ReBoot

For other uses, see Reboot (disambiguation).

ReBoot
Genre	Action-Adventure Science fiction
Format	CGI Animated series
Created by	Gavin Blair Ian Pearson Phil Mitchell John Grace
Directed by	Dick Zondag Steve Ball George Samilski
Voices of	Sharon Alexander Kathleen Barr Michael Benyaer Paul Dobson Tony Jay
Composer(s)	Bob Buckley
Country of origin	Canada
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	47 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jay Firestone Stephane Reichel Steve Barron
Running time	23 minutes
Production company(s)	Mainframe Entertainment (1997-2001) Alliance Communications BLT Productions (1994-1995) Reboot Productions Zondag Entertainment Claster Television, Inc. Limelight Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	YTV ABC (1994-1996) Syndicated (1996-1997) Cartoon Network (1999-2001) Meridian Television (UK)
Original run	September 17, 1994 (1994-09-17) – November 30, 2001 (2001-11-30)
External links
Website

ReBoot is a Canadian CGI-animated action-adventure cartoon series that originally aired from 1994 to 2001. It was produced by Vancouver-based production company Mainframe Entertainment, Alliance Communications, BLT Productions 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 was the first half-hour, completely computer-animated TV series.^[1][2]

Reruns of the first three seasons can be seen in Canada on Teletoon Retro, and the first two seasons are available on Netflix's streaming service in the US.^[3]

Background

According to staff in the Making Reboot special, the process to create Reboot began in the 1980s, but, although the idea had largely been devised, technology was not yet advanced enough to make the show in the desired way. 3D animation tests began in earnest in 1990 and Reboot had achieved its detailed look by 1991. Production continued on future episodes and the show aired in 1994 after enough episodes had been produced. This was a painstaking process as no other company had at this time worked on a 3D animation project of this scale and the software used was new to all in the company.

Setting

The setting is in the inner world of a computer system known by its inhabitants as Mainframe. It was deliberately chosen due to technological constraints at the time, as the fictional computer world allowed for blocky looking models and mechanical animation.^[4] Mainframe is divided into six sectors (moving clockwise): Baudway, Kits, Floating Point Park, Beverly Hills, Wall Street, and Ghetty Prime (also called G-Prime). The names of Mainframe's sectors are homages to famous neighbourhoods, mostly in New York City or Los Angeles. However, the Kits sector is named for Kitsilano, a neighbourhood in Vancouver, Mainframe Entertainment's home city. Also, Ghetty-Prime is a reference to Frank Herbert's Dune, as Giedi Prime is the home world of the villainous House Harkonnen. There is also a connected floating island called "Lost Angles", a twisted and corrupted area which plays as the lair for the virus Hexadecimal; this island was revealed in the course of the first half of Season Four to have been Mainframe's sister city until an accident involving Dot and Enzo's father and the arrival of the virus Gigabyte, who immediately morphed into the twin viruses Megabyte and Hexadecimal. Mainframe is populated almost entirely by binomes, little creatures that represent either 1s or 0s, as well as a handful of Sprites who are primarily humanoid creatures of more complex design and are the main characters of the series.

Plot

See also: List of ReBoot episodes

The first season of ReBoot was highly episodic, with each installment being a self-contained episode (except for the two part finale). Most of the episodes established characters, locations, and story elements, such as the gigantic game cubes. When The User loads a game, a game cube drops on a random location in Mainframe, sealing it off from the rest of the system and turning it into a gamescape. Bob frequently enters the games, reboots to become a game character, and fights the User's character to save the sector. If the User wins a game, the sector the cube fell in is destroyed, and the sprites and binomes who were caught within are turned into energy-draining, worm-like parasites called nulls. Within the series it is never clear if there is a "cure" or reversal for degrading to a null. When this happens, they are said to be "nullified." The season also established the characters Hexadecimal and Megabyte who were two viruses and were primary antagonists in most of the episodes in the season.

