Inspector Gadget Season 1: Volume 1
Relive the adventures of everyone’s favorite and much beloved bumbling detective. Watch as the Inspector (voiced by Get Smart’s Don Adams) takes on M.A.D and the evil Dr. Claw with his arsenal of backfiring gadgets. As the world’s only semi-robotic policeman, he’s his own worst enemy but with Penny and Brain in his corner, Inspector Gadget can never go wrong!
Episode Listing This 3 Disc DVD set contains 22 episodes from Season 1 of the classic Inspector Gadget cartoon. Amazon doesn’t always do a good job on their DVD episode listings so here are the episodes that are included in this DVD set:1. Gadget in Winterland2. Monster Lake3. Down on the Farm4. Gadget at the Circus5. The Amazon6. Health Spa7. The Boat8. Haunted Castle9. Race to the Finish10. The Ruby11. A Star is Lost12. All That Glitters13. Movie Set14. Amusement Park15. Art Heist16. Volcano Island (Gadget Goes Hawaiian)17. The Invasion18. The Infiltration19. The Curse of the Pharaoh (Poot-Ta-Foot’s Curse)20. M.A.D. Trap21. Basic Training22. Sleeping Gas
The show is awesome, but this release sure isn’t. Inspector Gadget is an awesome show, and with these DVD sets that’s exactly what you get — Inspector Gadget. And the show itself is awesome. Can’t take anything away from that, it’s the classic cartoon about a cybernetic detective solving cases with his plucky, genius niece and their brave, disguise-wearing dog, fighting against the crimes of the evil Dr. Claw and his MAD organization.That said, there are problems with this release. Big problems.First, the biggest glaring problem is the video quality. Let me assure you, I’m not one of those video aficionados that gets worked up over small technical details, I just want to watch the show in a decent enough quality that at least looks normal. So what can I say when the video actually has this weird stuttering throughout the entire show? It’s awful! I almost couldn’t believe my eyes, but it’s definitely there. The video actually ‘floats’ around up and down, left and right slightly throughout the ENTIRE show. You’ll see a still camera shot and you’ll notice that the image is slightly moving in random directions. It borders on making the show unwatchable, and I actually felt nauseous watching some of the episodes. Not just that, but the colors all look washed out and darker than they ought to be. It looks weird, like they took an unwashed window and placed it on top of the video, there’s no vibrancy to the colors at all. They really dropped the ball on this, and the funny thing is, at the beginning of every DVD they actually have a disclaimer that they force you to sit through: “The footage that follows includes occasional audio and video imperfections inherent in the original master tapes.” I’ve never seen something like that before on a classic video release, and it feels to me like all they’re trying to do is excuse themselves for the visual problems they ought to have fixed.Second, this is a bare bones release. You want the show? You got it…and that’s all you’re getting. There are literally no extras on these DVDs, no inserts, not even settings or options in the DVD menu or anything. You load the DVD, it gets to the main menu, and all you see is a “Play All” option and a listing of the episodes all on one screen. That’s it. No funny animations, no background music — they literally put the bare minimum effort into making this release.Third, the production quality for the sets themselves is annoying. I got all 4 DVD sets (because I didn’t want the movie that came with the ultimate edition), and the DVD cases are cheap as all get-out. You aren’t going to believe me when I say this (I can hardly believe me when I say this), but all 4 cases I got were actually damaged, with plastic broken off on the outside of one box, the spine on another box ripping apart at the seam, and on the other 2 the little clasps that hold the cases shut were broken off, so basically two of my sets won’t even close! Not to mention, what’s up with the art that they put on the DVD case? On the back cover of each DVD, it looks like they took art from that 2002 movie “Inspector Gadget’s Last Case”, which looks nothing like the actual art from the classic TV series. What in the world were they thinking?A final minor gripe is the DVD opening, with all the studio names and fbi warning. You can’t skip any of it (I tried, lord knows I tried), and it lasts for like thirty seconds. I hate it when companies force you to sit through that stuff, especially when it’s 12 DVDs, it’s annoying.But again, it’s Inspector Gadget. The show is awesome. But this release sure isn’t.