ReBoot: The Guardian Code
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 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.
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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
- Like Code Lyoko: Evolution, this is another one of these reboot sequels where its a reboot of a TV series that later is established to be a direct continuation in the form of a live action/animated hybrid. However, instead of just returning to the previous characters, it is then settled into a high school setting with teenagers as the protagonists where majority of the time you'd be mistaken for thinking it was a completely different show. Because of many of these factors, it feels like a direct sequel that is trying to combine two franchises into one, one that was a teen sitcom, and the other being a CG animated show, that being ReBoot itself.
- 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. In fact, the four Guardians can be best described as a Power Rangers knockoff.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The show tries to be hip and cool at times with Apple products, and even selfie videos. Additionally, there's a scene where Tamra vlogs at high school with the selfie cam on her iPhone talking about being "way up there on the lame-o-meter".
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Worst of all, this show ultimately killed the ReBoot franchise.
Redeeming Qualities
- The actors who play the four teenagers are all pretty decent.
- Megabyte's new voice actor does a passable imitation of the late Tony Jay.
- 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).
- Good CGI after the first couple of episodes, presumably once the animators got used to using UE4.
- 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[1].
Videos
References
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Categories:
- Bad shows
- Bad media
- 2010s programs
- Netflix originals
- Live-action shows
- CGI cartoons
- Animated shows
- Abusing the franchise
- Reboots
- Canadian shows
- Bad shows from good franchises
- Cancelled shows
- Shows that killed a franchise
- YTV shows
- Aware of how bad they are
- Short-lived shows
- Science fiction shows
- Action shows
- Comedy shows
- Drama shows
- Obscure shows
- Commercial failures
- Featured on TV Tropes' So Bad, It's Horrible
- Terrible grasp on the source material