The second season was initially as episodic as the first but later featured an extended story arc that began with the season's seventh episode, Nullzilla. The arc revealed that Hexadecimal and Megabyte are siblings, and also an external threat to Mainframe, the Web. A creature from the Web entered Mainframe from Hexadecimal's looking glass (which was shattered by Mike the TV), bonding with her. Mainframe's nulls reacted spontaneously and covered her to form a monster dubbed Nullzilla, which was defeated and neutralized by the protectors of Mainframe. The Web creature located Megabyte, took him over and forced him to merge with Hexadecimal, forming a next-gen super-virus called Gigabyte. Gigabyte was eventually neutralized as well, but the Web creature escaped into the bowels of Mainframe, where it began stealing energy to stay alive and grow. Mouse, a mercenary and old friend of Bob's, helped to find the Web Creature, but was almost destroyed by a bomb set by the person she was working for, Turbo. Bob took the bomb a safe distance away so that nobody would be harmed. The explosion created a "tear" (an unstable energy-based anomaly) which the Web creature used to create a portal to the Web. The protectors of Mainframe had to team up with Megabyte and Hexadecimal to close the portal. The defacto army consisted of the CPU police force for Mainframe along with weapon named "The Hardware", a large cannon that is explained to close a gate to the Web via a surge blast of energy. A frenzy ensues to kill each Web creature before it breaches the gate and gathers more of its kind in retaliation. In the midst of the chaos, Megabyte betrays the alliance, crushing Bob's keytool, Glitch, and sending him into the Web portal before closing it.

For the show's third season, there was a marked improvement in model and animation quality due to the advancement of Mainframe Entertainment's software capabilities during the time between seasons. Subtle details, such as eyelashes and shadow, as well as generally more lifelike sprite characters, were among several visual improvements compared to previous ReBoot episodes. In addition, the show shifted their target audience to children aged 12 and older, resulting in a darker and more mature storyline.^[4] After severing ties with ABC following the second season, the show actually reached a greater number of households through syndication.^[5]

The season started with Enzo, freshly upgraded into a Guardian candidate by Bob during the Web incursion, defending Mainframe from Megabyte and Hexadecimal with Dot and AndrAIa at his side. When Enzo entered a game he could not win, he, AndrAIa, and Frisket changed their icons to game sprite mode and rode the game out of Mainframe. The accelerated game time matured Enzo and AndrAIa far faster than the denizens of Mainframe. The following episodes follow adult versions of Enzo and AndrAIa as they travel from system to system in search of Mainframe. The older Enzo adopts the name "Matrix" (previously his and Dot's surname), carrying the aptly named weapon "Gun" and Bob's damaged Glitch. The time spent in games and away from Mainframe has hardened both Matrix and AndrAIa; Matrix has developed a pathological hatred of Megabyte, and has grown into an overly muscled, shoot-first-ask-question-later hero, while AndrAIa has turned into a calm and level-headed warrior. Matrix and AndrAIa are also shown to have developed a romantic relationship by this time. As the season progresses, Matrix and AndrAIa are reunited with Bob and the crew of the Saucy Mare and returned to Mainframe, which has been almost completely destroyed by Megabyte and his forces during their time away. The group reunites with Dot and the resistance, then heads to the Principal Office for a final battle with Megabyte. Megabyte is defeated by Matrix, but not before Megabyte's handiwork causes the system to crash. All final problems in Mainframe were dealt with by The User restarting the system, setting everything right and restoring everything as it was again for our heroes, with one major exception: younger and older Enzo now exist simultaneously, as Matrix's icon was still set to "Game Sprite" mode. Because of this mishap, he was not recognized properly by the system when it rebooted, so it created a replacement of his younger self.

After the end of the third season, two TV movies were produced in 2001: Daemon Rising, which addressed the problem the Guardians were facing in season three, and My Two Bobs, which brings back a very corroded and mutated Megabyte in a cliffhanger ending. The two movies, broken up into eight episodes in its U.S. run on Cartoon Network's Toonami, revealed much of Mainframe's history, including the formation of Lost Angles, Bob's arrival in the system, and the origin of Megabyte and Hexadecimal.

