"ReBoot" (1994) TV series 1994-2001

Creators:

Gavin Blair
John Grace
Philip Mitchell

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Release Date:

10 September 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Comedy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

In the inner computer world of Mainframe, a guardian program sprite and his friends defend the system from threats from viruses and the User.

Plot Keywords:

Computer | Intelligence | Virtual Reality | Dreadlocks | Computer Virus

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Kathleen Barr	...	Dot Matrix (40 episodes, 1994-2001)
Michael Benyaer	...	Bob (28 episodes, 1994-2001)
Gary Chalk	...	Slash / ... (27 episodes, 1994-2001)
Tony Jay	...	Megabyte (25 episodes, 1994-2001)
Sharon Alexander	...	AndrAIa / ... (20 episodes, 1997-2001)
Paul Dobson	...	Matrix (20 episodes, 1997-2001)
Stevie Vallance	...	Mouse (20 episodes, 1994-2001)
Michael Donovan	...	Phong / ... (19 episodes, 1994-2001)
Shirley Millner	...	Hexadecimal (17 episodes, 1994-2001)

Runtime:

30 min (47 episodes)

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:PG | USA:TV-Y7

Company:

Alliance Communications Corporation

Trivia:

During pre-production of the series, all the characters were going to be binomes. However animators have successfully achieved in creating a handful of human-like character for the series. The models of the binomes were really easy to change and alter to end up creating a whole cast of extras for the cartoon. As the series progress, more human like characters were introduce than in the first season.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: In Racing the Clock, at the end of the episode, Hack and Slash speak in each other's voices. (Hack has Slash's voice, and vice versa)

Quotes:

Bob: So much for me being Mr. Save-the-Day.

Movie Connections:

Featured in A Cool, Dry Place (1998)

Smart, action-packed, and a lot of the time, pretty hilarious!

ReBoot takes place in the city of Mainframe, representing the inside of a computer. The characters' speech reflects this with words and expressions like: random (crazy), basic (stupid), deleted or nullified (killed), and there was a time Enzo realized he should've "copied and pasted the truth"! Characters include binomes (citizens shaped like numbers, usually 1s and 0s), sprites (more human-like) and viruses (usually villains).

It features many inside jokes and references from Indiana Jones to Sailor Moon. In one episode, after the disappearance of several people, Fax Modem and Data Nully come to investigate (Fox Mulder and Dana Scully from The X-Files. Gillian Anderson actually voiced the latter). There is also a brief scene of Modem deciding between postcards for Los Angeles and Vancouver, mirroring David Duchovny's involvement in moving X-Files production from Vancouver to L.A. (ReBoot is produced by Vancouver's Mainframe Entertainment). Another local reference was a truck with "Two Small Sprites with Big CPUs" printed on the side. I'm told there is a local Vancouver moving company called "Two Small Men with Big Hearts".

An important part of the show is the games, which appear as cubes dropped from above by "the user". If characters enter these games to play against the user, losing means deletion for them and damage for the city. Genres in the games reflect the wide range of real-life video games and spoof everything from Mad Max to Evil Dead ("Malicious Corpses") to Austin Powers!

I particularly enjoyed the references to "BS'nP" that showed up a few times. This is a facetious acronym for ABC's "Broadcast Standards & Practices". Examples include Enzo firing a rocket launcher only to find it fires an inflatable raft with "BSnP approved" stamped on the side; and the Small Town Binomes (Village People) performing "Living with BSnP" ("It's fun to play in the non-violent way!"). Originally seen on ABC and YTV, it was cancelled by the former after the 2nd season. YTV continued to air the show (still does as of this writing!) and, being free from ABC's BS&P censorship, ReBoot could now deal with more mature themes. This was an improvement in the eyes of many. Following a hiatus, the 3rd season also showed a dramatic change in the graphical quality (more detail, shadows, etc.), due to advances in technology.

Another long hiatus followed the 3rd season but ReBoot came back with two feature-length movies: Daemon Rising and My Two Bobs (or 8 new episodes). The second ended with a cliff-hanger so I'm hopeful we haven't seen the last of ReBoot.