John Brown is a bumbling but well-intentioned security guard who is badly injured in an explosion planned by an evil mastermind. He is taken to a laboratory, where Brenda, a leading robotics surgeon, replaces his damaged limbs with state-of-the-art gadgets and tools. Named "Inspector Gadget" by the press, John -- along with his niece, Penny, and her trusty dog, Brain -- uses his new powers to discover who was behind... see more
John Brown is a bumbling but well-intentioned security guard who is badly injured in an explosion planned by an evil mastermind. He is taken to a laboratory, where Brenda, a leading robotics surgeon, replaces his damaged limbs with state-of-the-art gadgets and tools. Named "Inspector Gadget" by the press, John -- along with his niece, Penny, and her trusty dog, Brain -- uses his new powers to discover who was behind... see more
Seems to want to be a Robocop parody for kids, or put another way: "What if Robocop was a slapstick physical comedy?"
I can't help but wonder if one of the other potential actors considered to play John would have helped the film… Jim Carrey or Robin Williams in particular. It would have been tough, though. No role had much to work with in the character department.
If one of the few things that got a laugh out of me now was seeing Igor from _Young Frankenstein_ in the minion recovery meeting, that's not a great batting average. This script is objectively a mess. I'm not even judging it in comparison to the cartoon series, as I've never seen that.
As a young kid, I remember seeing this because I spent the whole feature plugging my ears; the theater had their sound system set *waaaaaaay* too loud. Between that and my age, I didn't catch any of the subtler gags and references that kept me going during this viewing. _Star Trek_ fan that I became later in life, now I'm disappointed that Rene Auberjonois had such a brief role in this movie.