ReBoot
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 I come from the Net. Through systems, people, and cities, to this place - Mainframe. My format, Guardian: To mend and defend. To defend my new found friends, their hopes and dreams, and to defend them from their enemies. They say The User lives outside the Net and inputs games for pleasure. No one knows for sure, but I intend to find out. ReBoot!
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ReBoot is a Canadian 3D CGI-animated action-adventure television series that originally aired from 1994 to 2001. It was produced by Vancouver-based production company Mainframe Entertainment, Alliance Communications and BLT Productions. The animated series was created by Gavin Blair, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, and John Grace, with the visuals designed by Brendan McCarthy after an initial attempt by Ian Gibson.
Plot
The setting is in the inner world of a computer system known by its inhabitants as Mainframe. The city is populated almost entirely by binomes, little creatures that represent either 1s or 0s, as well as a handful of Sprites, such as Bob and Dot, who are primarily humanoid creatures of more complex design and are the main characters of the series. Bob is the main Guardian of Mainframe.
Most of their adventures focus on fighting computer Viruses, such as Megabyte and Hexadecimal, and defending the city from Game Cubes sent by the User. If the User wins, the area occupied by the Game Cube is destroyed and all entities in that area turns to "Null" sprites. To prevent the user from winning, Game Cubes must be entered by Sprites by standing below them when they fall on to the computer. When in a Game Cube, a Sprite can "Reboot" to gain attributes more suited to the game (giving the title of the show "ReBoot").
Later in the series, the setting takes place over the whole "Net" (short for Internet).
Why It ReBoots
- It was the world's first ever half-hour, completely computer-animated TV series, first airing on September 10 1994. It released more than a year before even Toy Story which was the first feature length computer animated film releasing on Nov 22, 1995.
- The series' setting is very interesting, taking place in the internet and computers is a good concept.
- Incredible graphics for the time.
- The setting of the series puts the animation that could be considered as low quality as a relic of the strength of computer hardware and the state of 3D graphics at the time.
- Strong, likeable characters.
- High quality voice acting.
- The series parodies famous franchises such as Indiana Jones, James Bond, Evil Dead, Star Wars, Austin Powers, and Power Rangers.
- The games that take place in the Game Cubes take cues from other games and are really great, poking fun at franchises such as Mortal Kombat, Rocky Rodent, and Pokémon.
- Great story starting from the second season of the series, when they transitioned to an extended story arc, with lots of twists and turns. Mainframe took lots of risks with the story and it paid off in spades.
- The creator of the series fought against the watchdogs of TV and made the show much darker than before with a surprising betrayal in season 2, and the main character Bob isn't even present in season 3! This made the show attract more mature audiences. They also replaced Dot Matrix's infamous "monobreast" with more anatomically correct dual breasts, which may not be much, but the monobreast was an unwanted sacrifice to get the first season on the air.
- The ending of season four is very surprising and unexpected, and a big throwback to the older episodes of the series giving nostalgia as the show was around seven years old at that point.
- The characters are mostly named after real terms in the computer world making a homage to the real computer terms, the most obvious being the Sprite named Phong, but actually plays a game with similar gameplay to Pong with other people if they wanted assistance.
- The term "Game Cube" used in the show inspired the Nintendo GameCube console and the color of the console.
Bad Qualities
- Some scenes can be frightening to younger audiences.
- Its spin-off series ReBoot: The Guardian Code was not well received and got cancelled after only one season.
- Death of some of the beloved characters.
- The CGI animation is a bit cringeworthy, albeit it does improve a lot starting with Season 3.
- The last episode, "Crouching Binome, Hidden Virus", was not a good season finale, due to ending the show on a cliffhanger.
- However, the 2 episode miniseries subtitled "My Two Bobs" seemed to fill the gaps, but it isn't well known by many.
Reception
ReBoot recieved a 7.9/10 rating on IMDb.
Videos