Penny is Inspector Gadget's niece.
History[]
Inspector Gadget[]
Penny is first seen waking up her uncle (who at the time is called John Brown) with Brain who licks him in his sleep from a police hero dream and reminds him that tomorrow is Career Day at school.
She asks about the letter concerning his application to become a full rank police officer, she looks at it, and he tells her that two-year experience is not enough to be a cop.
Brown is concerned that being a security guard is not the best job due to all the brilliant jobs her classmates' parents have, and thinks he can do more as a real police officer. Penny assures him that she is proud of him no matter what job he has.
After Brown has an accident involving an encounter with Sanford Scolex, she watched as he is rebuilt by Dr. Brenda Bradford as the first Cyborg Police Inspector for the Riverton Police Department: Inspector Gadget. She then helps him get ready for a celebration party of his acceptance. Penny knows that he has an obsession for Brenda and tells him to loosen up a bit and be cool when he sees her.
Presumably, after being picked up from school the next day, Penny helps Gadget with his case on the murder of Artemus Bradford (Brenda's father) by noticing a Scolex Industries truck similar to initials "SI" that Gadget found on a tiny circular piece of metal which makes him realize that Scolex (now Dr. Claw) was behind the murder.
They drive to Scolex Industries. Gadget goes inside to warn Brenda leaving Penny and Brain in the Gadgetmobile to take them home. When they arrive there, they meet Brenda who has found out that Claw killed her father and find out that something has happened to Gadget and go after him using the Gadgetmobile's tracking system.
They find him at a rubbish dump where he had been placed after he was deactivated by Claw. Even though his Neuron Synapse Amplifier chip, which was the main source of his functioning body, is gone, a tearful Penny explains that he has the heart to still function by himself. Suddenly, after a kiss from Brenda, he begins to move again, much to their joy.
Gadget and Brenda go after Claw and drop Penny and Brain off at home. Penny takes the bus and arrives at Scolex Industries for evidence involving Claw.
Inside, she tells Brain to split up and go in another direction. She finds Sykes, one of Claw's henchmen, trying to flush a cybernetic foot that is evidence in his boss' crime. He aims his gun at her, but she ends up persuading him that a life of crime is not right for him and adds evidence that Claw made an evil version of Gadget to terrorize Riverton.
Later, after Chief Quimby arrives after Gadget defeats Claw for his crimes against the city, Penny arrives with a tearful Sykes who admits everything, much to the astonishment of the now caged Claw. She is given a thumbs-up sign by Gadget and she returns it.
She leaves with Gadget (who is now called a hero), Brenda, and Brain and heads back home. During the closing credits, she is seen testing the latest invention of her communicator watch with Brain who responds in a human voice.
Inspector Gadget 2[]
At the beginning of the sequel, Penny was first seen at the Riverton Police Station, saying "hi" to her uncle and Brain after Gadget arrested Quimby's mother for going 0.3 miles over the speed limit, and Gadget informs her to call him "inspector" and tells her that she's too young to solve cases.
Later that night, Claw escaped from Riverton Prison, and Gadget was notified by Quimby about Claw's breakout. Before Gadget can leave, Penny begs him to take her with him to help him look for clues, but Gadget refused and told her she's too young for detective work. After giving Penny a kiss on the cheek, Gadget reminds her not to forget brushing her teeth, and rapidly kisses her cheek, and he left, leaving Penny to sheepishly complain that she will do so well if he just gave her a chance.