Initial plans for the fourth season included three films broken into 12 episodes, followed by a 13th musical-special episode, although the final five were never produced, prompting the series to end with a cliff-hanger.^[6]

Revival

Following its acquisition by the Rainmaker Income Fund in 2006 Mainframe Entertainment was renamed Rainmaker Animation. In 2007, Rainmaker then announced plans to create a trilogy of ReBoot films with illustrator/animator Daniel Allen as the lead character designer. Rainmaker Animation executive vice president Paul Gertz stated, ReBoot's legions of fans have been incredibly loyal and continue to keep the property alive on dozens of fan sites."^[7] In conjunction with the website Zeros 2 Heroes, Rainmaker announced an intention to allow fans greater access to the development of the movie plans and also in development of a ReBoot webcomic. Fans were given the chance to submit their own art and designs, with the potential to end up as an artist on the project, and their feedback helped decide which one of five ReBoot pitches won.^[7][8]

The winning pitch was ReBoot: Arrival.^[9] Rainmaker will monitor feedback for the comic but may not use it as the basis for their movie plans.^[10] Four ReBoot fans have been chosen to work as artists on the Arrival comic.^[9] According to the pitch at the Zeroes2Heroes website, Megabyte's Hunt has developed into a Net-wide war so pervasive even other Viruses are united against it. The Users have gone, spending their time in an unending MMOG. A sentient System named Gnosis is created as a way to stop Megabyte, but goes rogue and begins enslaving Systems in its attempt to gain User-like powers. Two teams of heroes are assembled to stop Gnosis and bring back the Users, which will include new characters and Lens the Codemaster, who appeared for one episode in Season two. Elements of this would be dropped in the comic.

The official ReBoot website was updated with a countdown, which ended on May 30, 2008, at 12:00am EST.^[11] At 12:00 a.m. PST, the site was updated to include information about the first webcomic to be created by the Arrival team, and continuing the community input initiated during the "voting phase". The comic, now named Code of Honor, was viewable after signing up for an account, or using an existing Zeros 2 Heroes account.

The first Paradigms Lost issue (Paradigms Lost) opens with the aftermath of the Hunt: Mainframe is devastated and overrun with Zombinomes, the User is missing, and the entire population is being evacuated to the Super Computer. Worse still, the weakened Guardian Collective is facing viral attacks and uprisings across the entire Net. Turbo blames Bob for this, saying his views on viruses has become widespread and left them weakened. Enzo Matrix, meanwhile, is a star pupil in the Guardian Academy. The viral threat is ended when the Codemasters—first introduced in the episode "High Code"—pledge their help, offering a firmware named Gnosis. Gnosis is uploaded to every System on the Net, erasing all viruses and ending the crisis. The first issue ends with the Codemasters' Guildmaster activating a "Phase Two" for the implemented Gnosis.

The second and third issues had the heroes, now joined by Lens, try to stop the Codemasters from using Gnosis to access the Code itself, allowing the Guildmaster total control. However, Gnosis swiftly decides that it can complete its task better with the Guildmaster deleted, and following that it takes out the Guardians. Mainframe and 36 other systems are enslaved, being used as power sources to power its mission. While Dot tries to carry out rebel action in Mainframe, Bob and Lens have to retreat to the bowels of the Super-Computer to hide, while Enzo is one of those captured and discovers Megabyte (his code retained by Gnosis) is a key Gnosis advisor.

Bob is recruited by Exidy, an entity that is the source of the Code and trapped by Gnosis in the Net: intent on restoring balance and stability, she gives Bob the ability to wield the Code. While the main heroes link up and Bob is sent to take on Gnosis directly, Enzo verbally battles with Megabyte for influence over Gnosis, pointing out to the weapon that it could be getting more power more quickly if it asked Systems and was co-operating. When Gnosis comes around to this, Bob decides to allow the weapon to live and just reprogram it, and has it restore the Net to the way it was. That done, he frees Exidy and returns home.

A new countdown appeared on the official ReBoot website on August 18, 2008 ^[11] to launch the second installment of the comic. Updates to the comic will appear every Monday, with 2 pages each update. The Comic ended shortly after Christmas, and Surveys for users to fill in are on the site.

The Art of ReBoot, a 104 page hardcover artbook was published in February 2007 by Beach Studios containing various rare and never before seen conceptual artwork. Brendan McCarthy's artwork was the major focus of that book.

On July 24, 2009, a new countdown on http://www.reboot.com finished, and the site was upgraded into the official ReBoot fansite. The comic is now freely available.

