Reboot Series Overview

BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHA BEYOND THE

GOOD BEYOND THE EVIL Before we jump in the DeLorean

here on Tooncast Beyond, I was going through

the Tooncast classic iTunes feed the other day

and I saw that on iTunes we have a new review.

Amazing work, a five -star review left on April

7th, 2012 by WritingAddict169. I'm actually really

sad that I never listened to this podcast until

now. I would have loved to leave a voicemail.

Anyways, Tooncast is an amazing show where the

hosts know what they are talking about and prove

that cartoons aren't just for kids. Granted,

they get off topic at times, but honestly, we

would all do that if we were on a podcast that

has great chemistry between the cast, such as

this one. GCRN does an amazing work with everything

that they touch, and I'm glad that this was my

introduction to the network. Well, thank you

very much. And now... I'm going to throw a bunch

of people inside a couple Dlorians. We'll be

back after this. I come from the net through

systems, peoples, and cities to this place. Mainframe.

My format? Guardian. To mend and defend. To defend

my newfound friends, their hopes and dreams.

To defend them from their enemies. They say the

user lives outside the net and inputs games for

pleasure. No one knows for sure, but I intend

to find out. Reboot! Hello and welcome to the

18th episode of Tooncast Beyond, brought to you

by the Geekcast Radio Network. I'm your host,

TFJ and Mike, and today I am joined once again

by Tara the Rising Star. Hello. Hey, great to

be back. Great to be here. And Steve Megabyte.

Hello. Hello. You can't do mega blood to save

your life. Don't even try. Today we're going

to be jumping back into the DeLorean for another

Tooncast Beyond DeLorean time episode with our

heading set for 1994 once again and we are going

to be rebooting mainframe. This episode of Tooncast

Beyond will also serve as the episode zero for

the brand new podcast that we'll be launching

sooner. rather than later, I don't know exactly

when. We'll talk about that at the end of the

show, but the brand new podcast here at the GeekCaster

network, Rebooting Mainframe, where Steve and

Tara are going to go through in depth all of

the episodes of Reboot, but we wanted to do this

first to just get an overall general discussion

going about the series. As far as the overall

history lesson, Reboot is the Canadian CGI animated

action adventure cartoon series that originally

aired from 94 to 2001. Wow, it went that long.

I had no idea. It was produced by Vancouver -based

production company Mainframe Entertainment, Alliance

Communications, BLT Productions. Hey, wait. Leave

that lettuce out of that bacon and tomato. 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, supposedly. Uh,

reruns of the first three seasons can be seen,

uh, in Canada on Teletoon Retro, and the first

two seasons are available on Netflix streaming

service in the U .S. Alright, so I am actually

going to... I'm going to give my thoughts first.

I remember seeing this when it came out, and

I remember thinking, why is Hasbro going this

route for Transformers? I got this and Beast

Wars mixed up. I don't know how the hell I did

that, but I was 16 and I wasn't paying attention

to cartoons anymore that well. But no, going

back and watching this series... I love all the

voice acting in it, but I swear to God, it's

the first Tron animated series. This series reminds

me, and this is just my personal opinion, this

isn't gonna, you know, this isn't, I know this

isn't how Steve thinks and I don't know about

Tara, but to me, the whole time I was watching

season one, I was like, oh. they're going to

enter a game oh hey Tron is a game world oh this

oh that i was like i kept seeing Tron references

everywhere i i don't know i don't know um honestly

i've i've only seen the first season i i i just

i just couldn't continue watching after that

it's a good series it has a lot of good points

but it's just not my thing It just isn't. So

Steve, what are your general memories? Well,

to start it out, I do remember watching this

before Beast Wars. So that got me interested

in the 3D cartoon aspect right away. I used to

watch this and damn, I was young. Yes, you were.

Yes. This was essentially one of the shows I

grew up with along with Beast Wars. Mainframe

back in those days, in my opinion, was a fairly

good company. They had a lot of good stuff coming

out and this was one of them. I enjoyed what

little I remember of it from then. I loved Megabyte,

which I think in turn caused me to like Megatron

so much because of not only a similar name, But

the the dark portrayals and The the almost like

kind of English regal you know kind of Weird

evil so I liked that and then I like the aspect

of You know having these this this guy that's

basically the antivirus for the you know kind

of anti spyware kind of thing Protecting everybody

and then the jumping in video games, which you

know at that time we all know that video games

were not as Advanced as the games they were jumping

into No, so it was it was very mind -boggling

for a kid of that time to see something like

that Whereas now you can go see something like

Avatar and as much as I just like that movie

3d has come a long way Yeah What about you, Tara?

What do you remember about watching this series?

Oh, boy. Well, I'm going to not say everything

I want to say because I won't have anything left

to say for the actual Reboot podcast. But for

what I'm going to say, when I think about Reboot,

I think immediately about Megabyte. I think immediately

about Hexidacimal. It's really more so the characters

that I remember the most because growing up watching

this show when it came out in the mid 90s, I

My brother, my older brother is the one who really

got me into it. And at that time, it was being

shown, I believe, Saturday mornings and also

late at night on YTV, which is youth television

here in Canada. So I just remember watching the

show and really, I think at first, I didn't really,

like Steve was saying, I didn't really understand

it at first because, you know, maybe it was because

I was young. And with technology changing so

rapidly back then, it was kind of mind -boggling.

