OK guys, this is something I?ve been wanting to do for some time now.
When I was growing up, there were three kid?s shows I absolutely adored above all others. They were the measure by which I judged all other cartoons.
This will be the first of a series of reviews of what I have always called ?the Mainframe Trilogy?, three cartoon series made in the 1990?s by Mainframe Entertainment.
So then, here?s number one.
ReBoot has the distinction of being one of the first fully CGI TV series in the world. It was not the first, having been beaten to the punch by the short-lived ?Insektors? series earlier in 1994. Nevertheless I still hold ReBoot as the first ?great? CGI series.
The premise of the show is that it takes place within a computer. All of the characters in the show are representations of various computer programmes, viruses etc. The main setting is the fictional city of Mainframe (ha, see what they did there?), where our three main characters Bob the guardian (a sort of anti-virus programme), Dot the main female lead, and Enzo, Dot?s younger brother.
Much of the first season is episodic, focusing on the various attempts by the main villain, Megabyte the virus (voiced by the late great Tony Jay), to take over Mainframe and enter the ?Net? (literally the internet), while our heroes try to stop him.
Every now and then however, the unseen character of ?the user? (real humans on the outside) introduce game-cubes (seven years prior to Nintendo I might add) to Mainframe so that characters have to participate on the NPC side of video games and win or else sections of Mainframe get deleted. It was an interesting concept to see video game character on the other side of a game experience but as far as I am concerned it was just an excuse to get more pop-culture references in the show.
The second season begins a story arc which leads all the way through to the end of season three, which by the end of the series, is a much darker and serious affair than the start, rare for a children?s cartoon at the time.
The characters are fairly decent. Bob comes across well as the typical hero, despite a few annoying catch-phrases here and there. Dot starts out as a fairly standard heroine but evolves over the course of the series to become a fairly complicated individual. Enzo by far has the most development over the series. I won?t spoil the plot but by the end of season three, you will find a very different person to how he started.
There are many other supporting characters introduced over the course of the series and they all fulfil their functions well. A particular favourite of mine was the secondary villain Hexidecimal, a virus whose goals were not to rule but to cause chaos. Voice actress Shirley Milner really shows her talent, switching from manic and psychotic one moment, and in the very next breath comes across as kind and loving. This character really allows for some great comedic moments.
The overall plot of the series, goes from (as mentioned before) cartoonish episodic adventures, to dark and depressing serialised stories. There are many plot twists that may catch a viewer off-guard but they work well.
The animation also improves over the course of the series. In the beginning of the series run the animation, as expected for an early CGI series, was somewhat rigid, with characters seeming more like plastic figures when they moved. However, by season three, the animators really have improved greatly.
It?s not all good news however. There are elements to this series which could have been cut out and I suspect they were brought in just for the sake of making it more light-hearted. That?s not a bad thing, but the way they went about it could have been better. For example, the character of Mike the TV is without a doubt the most irritating character I?ve ever witnessed in a kid?s show. Not only that but the aforementioned catch-phrases, like ?stay frosty? and ?I don?t think so? can get repetitive and ear-grating at times, like the writers just needed more dialogue and couldn?t think of anything else.
Not only that but the pop-culture references might have worked at the time, but if anyone nowadays (particularly younger audiences) were to watch it they would have no idea what?s going on.
Also, just a heads up but as the series is set in the world of a computer, there is a lot of computer terminology so if your not familiar with computers you might get confused at times.
The third season ended in 1998 and it was not until three years later that the story was continued with two TV movies called ?Daemon Rising? and ?My Two Bobs?. The end of the latter ended with a cliff-hanger and since 2001 there has been no sign of a return to the series to finish the story. However, with the death of Tony Jay, the voice of the main villain, it seems very unlikely that the series will be picked up again.
ReBoot was a fantastic piece of children?s animation and a great series overall. The characters were good, the story (while fairly weak at the start of the series) eventually evolved into an epic adventure rivalled by few other kid?s shows and the animation was very impressive for the time.
Well, I hope you?ve all enjoyed reading this review and I look forward to posting the second part of this trilogy next week.
