Inspector Gadget (1999)

Screen It! is not attempting to rate the movie as good or bad but to give parents the tools to decide whether it's appropriate for their kids.

This movie has been screened for objectional content in 15 areas. Click for a detailed look.

OUR WORD TO PARENTS: Here's a quick summary of the content found in this PG-rated comedy that's aimed at kids. A great deal of non-lethal, zany-type violence occurs throughout the film (often in a slapstick fashion), although a non-graphic murder (via a robot-fired beam) occurs off camera. Directly related, standard issue buffoon villains are present and a few scenes involving them may be unsettling or suspenseful to some kids, as might the sight of some severed/detached robotic body parts (that look human, but aren't bloody). Some brief language and minor profanity is also present, while a few instances of smoking and drinking occur, as does some brief innuendo (and a few moments of suggestive clothing). Since young kids may be interested in seeing the film, you may want to take a closer look at the listed content if you're still concerned about its appropriateness.

QUICK TAKE:: Comedy: A gadget-laden, bionic police officer tries to capture a villain who's determined to conquer the world.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: If they've seen the lively commercials for it, they might, but few are probably aware of the original cartoon that aired during the early 1980s (although some may be familiar with it from cable TV's Nickelodeon channel where it airs in reruns).

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG: For whacky [sic] violence/action, language and innuendo.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:: MATTHEW BRODERICK plays a friendly but naive cop wannabe who gets converted into a gadget-laden, bionic crime fighter. As such, he fights the villains while falling for Brenda. Broderick also plays the evil twin version of Gadget who sets out to wreak havoc on their city.
RUPERT EVERETT plays the evil Claw, a.k.a. Scolex, a billionaire who's determined to conquer the world with his own robots.
JOELY FISHER plays a scientist who not only rebuilds Brown into Gadget, but also helps him stop Claw.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG plays Gadget's niece who helps him stop Claw.
DABNEY COLEMAN plays the police chief who doesn't like Gadget and thus assigns him mundane police work.
MICHAEL G. HAGERTY and ANDY DICK play Claw's minions who assist him with his evil plans.; RUPERT EVERETT plays the evil Claw, a.k.a. Scolex, a billionaire who's determined to conquer the world with his own robots.
JOELY FISHER plays a scientist who not only rebuilds Brown into Gadget, but also helps him stop Claw.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG plays Gadget's niece who helps him stop Claw.
DABNEY COLEMAN plays the police chief who doesn't like Gadget and thus assigns him mundane police work.
MICHAEL G. HAGERTY and ANDY DICK play Claw's minions who assist him with his evil plans.; JOELY FISHER plays a scientist who not only rebuilds Brown into Gadget, but also helps him stop Claw.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG plays Gadget's niece who helps him stop Claw.
DABNEY COLEMAN plays the police chief who doesn't like Gadget and thus assigns him mundane police work.
MICHAEL G. HAGERTY and ANDY DICK play Claw's minions who assist him with his evil plans.; MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG plays Gadget's niece who helps him stop Claw.
DABNEY COLEMAN plays the police chief who doesn't like Gadget and thus assigns him mundane police work.
MICHAEL G. HAGERTY and ANDY DICK play Claw's minions who assist him with his evil plans.; DABNEY COLEMAN plays the police chief who doesn't like Gadget and thus assigns him mundane police work.
MICHAEL G. HAGERTY and ANDY DICK play Claw's minions who assist him with his evil plans.; MICHAEL G. HAGERTY and ANDY DICK play Claw's minions who assist him with his evil plans.

DETAILED CONTENT LISTING:
Click on a category for specific details or scroll through the page for a broader overview.

ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE: MINOR (Return to Summary Chart): We see some champagne at a formal dance, and Gadget brings two glasses over for Brenda and himself. Claw takes one of them, however, and quickly downs it.

BLOOD/GORE: MINOR (Return to Summary Chart): A severed robotic foot, head and a briefly detached ear are occasionally seen, but aren't gory or bloody (the same holds true for Gadget's seemingly cutoff fingers, but they're played for laughs as flames, scissors or the likes come out of the temporary "holes").
A meditative guru tries to get Gadget to focus on two balls sitting on the floor. As Gadget does so, his arm extends across the room and grabs the guru's crotch, causing him to talk in a high- pitched voice and later be seen with a huge bag of ice on his crotch.

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE: HEAVY (Return to Summary Chart): All of the following is meant to be zany and anything but serious.
Obviously Scolex/Claw has both for murdering a man (not seen), stealing a company's product and secrets and wishing to conquer the world. His minions and the evil Gadget have similar bad attitudes/behavior.
Quimby has both for not liking Gadget and purposefully never allowing him to work on a real police case.
We briefly see some guys trying to break into a car.

FRIGHTENING SCENES: MODERATE (Return to Summary Chart): Scenes listed under "Violence" may also be tense or unsettling to some kids, all dependent, of course, on their age, maturity level and tolerance for such material.
A dream/nightmare that Brown has regarding an out of control school bus (with some screaming kids on it) that's approaching a crosswalk and oncoming children may be somewhat suspenseful to very young kids (the scene is played more for adventure than suspense, however).
Although he's supposed to be more comically villainous than menacing, Claw may be scary to some very young kids.
A scene where people run in comic terror down a street/alley from the sounds of a monster might be scary to kids, but we then see that it's really the evil Gadget just making the sounds/shadows of such a monster.
The sight of Gadget lying in a trash/junk heap and appearing to be dead may be unsettling to some kids (but he turns out to be alive).
A scene where Gadget hangs onto and is dragged behind a car may be comically suspenseful to some kids.
A tarantula crawls out of the evil Gadget's mouth and up the good Gadget's arm.
Gadget and Brenda fall from the top of a high rise toward the street below as he tries to get a gadget to appear that will save them before they hit the street.

