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Disney cornered the market on family-friendly entertainment a long time ago, but even the all-powerful Mouse House isn’t free from making the odd major misstep or two, of which 1999’s Inspector Gadget can definitely be considered a prominent example.
The blockbuster adaptation of the beloved animated series came with a hefty $90 million price tag, and there was widespread belief that it could turn out to be an all-ages success that would appeal to both the younger demographic and older crowds with a fondness for the source material.
While it did manage to earn close to $135 million at the box office, by the time the numbers were crunched, Inspector Gadget ended up losing an estimated $30 million. To add further insult to injury, it was resoundingly panned by critics and shunned by audiences, leading to embarrassing Rotten Tomatoes scores of just 20 and 18 percent.
However, it’s the unintentionally unsettling creepiness of it all that’s got Reddit buzzing, with a thread questioning the volume of mean-spirited jokes and a seemingly rampant display of foot fetishism gaining plenty of traction. It’s never a good look for a family-friendly project aiming for blockbuster success to be labeled as “weird and unpleasant”, but Inspector Gadget very much is.
Reviews at the time ranged from describing it as “unwatchable” and “unredeemably bad” to “painfully unfunny” and “joyless”, while it’s become clear that the more unnerving undertones of Inspector Gadget first-time viewers may have missed initially have been exposed in a style not dissimilar to They Live by the rose-tinted glasses of modern nostalgia.