See you then!
When I was growing up, there were three kid?s shows I absolutely adored above all others. They were the measure by which I judged all other cartoons.
This will be the first of a series of reviews of what I have always called ?the Mainframe Trilogy?, three cartoon series made in the 1990?s by Mainframe Entertainment.
So then, here?s number one.
ReBoot has the distinction of being one of the first fully CGI TV series in the world. It was not the first, having been beaten to the punch by the short-lived ?Insektors? series earlier in 1994. Nevertheless I still hold ReBoot as the first ?great? CGI series.
The premise of the show is that it takes place within a computer. All of the characters in the show are representations of various computer programmes, viruses etc. The main setting is the fictional city of Mainframe (ha, see what they did there?), where our three main characters Bob the guardian (a sort of anti-virus programme), Dot the main female lead, and Enzo, Dot?s younger brother.
Much of the first season is episodic, focusing on the various attempts by the main villain, Megabyte the virus (voiced by the late great Tony Jay), to take over Mainframe and enter the ?Net? (literally the internet), while our heroes try to stop him.
Every now and then however, the unseen character of ?the user? (real humans on the outside) introduce game-cubes (seven years prior to Nintendo I might add) to Mainframe so that characters have to participate on the NPC side of video games and win or else sections of Mainframe get deleted. It was an interesting concept to see video game character on the other side of a game experience but as far as I am concerned it was just an excuse to get more pop-culture references in the show.
The second season begins a story arc which leads all the way through to the end of season three, which by the end of the series, is a much darker and serious affair than the start, rare for a children?s cartoon at the time.
The characters are fairly decent. Bob comes across well as the typical hero, despite a few annoying catch-phrases here and there. Dot starts out as a fairly standard heroine but evolves over the course of the series to become a fairly complicated individual. Enzo by far has the most development over the series. I won?t spoil the plot but by the end of season three, you will find a very different person to how he started.
There are many other supporting characters introduced over the course of the series and they all fulfil their functions well. A particular favourite of mine was the secondary villain Hexidecimal, a virus whose goals were not to rule but to cause chaos. Voice actress Shirley Milner really shows her talent, switching from manic and psychotic one moment, and in the very next breath comes across as kind and loving. This character really allows for some great comedic moments.
The overall plot of the series, goes from (as mentioned before) cartoonish episodic adventures, to dark and depressing serialised stories. There are many plot twists that may catch a viewer off-guard but they work well.
The animation also improves over the course of the series. In the beginning of the series run the animation, as expected for an early CGI series, was somewhat rigid, with characters seeming more like plastic figures when they moved. However, by season three, the animators really have improved greatly.
It?s not all good news however. There are elements to this series which could have been cut out and I suspect they were brought in just for the sake of making it more light-hearted. That?s not a bad thing, but the way they went about it could have been better. For example, the character of Mike the TV is without a doubt the most irritating character I?ve ever witnessed in a kid?s show. Not only that but the aforementioned catch-phrases, like ?stay frosty? and ?I don?t think so? can get repetitive and ear-grating at times, like the writers just needed more dialogue and couldn?t think of anything else.
Not only that but the pop-culture references might have worked at the time, but if anyone nowadays (particularly younger audiences) were to watch it they would have no idea what?s going on.
Also, just a heads up but as the series is set in the world of a computer, there is a lot of computer terminology so if your not familiar with computers you might get confused at times.
The third season ended in 1998 and it was not until three years later that the story was continued with two TV movies called ?Daemon Rising? and ?My Two Bobs?. The end of the latter ended with a cliff-hanger and since 2001 there has been no sign of a return to the series to finish the story. However, with the death of Tony Jay, the voice of the main villain, it seems very unlikely that the series will be picked up again.
ReBoot was a fantastic piece of children?s animation and a great series overall. The characters were good, the story (while fairly weak at the start of the series) eventually evolved into an epic adventure rivalled by few other kid?s shows and the animation was very impressive for the time.
Well, I hope you?ve all enjoyed reading this review and I look forward to posting the second part of this trilogy next week.
See you then!
