"The ReBooting ReBooters of ReBoot" by Troy H. Cheek on Jan 28, 2008
When it comes to old television series, nothing beats a combination of old VHS tapes, anal retentive friends, the internet, and DVD box sets. I have recently obtained pretty much the entire run of the old series ReBoot. What is Reboot? According to Wikipedia, ReBoot is as follows:
ReBoot is a Canadian CGI-animated action-adventure television series that originally aired from 1994 to 2001. It was produced by Vancouver-based production company, Mainframe Entertainment, and 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. It is credited with being the first full-length, completely computer-animated TV series.
ReBoot (BiCapitalization is a BadThing) is set in a computer known as Mainframe. It features a bunch of computer characters running around in a computer setting doing a bunch of computer things and generally misusing a bunch of computer terms. Once you get past the occasional syntax error, though you have to be a huge geek to catch them, it is quite enjoyable.
ReBoot owes a big tip of the hat to the movie Tron, in which every computer program is a sentient being who exists in a huge computer landscape. Likewise, every program, graphic shape, and bit is a senient being in Mainframe. There are human-like sprites fighting off anthropomorphic viruses, 1 and 0 binomes going about their daily lives, and even cone shapes playing themselves like trumpets.
The main ReBoot storyline revolves around Guardian Bob. Guardians are kind of a combination virus scanner and system recovery tool. Bob comes to Mainframe searching for a virus. He was present when the virus Killabyte updated itself into Gigabyte, killed a Guardian, and fled through the Net. Bob's search led him to Mainframe, where Gigabyte had already done his damage.
Batty old Professor Matrix of Mainframe had created a portal to reach other systems in the Net, a crazy idea of his. Even crazier because it was right. Unfortunately, the portal attracted Gigabyte, who caused it to explode and take a whole city with it. Born from the explosion and Gigabyte's remains, or at the very least given form by the released energies, were Megabyte and Hexadecimal. These "sibling" viruses consider the nullified remains of Old Doc Matrix to be their father, as it was his portal that gave birth to them. Megabyte builds himself a little fortress and starts trying to take over Mainframe sector by sector. Hexadecimal is a more benign virus and sets herself up as the queen of the mangled remains of the destroyed city, now known as Lost Angles.
Bob missed Gigabyte but developed an attraction to Doc Matrix's real children: his spunky little son Enzo and his perky not-so-little daughter Dot. Bob decided to stick around for a few seasons, fighting off viruses and playing games.
In ReBoot, games are deadly serious. When the User loads a game, huge game cubes drop down and seal off a section of the city. Sprites and binomes caught inside can "reboot" or reformat themselves to take part in the game. If they beat the User, life goes on. If the User wins, everything and everyone in that sector is nullified. Buildings and streets are destroyed. The inhabitants are converted into little energy-leeching nulls.
It's mentioned but never actually seen that if the same game drops on a null a second time, it regains its former shape so it can participate in the game. If the User loses, the null is restored to its former shape permanently. Or, at least, until it loses the next game. This was never seen because nulls actively avoid game cubes. One minor plot point involves our heroes trying to sample game code so they can replicate this in the lab.
Outside the Net is the Web, a scary place indeed, filled with dangerous beings. At one point, a web creature enters Mainframe and causes Megabyte and Hexadecimal to temporarily merge into a reborn Gigabyte. Bob gets shot into the Web after a dirty, underhanded trick by Megabyte. Little Enzo, recently promoted to Guardian Trainee, tries to take up the slack, but the games are too much for him. Luckily, he has a girlfriend named AndrAIa. She's a game sprite who hitched a ride out of her game to stay in Mainframe. Enzo uses the same trick to avoid being nullified. Enzo and AndrAIa become benign viruses themselves, hitching rides of games, going from system to system, trying to find Bob and find their way back to Mainframe.
Back in Mainframe, Dot Matrix has been promoted to COMMAND.COM and is organizing the resistance against Megabyte, who has taken over Mainframe and turned it into Megaframe. Who can stop him? Well, little Enzo and little AndrAIa are all grown up now. It seems that game time runs faster than plain old system time, so they've matured into their primes. After meeting up with Bob, they return to Mainframe and kick Megabyte's viral butt, jettisoning him into the Web. Bob even mends Hexadecimal's mangled code and turns her into an ally of sorts.
All is well? Nope. Little Enzo, now going by his surname Matrix, learned that a virus has infected the Guardians. He and Bob are the only two Guardians (well, one and a half Guardians) not affected. The virus is called Daemon. It's a cute little French girl, probably intended to be a Joan of Arc type. Daemon wants to infect all the systems on the Web, but can't get access to some. She needs Bob because he's the only Guardian who still has the ability to create direct portals to other systems, something she should have thought of before infecting all the other Guardians.
Daemon comes to Mainframe, brainwashes Bob, and infects every computer system in the world. Then she delivers her payload: a command for every program, every system, every byte of information to self destruct when the countdown reaches zero. Luckily, Old Null Matrix has recreated his portal and has a direct connection with every system. Hexadecimal sacrifices herself to deliver an antivirus. The world is saved.
All is well? Nope. Bob returns from the Web, which is a big surprise for the Bob who had already returned, not to mention to the woman who just recently finally admitted she loves him. Dot Matrix, after lengthy internal debate, chooses the one who just returned and agrees to marry him. At the altar, he is revealed to be a shapeshifting Megabyte. Megabtye starts trying to take over the system again and, well, we're pretty much back to where we started.
Oops! I just realized that I was spending so much time trying to describe ReBoot that I never mentioned how I felt about it. Short version is that I like it. I was amazed at the depth of the storyline, quality of the animation (especially later in the run), and all the quirky references. What we've got here is ostensibly a children's cartoon thats jam packed with computer and science fiction references that only a 40 year old geek (like me) will catch combined with a storyline that approaches biblical proportions. All animated on a computer that understands mammary curves and jiggle physics. Tell me why you shouldn't go out and buy every DVD box set in this collection. Two thumbs up.
