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Inspector Gadget's Last Case: Claw's Revenge

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Go go gadget resolution! After spending dozens of episodes embroiled in a seemingly endless game of cat and also cat, Inspector Gadget's deadly rivalry with the sinister Dr. Claw comes to its logical and thrilling conclusion. The case begins with a mystery worthy of the great Inspector as a new hero emerges on the scene. The first act wrings out a great deal of pathos as Inspecter Gadget realizes that, like all technology, he is on the cusp of becoming obsolete. This is not only true to the character and story arcs, but also provides a rather meta commentary on the state of the series as a hole. The writers themselves knew that their own great adventure was coming to an end, and one gets the feeling that they shared Gadget's despair at his own obsolescence.

However, the great detective does not get to contemplate his navel for long, as it soon becomes apparent that this upstart hero is not all that he seems. Worse, a string a grisly murders bring Gadget to a horrible realization: the day he hoped would never come has arisen as Dr. Claw begins to put his endgame into action. Bodies pile up and blood flows freely as the Inspector Gadget is dragged into an increasingly complicated chain of mysteries that ultimately lead him into the lair of Dr. Claw himself.

There are so many scenes that raise this story to the level of high art, on par with Citizen Kane or such animated classics as Snow White and Cars 2, yet to describe them to you would spoil your pleasure of viewing it for the first time. Let me instead say that the story is just as brooding, psychological, and grim as one would expect from this series. This is the story that the writers have been building up to from the very first episode, with all the gruesome dismemberments and fifteen minute long gang rapes one would expect. It isn't all shock and horror, of course (though yes, there is plenty of that), as, in true Inspector Gadget fashion, the story weaves these titillating if terrifying elements into a compelling and thoughtful tale. You will not help shedding tears at Penny and Brain's glorious final stand against a legion of the M.A.D. henchmen, and the final fight between Gadget and Dr. Claw is a tense, frenetic, and action packed climax rendered in the most breath-takingly expressive animation ever wrung from human hands - in fact, it is so wondrous in its detail that I almost wonder if it had been drawn by the gods themselves.

This is it, my friends. This is the Inspector Gadget story to end all Inspector Gadget stories, and the absolute apex of animation and, indeed, film itself as an art form. I have gazed upon perfection, and it is Inspector Gadget's Last Case.