But at the same time, it was really cool. Because

the show just kind of had a way of just drawing

you in. Episode by episode, even in the first

season, you kept wanting to watch more. And it

had funny humor. It broke the fourth wall, which

I loved a lot, because not a lot of shows did

that. And when it broke the fourth wall, it brought

you into it. You felt like you were a part of

the show. You felt like you were there experiencing

everything the characters were experiencing.

So that's what I really loved about Reboot. And

also I loved the fact that it was, you know,

Canadian and it was becoming so big. And the

other thing I kind of liked about it is, we'll

get more into this in later seasons, but as...

As time went on and they got more advanced technologically

speaking, the content actually matured as well.

So while the viewers were maturing, the story

was maturing along with them, which I really

liked because they broke, like, you know... With

cartoons today so much is there's so much that's

censored and so much that's taboo that we can't

talk about on TV and or show on TV but Reboot

kind of you know it showed stuff it Exposed kids

to violent like you know some of the harsh realities

of life You know of people getting hurt and stuff

like that and good versus evil especially you

know with megabyte and hexadecimal I mean, those

things that were brought into the open with the

types of villains that they were and some of

the things that they were doing. And that's what

I liked about it is because, you know, it would

expose us to things that we probably wouldn't

have been exposed to otherwise. and also just

with so many of the references that were made

in the show with all the different all the different

you know outside stuff from even from other from

movies from comic books from television shows

just all those little hidden references in the

show just kind of made it like really cute and

really entertaining to watch and it was just

awesome I mean reboot is just it's That's why

we're dedicating a whole podcast to it because

we can't say everything we want to say in this

one episode That's how awesome it is. But yeah,

that's my general memories is just you know growing

up with it and being I think Enlightened by it

and in all of it and at the same time with some

of the darker stuff Kind of freaking me out.

I mean like with hexadecimal. Oh my god Like

I said like I said in um in Are You Afraid of

the Dark with Telecast, yeah, that kinda gave

me some nightmares of Hexadussel. It wasn't until

I got older that I wasn't afraid of her, but

yeah, that's basically what I had to say on that.

Yeah, amazing. The only thing I'm gonna say that

really kinda... If I could bitch slap one character,

it would be Enzo. Oh, yeah. I agree, until he

gets older. Well, yeah, until he gets older,

because I mean, I can actually... For I don't

know if you guys watch the show the walking dead

No But for anybody out there who does watch the

walking dead enzo can kind of be a test to um

rick's son carl Because enzo tends to get himself

into a lot of trouble and he's always told to

stay put and you know Not ever does never does

get into trouble. So bob and dot have to end

up rescuing him, which I don't know I don't know

who's worse Enzo or Scott Tracker from M .A .S

.K. So getting into the characters we're just

going to talk about the main cast and the recurring

cast where there are a whole other bunch of characters

as well. You've got Guardian Bob voiced by Michael

Benyair .Matrix voiced by Kathleen Barr. Oh hey

look it's Roll. Hey it's also the Predacon computer.

Enzo Matrix Young, voiced by Christopher Gray.

Fong, voiced by Michael Donovan. Andrea Young,

voiced by Andrea Libman. Megabyte, voiced by

the incomparable Tony J. Rest in peace, man.

Yes. Enzo Matrix, voiced by Paul Dobson. Glitch

Bob, voiced by none other than Ian James Corlett.

and the older Andrea voiced by Sharon Alexander

and of course hexadecimal voiced by Shirley Milner

for the main cast. The recurring roles, we've

got Hack and Slash who are Rat Trap and Optimus

Primal respectively, Scott McNeil and Gary Chock.

Captain Capacitator? Wow, I guess I didn't get

that far in the series because I don't know who

that character is. Long John... You're missing

out, you're missing out. Turbo by Gary Chock.

Cyrus was also Gary Chock. Ray Tracer by Donald

Gibson. Mouse by Stevie Vallance. Mike the TV

by Michael Donovan. That's not... And Cecil also

by Michael Donovan. I like Hack and Slash simply

because it is essentially Optimus Primal and

Rattrap arguing in robot bodies. I thought that

was kind of cool. I'm gonna have to go back and

rewatch to when they get to Glitch Bob because

I only remember the first Bob, Guardian Bob.