GUNS/WEAPONS: HEAVY (Return to Summary Chart): Exploding Cigar: Used by Scolex to blow up Brown's car.
Missiles: Fired from various parts of Gadget's body or from Claw's helicopter at Gadget.
Flamethrower: Used by the evil Gadget to burn/catch things on fire.
Handguns: Carried and/or drawn by cops, and briefly held by Sikes on Penny.
Machine guns/Swords/Mallets: Used by the evil Gadget (from his arms) while trying to attack the good Gadget.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR: MINOR (Return to Summary Chart): Phrases: "Wowser," "Geek," "Freaks," "Cyber freak," "Idiot," "Shut up," "Kick some butt" and "I got the skittles knocked out of me."

JUMP SCENES: NONE (Return to Summary Chart): None.

MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE): MILD (Return to Summary Chart): A mild amount of dramatic and/or suspenseful music occurs at several times during the movie.

MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE): NONE (Return to Summary Chart): None.

PROFANITY: MINOR (Return to Summary Chart): At least one possible damn and 1 "God" used as exclamations.

SEX/NUDITY: MILD (Return to Summary Chart): When Brenda bends over, Gadget stares at her clothed butt (as does the camera) and we hear him make spontaneous and excited chimpanzee-like noises (due to what he sees).
Some women, including Brenda, show some cleavage at a formal dance, as does the Mayor in a later scene.
The robotic replica of Brenda shows some cleavage in her skintight body suit and somewhat suggestively calls out for Scolex (who's not there).
A rocket shoots from Gadget's foot as he kisses Brenda.

SMOKING: MINOR (Return to Summary Chart): Claw smokes cigars a few times and lights another one that turns out to a bomb.

TENSE FAMILY SCENES: MILD (Return to Summary Chart): Brenda briefly--and we mean briefly--grieves over her dead father.

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT: MINOR (Return to Summary Chart): The zany and obviously non-realistic way in which the characters act and react (such as Brenda's quick nonchalant reaction to her father's murder).

VIOLENCE: HEAVY (Return to Summary Chart): All of the following is meant to be zany and anything but serious.
An armored van drives through a wall and a robot from inside it shoots some sort of beam that strikes Brenda's father and kills him (but we only see the beam and not the impact or actual death).
Brown's car crashes and flips over, sliding on its roof until it crashes into a pole. That then sends a billboard down onto Scolex's limo. Scolex then lights an explosive cigar and tosses it at Brown's car that then explodes, sending a bowling ball into the air and eventually down onto Scolex's hand (bad enough that we later see him with a resultant prosthetic claw).
A rocket suddenly fires from Gadget's foot and causes some minor damage in a hospital.
Gadget's neck suddenly extends and his head smashes through a ceiling.
We see Sikes getting an electric shock from a contraption on his head (in slapstick style and with smoke coming from the headgear) as Claw and Kramer test his mind-to-computer connection.
A meditative guru tries to get Gadget to focus on two balls sitting on the floor. As Gadget does so, his arm extends across the room and grabs the guru's crotch, causing him to talk in a high-pitched voice and later be seen with a huge bag of ice on his crotch.
As the gadgetmobile takes off, Gadget hits his head on a low overpass.
Gadget punches his car's dashboard causing it to send a spring-loaded boxing glove at him.

A thief gets "clotheslined" by a rope sent out from Gadget.
As Gadget's ear (still attached to his body via a small string/cable) flies back to his head from across the room, it knocks him to the floor.
Claw briefly grabs Kramer by the nose with his pinching claw.
The evil Gadget whacks Sikes in the face.
The evil Gadget shoots flames onto a Riverton sign, catching it on fire. Later, we see a burning, stacked pile of cars that the evil Gadget reportedly arranged.
Gadget crashes through a glass door.
The evil Gadget spins a person around on a street by his feet and then lets go, sending the man flying out of the camera shot.
Claw breaks a computer chip that made Gadget function.
The evil Gadget takes a police officer and throws him across the floor where he knocks down other officers like a bowling ball.
The evil Gadget breaks glass in a door to get into Quimby's office. He then uses his built-in flamethrower to burn papers on the desk and then fire a blast at cops who've arrived with their guns drawn. He then jumps through the window, breaking it, and falls several stories where he safely lands on the street. There, he purposefully breaks a car window with his elbow.
We then see a long shot of the city showing part of it on fire and an explosion or two occurring--all presumably the result of the evil Gadget's actions.
The evil Gadget shoots flames at people who run from him.
Gadget breaks through the back glass of a limo, where the evil Gadget then punches him, sending him back out the window.

Claw's limo and the gadgetmobile crash into each other.
The evil Gadget punches the good Gadget but then strikes his head on a part of a bridge.
More cars crash into each other.
The evil Gadget fires machine guns (from his arms) at the good Gadget.
Brenda punches Claw but he then grabs her around the wrist with his claw.
The two Gadgets fight high atop a bridge, with the evil Gadget trying to strike the good one with two large sword-like appendages. He then repeatedly hits the good Gadget with several mallets.
Sikes briefly holds a gun on Penny.
Claw fires a missile at Gadget that knocks him from the sky (as he was flying along with his hat- mounted helicopter blades). He then tries to strike Gadget with the lowered blades from his standard helicopter. Brenda then punches Claw several times.
A large statue is knocked from its base and is "beheaded."
A spring-loaded boxing glove punches Claw.