Film trilogy

On June 1, 2008, it was announced that there will be a trilogy of ReBoot films coming to theatres. Jon Cooksey was assigned to write the script for the first film, but as of August 2008, he was dropped due to Rainmaker deciding to take a different direction with the story. At this time, it is unknown who will replace him.^[12] The films are expected to follow a different story from the comic, but the overall plan is to continue the methodology in terms of engaging the fans.^[13]

A teaser for the film was released on October 5, 2009, on Rainmaker's official site. In addition, an alleged new character design was revealed for the movie in an animation reel.

In a quarterly press release on March 11, 2011 Rainmaker CEO Warren Franklin announced "Our current slate includes several projects including a film based on the classic series ReBoot".^[14]

Episodes

Main article: List of ReBoot episodes

Main characters

Main article: List of ReBoot characters

The main characters included:

• Bob – Guardian #452, acts as the Guardian of Mainframe.
• Phong – The original COMMAND.COM of Mainframe, serves as a mentor and adviser to its inhabitants and works with Bob in defense of the system.
• Dot Matrix – Originally owned a local diner and many other "businesses" (as seen at the end of the third episode of the first season). Took over as COMMAND.COM in the third season.
• Enzo Matrix – Dot's younger brother who idolized Bob as a hero, later grows up to become the renegade simply known as Matrix. In keeping with the computer theme of the show, "ENZO" is an acronym of four common computer processor status register flags, (E)nable Interrupt + (N)egative + (Z)ero + (O)verflow
• Frisket – A red and yellow dog that belongs to Enzo and listens only to him.
• AndrAIa – A game sprite and friend (and later girlfriend) of Enzo introduced in season two. The "AI" in her name refers to "Artificial Intelligence."
• Megabyte – A "command and conquer, and infectious" computer virus, and the series' main villain. He is the opposite of Hexadecimal, and is an "Order Virus."^{[citation needed]} Once came from the virus known as Killabyte. When merging with his sister Hexadecimal, they form an even more powerful virus called Gigabyte.
• Hexadecimal – Megabyte's twin sister (came from the same viral strand: Killabyte), a "chaotic" computer virus, whose face is represented by a series of masks, each portraying a different emotion. She is the opposite of Megabyte, and is a "Chaos Virus."
• Mouse – A freelance Hacker who originally was mentioned briefly, then worked for Megabyte in a one-shot early in the season, but then later switched sides and joined Dot and Enzo to defend Mainframe when Bob was trapped in "The Web."
• Hack & Slash – The two most commonly seen Henchmen in Megabyte's employ. Neither of them are very good at problem solving. During the 3rd season they switched sides and joined the COMMAND.COM side of Mainframe.

Cast

• Bob (seasons one, two, and Megabyte when he was impersonating Bob in season four) — Michael Benyaer
• Bob (seasons three and four), Glitch Bob — Ian James Corlett
• Dot Matrix, Princess Bula, System Voice — Kathleen Barr
• Enzo Matrix (young), Slimey Goober — Jesse Moss (seasons one and three), Matthew Sinclair (season two), Christopher Gray (season three), Giacomo Baessato (season four)
• Matrix (adult Enzo Matrix) — Paul Dobson
• Megabyte — Tony Jay
• Hexadecimal — Shirley Millner
• AndrAIa (young) — Andrea Libman
• AndrAIa (adult) — Sharon Alexander
• Phong, Mike the TV, Cecil, Al — Michael Donovan
• Mouse, Rocky the Raccoon — Louise Vallance
• Ray Tracer — Donal Gibson
• Captain Capacitor, Old Man Pearson — Long John Baldry
• Slash, Turbo, Mr Mitchell, Herr Doktor, Cyrus, Al's Waiter (front counter) — Gary Chalk
• Hack (seasons 1 to 2) — Bryson Hayes
• Hack (seasons 2 to 4), Specky, Praying Mantis Virus — Scott McNeil
• Daemon — Colombe Demers
• Daecon — Richard Newman
• Killabyte. Gigabyte — Blu Mankuma
• Gigagirl, Copygirl - Venus Terzo
• Spectral Leader - David Kaye
• Lens - Don Brown
• Maxine - Janyse Jaud
• Frisket, Scuzzy - Frank Welker

