The official ReBoot (1994-2001 TV series) and ReBoot: The Guardian Code discussion thread
Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 5:26 pm
Awhile back, I had begun to watch this show for the first time in several years. And now, I am stopping. I am so finished with watching this show. Now, I know that it was like the sister-series of Beast Wars, having been made by the same company and voice cast and such, but now, I am through with watching ReBoot.
Why have I stopped watching it? Well...
...Because there are no more episodes to watch after its final episode, of course.
Yep, I finished the whole thing. All 47 episodes of this amazing epic of a CGI show! It deserved every Gemini Award that it won: "Best Animated Program Series" (three times!), "Outstanding Technical Achievement Award", the 1995 Award of Excellence and Best Animated Program from the Alliance for Children and Television, and an Aurora Award in 1996.
So, what is there to like about this series? Well, what's not to like about it?
Well, okay, there were a few bumps in the road near the beginning. Season 1 was pretty episodic with nothing but standalone episodes with Saturday morning cartoon-styled plots. But, it helped establish who the characters were and what the show was gonna be like. Basically, it all centered around Bob, a Guardian sprite from the Super Computer who has come to the system of Mainframe, to "mend and defend" it from such threats as viruses. Namely, the two primary antagonist viruses Megabyte, an Order virus, and Hexadecimal, a Chaos virus.
Bob is aided by his good friend Dot Matrix, a local diner owner, and her younger brother Enzo Matrix. Where Bob is the archetypal hero and action guy, Dot is the responsible one who keeps everyone in check and comes up with the plans and strategies. The two often butt heads with each other, but they still hold a deep respect for one another. Enzo is the typical energetic kid who's always looking for action and adventure, looking up to bob as his hero, and using such slang terms like "Alphanumeric!" and "Pixalacious!" (he could get quite annoying at times, but he got WAY better as the series progressed). Bob is also armed with a special device called a Key Tool, his known by the name of Glitch, which can produce a multitude of items and objects, as well as perform various functions, when given Bob's vocal commands.
Aside from Megabyte and Hexadecimal, Mainframe is under constant attack by computer games input by the User, which descend form the sky down towards the city in the form of large energy "Game Cubes". it is Bob's job to play the games and win against the User, or else the sector of the city in which the game lands in will become decimated and its inhabitant nullified if the User wins. Bob is often accompanied in the games by Dot, Enzo, and sometimes Enzo's dog Frisket. Other times, Megabyte would interfere with the games and use them to try to get either Bob or any of his friends deleted.
Megabyte's goal throughout the show is to "corrupt and conquer" Mainframe, destroying it and reconstructing it in his own image as "Megaframe". But his ultimate desire to gain access to the Super Computer and infect the entire Net. In his mission of conquest, he is aided by two bumbling idiot minions, Hack and Slash, who serve as comedic foils to Megabyte's charisma and gravitas. Hexadecimal, on the other hand, is a being of pure insanity. She has godlike powers and could potentially destroy everything and anything at will, but she's just too crazy and theatrical to think like that, switching back and forth from all emotions and mood swings from happy, to sad, to furious rage, to just plain silly. Such a destructive action wouldn't be any "fun" for her, as she'd much rather get some enjoyment out of her schemes. Because of this unpredictable nature of her's, it makes her more dangerous than if she were as cunning and calculating as Megabyte.
While season 1 was pretty much nothing but standalone stories, season 2 took things to next level, so to speak. The first half of was mostly another batch of one-off single episodes, but they were better written with the stakes made higher and greater risks involved. With each plot, Megabyte got closer and closer to victory and Hex's schemes got more and more outrageous. Still, both continued to be thwarted by Bob. And the games got more and more creative and harder to beat, leaving Bob/Dot/Enzo having to resort to sometimes cheating to win by destroying, rather than simply beating, the User's game sprites.
About halfway through the second season, new faces were added to the cast, and a new plotline was added to the story. A sassy hacker with a southern drawl named Mouse joined the heroes, creating a very jealous Dot whenever she would flirt with Bob. And, a game sprite named AndrAIa (pronounced like "Andrea") was released from a game to be new friend for Enzo (who was lacking in sprite friends his own age since Mainframe's Twin City was destroyed long ago).
But with new allies came new threats. A creature from the Web, a dangerous layer of Cyber Space, arrived in Mainframe and began a four-episode story arc in the final episodes of season 2, which led to Megabyte and Hexadecimal becoming more dangerous than ever, and eventually leading to the Web Creature putting Mainframe online, allowing all sorts of horrors from Web to pour into Mainframe and start the Web War. All the residents of Mainframe, including Megabyte and Hex, did their best to defend it, but once they were finally in the clear, Megabyte pulled a double cross and did something that shot the whole series up to achieving epic proportions, ending season 2 on a cliffhanger.
Season 3 kicked in right where season 3 left off. The Viral War had begun. Megabyte was no longer fooling around and had become a major threat, aiming to obtain full dominance of Mainframe once and for all. Without spoiling too much, as this season was hands down the greatest season of the show, this season was split into four 4-episode story arcs (a total of 16 season 3 episodes). The second story arc took our attention away form Mainframe for a while to give focus on some other systems, as the plot changed from the war in Mainframe to Net-wide quest that went from system to system and beyond, all the way to the Web, and finally back to Mainframe.
The final battle against Megabyte was a most satisfying battle indeed. No guns. No special weapons. Just good old fashioned hand-to-hand "beat'em up" action. And even without any special gimmicks, you cannot help but love every moment of it! The good guy whose life Megabyte ruined finally getting his revenge, the feeling of the ultimate foe getting exactly what he deserves, AND the fight never crossed into unrighteous territory. That's right, it maintained both a sense of cold vengeance and righteous justice at the same time, topped off with a conclusion that was deliciously sweet, and an aftermath that was catastrophic and intense!
Four years after the end of the electrifying third season came fourth and final season. Season four was very short, as it had been originally crafted as two direct-to-video movies titled "Daemon Rising" and "My Two Bobs", which were split into four episodes each. The first four episode focused on the Super Virus named Daemon who had done the unthinkable and had infected the Super Computer, through which she began to infect the entire Net, with Mainframe as the last bastion of resistance to her Word. The final four dealt with the bizarre appearance of not one, but two Bobs. no one knew who was the original and who was the fake, but something evil was afoot and an old enemy from the past was making a grand return to wreak havoc and terror across the system. All of which ended on a cliffhanger; not because it was the season finale and they were trying to build up suspense for the next season (like they excellently did in season 2), but because more episodes were planned to follow right afterward until the show was then canceled. What. A. Crock!
But overall, it was great! Season 3 especially! I highly recommend this series to anyone curious about it, anyone who watched it and wants to relive their childhood, or anyone looking for good late-90s/early-2000s entertainment to watch. After all, it was the very first completely CGI 30-minute show for television and was made by the same company as the two Beast Era cartoons (featuring the some of the same voice cast such as Garry Chalk, Scott McNeil, Ian James Corlett, Blu Mankuma, as well as David Kaye, Richard Newman, Paul Dobson, Michael Donovan, and even Frank Welker). The entire series is now available on DVD from Shout! Factory.