After learning that G2 has replaced her uncle on the Claw case, Penny discovers an ad in the newspaper and shows it to Gadget, who was busy making her favorite dessert; lemon pudding, but his Gadget Egg Beater went out of control, sending pudding everywhere. When Penny asked Gadget to let her help him catch Claw, Gadget still refused to let her on the case, and goes to the docks undercover as a thug, while Penny secretly snuck onboard the Gadgetmobile and videotaped Claw's conversion with his new recruits Squint, Jungle Bob, and The Ninja. After Gadget caused a bar brawl, G2 arrived with the police and arrested the patrons. During the confusion, an officer catches Penny snooping around, but Gadget tells the officer that she's with him. When Gadget asked Penny what was she doing here and told her she's too young to be a detective, Penny shows him the video of Claw and his minions planning their heist of ion fuel cells at a warehouse. When Quimby arrived and asked Gadget what is he doing in the barroom brawl, Gadget explained that he and Penny were looking for clues on Claw, and G2 explains about the planned warehouse heist, much to Quimby's delight, and he puts her in charge of the stakeout, but he reminds Gadget that both he and Penny are off the case and rudely calls Penny "Nancy Drew", making her to blow a raspberry at him after he made a sneering face at her. He also warns Gadget that he will be off the force too if he gets so much as 100 yards of G2's stakeout, and Penny tells him not to come crying to them if Claw gets away with his plan of world conquest.
She met her uncle outside the police station steps after Quimby demoted him to restroom cleaner and shows him a mysterious note left by Claw, saying that he's going to steal a protoid laser at the science convention centre. Knowing it could be a trap, Penny tried to warn her uncle and let her join him in catching Claw, but Gadget refused and went to the convention, while Penny followed in disguise. However, Claw sent Brick and McKibble disguised as Gadget's fans into the centre, and placed a circuit override chip on his hat, and Claw controls Gadget like a puppet as a distraction, while Brick and McKibble stole the laser. After witnessing the event, Penny and Brain were unable to stop the theft and Brain grabs a bowling shoe from one Claw's henchmen.
After learning that her uncle got fired by Quimby, Penny shows Gadget the bowling shoe, and offers to help him catch Claw, but Gadget refuses to both continue pursuing Claw and let Penny continue working on the case. Penny sees this as him not believing in her and runs out to the porch, crying, but Brain consoles her and brings her the shoe. Regaining her confidence, Penny resolves to help Gadget solve the case. Taking the shoe to her school, Penny dissects it and finds its patent number and researches it on her computer and finds the exact same shoe made by Bowlerite. Going to the library, she finds the information and address of the abandoned factory and she and Brain head over to do it.
While searching around, Penny hears Claw and his henchmen returning with the giant ruby they stole from Mayor Wilson's fundraiser gala. Hiding behind a rack of bowling balls, Penny accidentally releases them and Claw spots her and orders his men to get her. Trying to escape, Penny was captured, but Brain managed to escape. The next morning, Claw takes Penny to a hill overlooking Riverton and she witnesses him activating his time stopping ray, freezing everyone all over Riverton, but Gadget and G2 managed to escape it. She was then taken to the Federal Reserve by Claw and his men, where they start robbing the gold, just as Gadget and G2 arrived at the reserve in Gadgetmobile. Seizing Penny as a hostage, Claw takes her onboard his van and escapes with her.
After Gadget and G2 swap chips to make Gadget work perfectly and G2 deal with the glitches, Gadget pursues Claw with his Gadget Helicopter Hat, but it got damaged after Claw blew pink smoke at him, forcing Gadget to use his Gadget Scooter to continue the chase and eventually catches up to the van. Seeing Gadget on top of the roof of the van, Claw places Penny in an explosive cart and ejects her onto the road. Jumping off the van's roof, Gadget uses his Gadget Wire Cutters to free Penny from the cart, just before it explodes. At first, G2 and Gadgetmobile thought they were blown up, but Gadget and Penny survived, and together, they cornered Claw's van on a bridge, and Gadget stopped it with his Gadget Bubble Gum launcher, leading to Brick and McKibble's arrest and Claw's escape.
Arriving at Claw's time stopping machine, Gadget, G2 and Penny managed to unfreeze Riverton with Penny typing "Crime Always Pays". At the award ceremony, Mayor Wilson and Chief Quimby award Gadget and G2 medals for foiling Claw's plan, and their jobs back, and Gadget awards Penny with a medal for her detective work.
Appearance[]
In the first live-action film, she was depicted as a brunette (with her hair down), though in the sequel, she is depicted as a blonde like in the cartoon.
Trivia[]
- Michelle Trachtenberg, who played her in the first live-action movie, is the first of her original actresses to die.