Distribution

Television broadcasts

ReBoot was first broadcast on Saturday mornings in Canada on YTV and in the United States in 1994 by ABC. It was canceled on ABC when the Walt Disney Company purchased the network. Episodes continued to air in Canada. Episodes from the second season could still be seen in the U.S. when Claster Television distributed them for a short period of time during the 1996-97 season. It would be a year before new episodes aired on YTV due to Mainframe's involvement in Transformers: Beast Wars (known as Beasties in Canada) and Shadow Raiders,^[5] and the third season aired only on YTV at the time. In March 1999, years after Canadian audiences saw the third season, U.S. audiences saw the episodes on Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network aired season 3, and then looped to seasons 1 and 2.

Production on other series delayed the fourth season of ReBoot,^{[citation needed]} the eight episodes of which eventually were released in the U.S. as two 90-minute direct-to-DVD features that ended on a cliffhanger season finale. Series creators Blair and Pearson resigned from Mainframe Entertainment in 2004 to form their own independent studio, The Shop.^[15]

The show also aired in the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s, on the ITV strand CITV. It was broadcast on CITV's available time slot of 4:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., every Thursday. In 1997, CITV aired the first 6 episodes of series 3. CITV stated that they had only bought the first 10 (out of 16) episodes of the show, and would buy the rest if the high ratings continued.^[16] On February 12, 1998, CITV aired the show again, from the episode "Trust No-one". When "To Mend and Defend" should have aired, the episode "Firewall" aired in its place instead. When "The Edge of Beyond" (Episode 10) should have been aired, no ReBoot episode was aired. Apparently, they showed an earlier episode one week later, that had previously been unaired (Painted Windows), and CITV has not aired ReBoot since, meaning that the last 7 episodes of Season 3 and all of Season 4 have not been aired in the UK (as of 2010). Possible reason for the abrupt end was the increasingly dark and violent themes in Series 3, deemed by the broadcasters as unsuitable for the younger viewers.

A spinoff called Binomes was planned towards the end of 2004, featuring a family of Binomes who lived on a "chip farm". The series would have been composed of 52 11-minute episodes and aimed at a pre-school audience, but nothing of this project came to pass after the initial announcement.^[17]

Broadcast history

Canada

• Canal Famille/VRAK.TV (french dub, 1995–2002) (Canal Famille was renamed to VRAK.TV in 2001)
• YTV (1994–2001)( 2001-2005 in reruns)
• Teletoon Retro (2008–Present)

Chile

• Canal 13 (Latin-american dub, 1998–2001)

Template:Country data ISRAELISRAEL

• Children Channel

United States

• ABC (1994–1996)
• Cartoon Network (1999–2001)
• Nicktoons Network (2004–2008)

United Kingdom

• CITV (1994–1998) (Axed partway through Season 3)

Netherlands

• RTL 4 (1994–1999)

Russia

• Channel One (Russia) (1996–2000)

Spain

• TVE2 (1997)

Portugal

• RTP2 (1998)

South Africa

• SABC 2 (1996–2000)

Sweden

• TV1000 (1996)

Italy

• Rai 1 (1999) (only Season 1)

Venezuela

• Venevision (1994-2003)

VHS and DVD release

In Canada, four VHS tapes were released in 1995 with individual episodes from the first season through Polygram Video. Each release contained a single episode: "Medusa Bug", "Wizards, Warriors, and a Word from Our Sponsor", "The Great Brain Robbery", and "Talent Night". The UK received two VHS releases, but with two episodes each: Volume 1 contained "The Tearing" and "Racing the Clock", while Volume two had "The Quick and the Fed" and "Medusa Bug".^[18] In Australia there were four VHS releases with each containing two episodes, comprising the first eight episodes of season one. However, all the VHS tapes have long gone out of print.

The second season was never released, even though Polygram retained the rights to publish the episodes on home video with their deal for the first season. Despite this, in 2000 Mainframe struck a deal with A.D. Vision to release the third season on DVD^[19] Spanning four volumes, all sixteen episodes were published, separated by each story arc of four episodes: "To Mend and Defend", "The Net", "The Web", and "The Viral Wars". ADV planned to re-release these DVDs at a lower price in 2005, but changed their plans as they decided to cancel several of their titles at the time. Some time afterward, the company lost the publishing rights. Much like the first season VHS tapes, the third season ReBoot DVDs are now out of print and considered rare.

