ReBoot: The Guardian Code

ReBoot: The Guardian Code
What if Code Lyoko: Evolution used a different franchise's corpse to puppet around instead of Code Lyoko, and even went as far as to betray fans of the original work? Wonder no longer.
Genre: Science fiction Action Adventure Comedy Drama Running Time: 22 minutes Country: Canada Release Date: March 30 – September 28, 2018 Network(s): YTV (Canada) Netflix (International) Distributed by: Corus Entertainment Nelvana Enterprises Lantern Entertainment Starring: Ty Wood Sydney Scotia Ajay Parikh-Friese Gabriel Darku Seasons: 1 (YTV) 2 (Netflix) Episodes: 20 Previous show: ReBoot

ReBoot: The Guardian Code is a Canadian live-action/CGI-animated television series produced by Mainframe Studios. It is based on the 1994 computer-animated series ReBoot. Originally announced in 2013, the first ten episodes debuted on Netflix worldwide (excluding Canada) on March 30, 2018. YTV aired all twenty episodes from June 4 to July 5, 2018.

Plot

An insane hacker known as the Sourceror decides to destroy all technology and computer systems on Earth, with the help of an ancient but powerful computer virus known as Megabyte. In order to stop him, an artificial intelligence named VERA recruits four teenagers and outfits them with special suits that allow them to enter cyberspace from a secret room in their high school.

Why It Can't ReBoot

1. It is absolutely nothing like the original series. It dosen't even feel like the same type of show, since the original ReBoot was an entirely CGI-animated series, something revolutionary for the time, while this is a primarily live-action show with occasional CGI sequences.
2. The central conceit of the series, four teenagers with attitude going into cyberspace to combat a hacker, makes the series feel more like a live-action Canadian knock-off of Code Lyoko, or VR Troopers.
   • This is however debunked as the show is actually a rip-off of MP4orce, which was a German knockoff of Code Lyoko about four teenagers going into an online video game. MP4orce, which Michael Heffron, the CEO of Rainmaker Entertainment worked on.
3. Laughably bad understanding of computers, technology and the internet, and the characters spend a lot of time shouting out meaningless technical jargon, making it feel more like something from the early 1990s than 2018.
4. VERA's human form comes across as awkward and annoying.
   • There is no explanation for how she became human anyway, and if there is one it's poorly executed.
5. The Sourcerer is a textbook example of the Generic Doomsday Villain, having next to no backstory and leaving us with no idea why he wants to destroy the world other than him just being insane. Even when they try to give him a little more character development later in the season, the reasons for his actions still boil down to "he's just crazy".
   • He's also a vector of disrespect to the classic show's antagonist, Megabyte. On episode 7, where he fails to capture the Guardians with his new power, the Sourcerer deletes Megabyte on-screen, which is completely disrespectful to not only fans of the beloved villain, but also fans of the original series altogether.
6. Speaking of Megabyte, he returns only to act barely anything like the original version and is given little to do aside from being the Sourcerer's lackey. His new design isn't as good as either his original design, nor the redesign he got in the original show's finale.
7. Horrible background music, from music which tries to emulate the music from classic computer games (even in the scenes set outside of cyberspace) but just sounds cheap and tinny, to Dani and Lizzy's Back to Life, a wildly out-of-place pop song, which plays during the closing credits of one of the episodes.
8. The "classic ReBoot" "tribute" episode has an insulting and mocking portrayal of fans of the original series.
   • In fact, it feels like that scene was made just to lash at the fans for criticizing The Guardian Code for being nothing like the original series, which shows they can't take criticism.
9. According to one of the animators who worked on the show, the executive producer insisted on using Unreal Engine 4 to create the computer-animated sequences. In other words, he had them use a video game engine to create TV animation, instead of software actually designed for that purpose, like Blender for example. This might have been excusable if they were trying to get the video game footage to look more like modern-day video games, but they used it even for the normal cyberspace scenes, so what was the point?! Even worse is that the animators also didn't initially know how to set up lights in the engine, resulting in the CGI for the first couple of episodes looking rather hideous.
   • Not to mention, but in comparison, The Mandalorian, another show that uses the Unreal Engine 4 for its visuals, actually executed it well and much better than this.
10. One episode even shows a gaming nerd in a basement, which is filled with ReBoot merchandise and posters, which serves as an episode to disrespect the fans.
11. Worst of all, this show ultimately killed the ReBoot franchise.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The actors who play the four teenagers are all pretty decent.
2. Megabyte's new voice actor does a passable imitation of the late Tony Jay.
3. Despite its many other problems, the tribute episode to the original ReBoot does at least faithfully recreate all the settings and characters, and brings back most of the original voice cast (such as Michael Benyaer as Bob, Kathleen Barr as Dot Matrix, and Shirley Millner as Hexadecimal).
4. Good CGI after the first couple of episodes, presumably once the animators got used to using UE4.
5. Hexadecimal is introduced as an antagonist at the end of the first season and gets somewhat better treatment than her brother Megabyte.

Reception

ReBoot: The Guardian Code has received a highly negative reaction, with the show's reveal trailer on YouTube ending up with a 92% disliked rating, and the show itself currently has an IMDb rating of 3.8/10.

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