?”
What the writers have done here is create a “Joker-like” persona for CLAW, where he appears to have the public’s best interests in mind when all he really wants is to control the world. This turn, which of course, must be done in order to flesh him out, so to speak, I believe will work. CLAW is written as a suave, confidence-oozing man fixated on his own intelligence, which I believe Azaria will pull off well.
I very much liked the explanation/creation of both CLAW and GADGET in the script, but was a tad dismayed to learn that CLAW will not be in possession of his beloved feline. This movie will be very heavy on special effects, which one would immediately assume with a film starring a man who can produce almost any gadget one could imagine from his fingertips, feet, and head. But the action sequences will have to be done VERY well for this movie to be able to pull it off. Through reading it, I imagined the cartoon environment of INSPECTOR GADGET’S world and tried to see how what was written could be performed believably through live-action.
Much of it I could see working without a hitch, but each time the GADGETMOBILE appears on screen will either be incredible eye-candy or a laughable attempt at creating the impossible. I mean, remember when in the cartoon: “Go go GADGET-BOAT!” or “Go go GADGET-COPTER!” would transform the inspector’s vehicle into incredibly cool modes of transportation that we all wished we owned? I know I do. I just pray the film version inspires the geek-gasms of old. I know that more times than I can count I’ve uttered the words, “Go go GADGET-BIGFOOT!” to myself under my breath while gridlocked in bumper to bumper traffic, followed by visions of my jalopy transforming into the famous monster truck, before crushing all those in my path into six inch high rectangles of twisted metal.
The script reads well and was a quick read at 117 pages. They threw in plenty of pop culture references and many references to movies, some of which will translate well and many more which won’t. To me, it’s just too difficult to see Broderick as Cal or George Bailey, but we shall see.
Also, in the cartoon, I loved the fact that GADGET always got his top secret missions on a sheet of self-destructing paper from CHIEF QUIMBY just before GADGET inadvertently blew him up. That is not in the script. As well as lacking of one of the more enjoyable character traits of GADGET: the fact that he always saved the day without ever really meaning to, or having a plan to do so.
Here, GADGET, although awfully aloof, is much more in control of himself in terms of having a game plan. Many of which do not work the way he would have liked, but nevertheless, he’s not a bumbling idiot to the extreme that he was in the cartoon. The fact that his idiocy was toned down will help the movie, as it helped the script, so that for an hour and a half, audiences will not tire of his over-the-top accidental antics. I like that fact that CLAW has a master plan to control the world and that his actions and thought processes have remained pretty much intact and true to form.
I can’t wait to see a trailer – therein will lie the answer to many of my questions. I will be there day one for this one just after reading the script. If you also possess fond memories of this boy’s wet-dream of a cartoon, you will too.