Anchor Bay Entertainment released the fourth season in its original form as two films (Daemon Rising and My Two Bobs) on one DVD entitled "ReBoot v4.0" which went out of print in early 2007. It was improperly mastered as the 25 frame/s source material was treated as 24 frame/s film speed material, meaning 3:2 pulldown flags were encoded into the MPEG stream, which resulted in the video playing back 4.096% slower and all the voices sounding deeper. Anchor Bay corrected and remastered the fourth season disc and made it available by contacting them for a replacement; these discs are now also out of print. The fourth season has also been released in Australia in its original PAL video format, which is still in print. Germany has DVD (PAL format) releases of all of season two. Russia has DVD (PAL format) releases for the first three seasons (though the first few season three episodes are counted as season two).

Universal still owns the rights to publish the first and second seasons on home video and will maintain those rights until 2009. As of October 2009, Universal has not released the first and second seasons on DVD.

Season four is no longer available on DVD from Mainframe's web site due to their acquisition by Rainmaker Entertainment.

On October 5, 2010, Shout! Factory announced that it had acquired the rights to the show and would release the complete series on DVD and digital formats in 2011.^[20] Seasons 1 and 2 were released as a standalone title on March 1, 2011.^[21] On the same date, the complete series went on sale as a box set (dubbed "ReBoot: The Definitive Mainframe Collection") exclusively through Shout! Factory’s official online store months before the set was scheduled to be on retail shelves.^[22] Season 3 & 4 were released on June 28, 2011 as well as a general retail release of the complete series set.^[23][24]

Awards

ReBoot has been the recipient of several awards. The show received Gemini Awards for Best Animated Program Series for three straight years between 1995 and 1997, as well as a 1996 Outstanding Technical Achievement Award. Other honors include the 1995 Award of Excellence and Best Animated Program from the Alliance for Children and Television and an Aurora Award in 1996.

Other Gemini Award nominations include "Best Children's or Youth Program or Series" in 1998, and "Best Sound - Comedy, Variety, or Performing Arts Program or Series" for My Two Bobs and "Best Sound - Dramatic Program" for Daemon Rising, both in 2002.^[4][25]

Miscellaneous

References to computer technology

Several major characters are named after computer terms:

• The character Phong's name is an allusion to the game Pong,^[26] he has a rule that any who seek his advice must first play him in a game of physical Pong, shown on-screen in the first few episodes; and to phong shading (alternative to Gouraud shading, pronounced like 'Guru'), an interpolation method used in three-dimensional graphics rendering.
• The villain Megabyte is named after the megabyte unit of data measure. Near the end of the second season Hexadecimal and Megabyte are fused, creating the new virus Gigabyte. In Daemon Rising, Gigabyte is revealed to have evolved from a virus named Killabyte (a play on the unit Kilobyte). The power of the virus reflects the magnitude of the unit used as its name. 1,024 kilobytes make 1 megabyte, and 1,024 megabytes make one gigabyte.
• The on-again/off-again villain Hexadecimal is named for the hexadecimal numerical system.
• Hexadecimal's pet, Scuzzy, is named for a common pronunciation of the acronym SCSI.
• Dot Matrix's name is a reference to dot-matrix printers and displays.
• Citizens of Mainframe who were in a game won by the User become Nulls, and the area on which a game touched down is "nullified". In computer science, a null pointer is a pointer reference to essentially nothing, giving rise to the idea that the characters are deleted. (This definition was played on in a line from an early episode: "There's nothing worse than having to ask a null for directions.")
• Frisket, Enzo's Dog is named after an Action. A Frisket is a means of moving an image in a program (like Paint) that protects it from the background.
• The null, Nibbles, is named after a simple yet popular worm-like game. A nybble is also a unit of data equal to half a byte.
• Most of the citizens of Mainframe are binomes - either round balls with arms and legs, or a stack of 3 cubes with arms and legs. These shapes represent the 0s and 1s of binary code.
• Oddly, the name of the hero himself, Bob, is not based on any computer term, but is instead an oblique Blackadder reference.^[27]
• All the other non-binome characters are known as Sprites, which was the other main method of drawing them.

