I am a child of the 90s. I grew up on shows such as Animaniacs, Batman: The Animated Series, and ReBoot. When ReBoot ended on a cliffhanger, I was so disheartened I scoured the Internet for days, looking for any sign that suggested the show would return. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and months turned into years. However, recently, a video popped up on YouTube introducing ReBoot: The Guardian Code. It promised the return of Mainframe Entertainment’s magnum opus, on Netflix no less. My heart skipped a beat; I watched the trailer with bated breath. And, I am less than pleased. Here’s everything that’s wrong with the reboot so far.
The Premise
The trailer displays a lack of understanding of the original show. ReBoot had a simple premise. The show was essentially a fictional rendition of the inner workings of a computer and the Internet, i.e., Inside Out but for computers instead of humans. In fact, none of the characters were human. The computer sprite Dot Matrix, her little brother Enzo, and the ‘Guardian’ Bob (think of him as the equivalent of Norton or McAfee antivirus programs) defended the system (i.e. city) of Mainframe from the evil virus Megabyte, his ‘sister’ Hexadecimal, and large purple Game Cubes that contained video games. Occasionally, Users (real people who lived outside of Mainframe) loaded these Game Cubes into Mainframe, but you never saw Users, only their proxies.
Now, the premise of the ReBoot reboot has seemingly nothing to do with the original series. Several students stumble across a device that transports them into a digital world, and they have to fight off the forces of an evil virus and save the world. That’s not ReBoot, that’s the French cartoon Code Lyoko. The original ReBoot featured escapades that involved representations of real computer problems, such as Trojan viruses and corrupted files, and explored parodies of pop culture, including Pokemon and Evil Dead. The adventures and obstacles of the reboot, however, look as if they will have a fantasy setting about fictional technology that teleports humans into what might as well be cyber-Narnia, which is a far cry from the original’s fictional take on real issues issues people face with computers.
The Characters
None of the original, memorable characters, except for one, are in the reboot. The new show replaces them with what appears to be one-dimensional stereotypes, including the jock, the geek, the leader, the preppy girl, the serious government agent, and the angry and hypocritical hacker who is upset with the world. And they’re all live-action humans who know computer programs are sentient. Part of the charm of the original show is that the characters didn’t even know what humans were. That’s why everyone in the show called beings who lived outside of Mainframe and the Internet ‘Users’ and not humans. Likewise, the Users had no idea characters such as Bob and Megabyte existed, let alone the fact that they had self-determination.
The only character who returns from the original show (so far) is Megabyte, and he looks as though he’s been reduced to an errand boy. No longer the charismatic, ambitious, and self-proclaimed erudite virus, the trailer presents him as just subservient, generic baddie general #5 who is always evil and all business. In the original show, he was evil, but he was fleshed out; he had a sense of humor and knew how to have fun. Moreover, his new design is so radically different I would not have recognized him had he not been called by name. Assuming the trailer is representative of the final product, this version of Megabyte is not the big bad fans grew to love to hate/hate to love.
The Presentation
Now we come to the elephant in the room: the reboot’s presentation. Partially because of the limitations of CG during the 90s, the original show went for a PlayStation FMV cutscene look. The characters appeared as if they jumped out of a video game, because video games were a major recurring element of the show. Even in the later seasons where the CG was noticeably better, the characters retained their uncanny valley appearances. Plus, some featured unique designs that made them look like anthropomorphic computer programs without relying on unnecessary and cluttered circuit line patterns. For example, the hacker program, Mouse, had orange static for hair and Hexidecimal had interchangeable creepy white masks instead of a face. She changed masks by waving her hand or turning away from the camera, which told audiences she was a powerful virus who more than earned the title ‘Queen of Chaos.’
The CG in the trailer pales in comparison and features generic, over-designed, and techy details that infect every millimeter of the digital landscape and characters — a stark departure from the expressive and colorful designs of the original ReBoot. Worst of all, the trailer features landscapes that only use one color palette. One scene includes dark green buildings against a dark green background, and another has silver pylons and a silver sky. No image in the trailer stands out, which screams lazy design. The original show’s creators not only knew how to design eye-catching characters and locales, they also were able to use the limitations of 90s CG to their advantage, which is not something that can be said of the trailer.
The Narrative
The original ReBoot had a wonderful balance of action, drama, and comedy (which included one-liners, punch lines, visual gags, and plenty of pop culture references/satires/parodies), sometimes given to viewers all at once. The show was a testament to how storytelling could be phenomenal on TV and was at home being silly as it was being dark and mature. Few shows, especially children’s cartoons, can pull off the kind of storytelling ReBoot presented on a daily basis.
The trailer for Netflix’s reboot, on the other hand, makes the show come across as mindless action punctuated by light comedic bits (that don’t seem very funny) and sprinklings of seemingly forced drama — a far cry from the original. If the show is like the trailer, most of the comedy/drama will stem from the human characters trying to keep their digital escapades a secret, which is as boring and cliched as it sounds.
I hope I’m wrong and the trailer just horribly misrepresents the show. Maybe the characters will be well-rounded and not as one-dimensional as they are portrayed, and fan-favorites such as Enzo, Bob, and Dot will return in good time. The reboot could easily feature some excellent bits of comedy, character development, and drama. Audiences might even get a good explanation as to why humans can teleport into the system. However, as the reboot currently stands, it dishonors the legacy of ReBoot.
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