Disney’s Inspector Gadget opened on this day 25 years ago. For whatever reason, the Mouse House was really making live-action films based off cartoons during the 90s (although, ironically, the George of the Jungle movie was probably far more popular than its source material ever was). Gadget got brutally disassembled by critics, complaining it was too violent and bombastic for kids (was it?), but it brought in the money, just not quite enough to launch a full franchise like Disney had been hoping (a straight-to-video sequel, closer in tone to the show, was released in 2003). Then again, back in 2019, it was announced they were developing another Gadget flick, so I guess they weren’t completely let down by it.

Now I am very nostalgic for this film…even though I didn’t go to it in theaters. Why? Because the Happy Meal promotion was dope as fuck. In fact, I’d argue it was one of the best they ever did. You see, you’d collect eight “body parts” (each with a different feature), and when you had them all, you could build your own action figure! Granted, this most likely sucked for children who weren’t as lucky as I was and only got an arm and a leg, but if you did have them all, wowsers! I can’t even explain just how rewarding it felt to put him together once you finally had all the pieces! You felt like a GOD! You had your very own arguably slightly uncanny Matthew Broderick! And who wouldn’t want that?

This was also back in the era when fast food chains would run a campaign “for the adults” (I still intend to cover what was done for Tarzan and The Phantom Menace, since 1999 was a really good year for this stuff), and in this case, it was a contest similar to what McDonald’s would do for their Monopoly games. Collect certain letters, spell the names of prizes, and you WIN! I can’t even explain how satisfying it was to win…well, French fries and McFlurries. But hey, free stuff is free stuff. And what would I have done with a car when I was 11 years old anyway?

As I’ve lamented about before, we are failing the current generation. We are raising them to think they shouldn’t expect the best from fast food movie promotions! We’re teaching them that a cheap, tiny Anxiety figure in their Inside Out 2 Happy Meal is enough! Well, it isn’t! We owe them better. We owe ourselves better. I’m Scrat, and I approve this message!

Have a great night, y’all!