Video games

A ReBoot video game based on the TV series developed and published by EA for the PlayStation video game console was released. It was rated E for Everyone. It received mixed reviews.^[28][29]

Network censorship

The show's early jokes at the expense of Board of Standards and Practices came from frustration encountered by the show's makers by an abundance of script and editing changes that were imposed upon Mainframe before episodes were allowed to air. These changes were all aimed at making the show appropriate for kids, and to prevent even the slightest appearance of inappropriate content, imitatable violence or sexuality.

The character Dot was considered too sexualized by the BS&P even though she was "never one to expose much cleavage" so the animators were forced to make her breasts less curvy and form them into a lumpy "monobreast", as lightly referred to by the staff. However, starting with season three, the "monobreasts" of all adult female characters were replaced with more anatomically correct versions. In another case, the word "hockey" was banned from all episodes as in some countries it was supposedly used as a vulgar slang term. In the episode "Talent Night", one scene of Dot giving her brother Enzo "a sisterly kiss on the chin" was cut due to BS&P's fear of promoting incest, an insinuation which Pearson described as "one of the sickest things I've heard."^[30]

An allusion to the extremity of this censorship is made during the first season in episode 11, "Talent Night" - the one from which the "sisterly kiss" was removed - when Dot's plans to throw a gala birthday party for Enzo are stifled by MC, a "Prog Censor", who rejects one act for the show after another for seemingly innocuous reasons. As well as a raft in episode 6, "In The Belly of the Beast", of the same season that was marked "B.S. n' P approved" after Enzo fired it out of a large gun at a group of Megabyte's henchmen.

See also

• History of computer animation
• List of amusement rides based on television franchises
• Timeline of computer animation in film and television

Footnotes

1. ^ Murphy, Dominic (1995-01-10). "Life after Power Rangers: shiny, sharp and superhuman". Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/life-after-power-rangers-shiny-sharp-and-superhuman-1567378.html. Retrieved 2010-08-20. 
2. ^ Bernstein, Sharon (1994-11-10). "'Reboot' Is First Series to Be Fully Computerized". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-10/entertainment/ca-61086_1_computer-animation. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
3. ^ "Netflix: ReBoot". http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/ReBoot/70200164. Retrieved 2011-08-26. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} Hetherington, Janet L. "As Mainframe's technology reaches adolescence, there's a 'ReBoot' Renaissance". Animation Magazine #59. Vol. 11, Issue 8, September 1997.
5. ^ ^{a b} Freeman, Mark. "Mainframe ReBoots with Beasties". Take One, p.42, Summer 1997.
6. ^ Punter, Jennie."Mainframe Reboots ReBoot". Take One. July 2001.
7. ^ ^{a b} Giardina, Carolyn (2007-07-23). "Early CG TV show gets "ReBoot"". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2007-09-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20070914165638/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i9a352772046b5f139781428f87532dad. Retrieved 2007-08-05. 
8. ^ "ReBoot Reborn: Reaching Out to Old Fans in a New Way". Zeros 2 Heroes. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20071013145146/http://alpha.zeros2heroes.com/content/view/32/97/. Retrieved 2007-07-24. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Zeroes2Heroes.com: "ReBoot Comic Writer Takes The Next Step" accessed April 5, 2011
10. ^ Zeroes2Heroes.com: "What Happens Next" (no date)
11. ^ ^{a b} "Brought to you by Rainmaker". ReBoot. 2011-03-01. http://www.reboot.com/. Retrieved 2011-05-04. 
12. ^ ReBootRevival.com - Cooksey is Out Retrieved on: 08-12-2008
13. ^ Giardina, Carolyn. Jon Cooksey ready for 'Reboot'. Hollywood Reporter. 01-06-2008. Retrieved on: 01-06-2008.
14. ^ Rainmaker Reports Results for the Quarter and Year Ended December 31, 2010 [1]. Broadcaster Magazine. Retrieved on: 23-03-2011
15. ^ Ball, Ryan (December 15, 2004). "Platinum Sends Dylan Dog to The Shop". Animation Magazine. http://www.animationmagazine.net/article.php?article_id=3326. Retrieved 2006-08-11. 
16. ^ "ReBoot in the United Kingdom". http://www.inwap.com/mf/reboot/network/ITV.html. 
17. ^ "Mainframe - Binomes". Archived from the original on 2004-10-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20041012173737/http://www.mainframe.ca/mainframe/projects/binomes/index.html. 
18. ^ Smith, Joe (November 2001). "Reboot Video Tapes and DVD". The Unofficial ReBoot Home Page. http://www.inwap.com/mf/reboot/Video.html. Retrieved 2006-07-08. 
19. ^ ""ReBoot" Home Video Collection to Be Released by ADV Films" press release". ADVfilms.com. Archived from the original on 2000-12-11. http://web.archive.org/web/20001211192200/http://www.advfilms.com/prtext.html?8. Retrieved 2006-07-08. 
20. ^ "ReBoot DVD news: DVD Plans for ReBoot". TVShowsOnDVD.com. October 5, 2010. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/ReBoot-The-Complete-Series/14499. Retrieved October 5, 2010. 
21. ^ "ReBoot DVD news: Announcement for ReBoot - Seasons 1 & 2". TVShowsOnDVD.com. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/ReBoot-Seasons-1-and-2/14797. Retrieved 2011-05-04. 
22. ^ ReBoot: The Definitive Mainframe Edition" Retrieved on: 03-08-2011
23. ^ "ReBoot DVD news: Box Art for ReBoot - Seasons 3 & 4". TVShowsOnDVD.com. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/ReBoot-Seasons-3-and-4/15125. Retrieved 2011-05-04. 
24. ^ "ReBoot DVD news: Announcement for ReBoot - Seasons 3 & 4 and ReBoot - The Definitive Mainframe Edition". TVShowsOnDVD.com. 2007-05-25. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/ReBoot-Definitive-Mainframe-Edition-Seasons-3-and-4/15106. Retrieved 2011-05-04. 
25. ^ The Envelope: The Ultimate Awards Site. LA Times.
26. ^ Mainframe Entertainment (February 1995). "Reboot Press Kit, Details of the Characters". The Unofficial ReBoot Home Page. http://www.inwap.com/mf/reboot/alliance/Details.html. Retrieved 2009-10-15. 
27. ^ "Gavin Blair explains the origin of Bob's name", Anime Evolution, Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, June 13, 2009.
28. ^ "ReBoot". IGN. http://uk.psx.ign.com/articles/152/152109p1.html. Retrieved 2010-09-26. 
29. ^ "ReBootGame Rankings". http://www.gamerankings.com/ps/198436-reboot/index.html. Retrieved 2010-09-26. 
30. ^ Van Bakiel, Roger. "Before Toy Story, there was... Reboot." Wired 5.03, March 1997.

General references

• Official ReBoot Fan website
• Mainframe Entertainment, Inc.
• Press release (January 11, 1995). "Alliance Communications and BLT Productions Invite You to Witness the Future of Animation - Reboot - The World's First 100% Computer Generated Weekly Animation Series".
• Schengili-Roberts, Keith. "Reboot Combines Dazzling Effects, Engaging Tales". The Computer Paper Publication. March 1995.
• Murphy, Kathleen. "Cyberscreens". Film Comment Magazine, pages 38–43. July/August 1995.
• "The History of ReBoot", "Mainframe City Locations" (2001). The Official ReBoot Website. Mainframe Entertainment.
• Miller, Dan R. (2001). "Gavin Blair interview". The Official ReBoot Website. Mainframe Entertainment.
• Full press release documents regarding the show's characters, background, and creators hosted at The Unofficial ReBoot Home Page.
• Interview with Gavin Blair, creator of ReBoot

External links

	Animation portal
	Canada portal
	Television portal

• Official Fan Site
• The ReBoot Wiki, an external wiki
• ReBoot at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• ReBoot video archive
• ReBoot at the Internet Movie Database
• ReBoot at TV.com
• ReBoot at the Open Directory Project
• Before Toy Story there was ... ReBoot - Wired
• The Art of ReBoot publisher site
• ReBoot website at Teletoon Retro
• Composer Bob Buckley's website