Glitch Bob I believe is like Season 3. Season

3, like the later part of Season 3 and then obviously

all of Season 4. Steve, what are your favorite

characters from Reboot? Hands down I'd have to

say Megabyte, Bob. Yeah, the original language

Fong was a little weird, but he kind of reminded

me of like an alpha try on yeah, yeah sitting

there in the background and so Hexadecimal I

never really cared for that character. Yeah And

and of course, you know hack and slash just because

you had your comedic gold and those two. Yeah

You know for me, I always want just in the few

episodes of season one that I saw, I'm like,

why don't Megabyte and Hexadecimal just get married

for Christ's sake? They're siblings! Well, something

worse happens later. Yeah, I know, but they're

siblings, Mike! They merge, they merge! Talk

about incestuous. The one thing about this show

that really, actually it's two things, it's not

really about the show, it's about one of the

characters. I'm so glad that Joan Rivers did

not voice this character, and I'm so glad that

there were no polka references. I kept thinking

of Dot from Animaniacs. Polka Dot? Why not? And

then of course Dot Matrix from Spaceballs who

was voiced by Joan Rivers. Oh god. What about

you, Tara? What are some of your favorite characters

from Reboot? Hands down, my most favorite character

is the Andrea, both young and old. Then I would

have to say Enzo Matrix when he becomes Matrix,

because I will admit I had a crush on Matrix

because he's so badass looking when he gets older.

Definitely my favorite villain, Megabyte. And

Bob. and Dot definitely did not really care for

Fong that much. Young Enzo, pain in the ass.

Hack and Flash, comedic relief right there, I

love them. I hated Cyrus just because he's a

little, just because for people who don't remember

Cyrus, he basically screws over Dot in season

one. and uh, he then, he like becomes megabytes

lucky and then when Enzo becomes the guardian

he tries to screw over Enzo as well so he's a

little, he's a little bitch character so I don't

like him that much but he's a, he's not seen

that much so thank god um also mouse, I have

to say I like mouse I mean the first time we

see her don't really, you don't really care for

her but later on when she uh comes back she's

she's a bad ass check she kinda reminds me of

uh... from mass effect she reminds me of jack

from mass effect if i can make that comparison

and um... mike the tv oh my god i'm just gonna

mention it because i mean the guy who michael

donovan did such a fantastic job with mike but

i mean that character is just such a He's he's

so annoying and I know that's the point of him,

but oh my god Yeah Yeah Cecil Cecil whatever

Where's beanie when you really need him? Anyway,

that's a bad old cartoon joke there funny about

Michael Donovan is he actually was in various

Transformers cartoons Beast Machines and Armada,

Cybertron, Energen, Gobots. Yeah. Gobots is not

a Transformers cartoon. I know. That's funny

that that's where I knew the name from. Yeah.

So I mean, yeah. So I mean, those are the characters

I mentioned are the ones that I really like.

Hexadecimal I'm on the fence with because I mean...

Not to, I mean, it doesn't matter if I really

spoil anything anymore because, I mean, the show's

been out for how long now? So, I mean, it's just,

I guess, in the beginning, yeah, you kind of

frickin' are terrified of her because she's a

nutcase. But then I think later on when she,

when Glitch Bob comes and heals her, AKA makes

her face be able to move like a normal person.

She really changes and she actually becomes an

ally of the main framers, which I really liked.

And then when you see her get her little sprite

makeover in season, was it season four, Steve?

I think so. Yeah, season four, I think in Damon

Rising. You see her like her little her little

sprite makeover. You like her a lot more, but

you tend to like her a lot more when, you know,

when she stops trying to like, you know, kill

everybody. and you know destroy mainframe like

her a lot more and um the best line for her in

um demon rising get away from my sprite because

she's loved bob like she even admits to it that

she's loved bob like she's always loved him and

you know that from like episode what is it episode

three medusa bug Just that one scene, and Steve,

I think you might remember this, with the Medusa

bug. That's Orange Mike. Mike, you'll know this,

too, because you said you watched the first six

episodes when Bob goes to destroy the Medusa

bug, and she's watching him in the mirror. Yeah,

that was a little creepy. She's like a creepy

stalker. And is she looking at his ass or something?

Yeah. And she's like, ooh. It's like when Megabyte

goes after him. Sometimes she saves him. Yeah,

because she has that creepy little crush on Bob.

She loves him. So, yeah, I have to say that.

I mean, the other characters that I could mention,

I mean, you have Ray Tracer. You got, like you

said, Turbo. And who else did I miss anybody

else from? No, I think I've gone over everybody.

But I mean, Ray Tracer. He really creeped me

out. Like I just not unlike I'm scared of him,

but like creeped out and like I'm kind of a little

bit disgusted by him Because he kind of comes

off as a creepy Sort of you know guy when you

first see him in episode 3 Yeah, so that's I'm

not sorry season 3. No, sorry. Sorry season.

Yeah, sorry season 3. He just he's a creeper

and Turbo Turbo's an asshole I'll say that. Turbo's

an asshole. He always has been, always will be.

I mean, he tries to destroy a mainframe on more

than one occasion, which really pisses me off.

And I mean, did we even go into the guest stars

or no? No. I mean, because you guys will be going

in depth when you guys start the other podcast.

I won't say their names, but I will say this

for people who are going to be tuning in to our

podcast. There are a few people who did guest

star on some of the episodes, which we will be

mentioning in Rebooting Mainframe. But yeah,

that's my general thoughts on the characters.

Steve, you want to get into some of the background

and stuff like that? Yes. According to some of

the staff, the making and the process of reboot

actually began in the 1980s. Like Mike said,

the Tron idea must have set in very well with

them. But the idea was largely devised when the

technology was not yet advanced enough to make

the show in the way that they desired. And of

course, 3D animation tests began in the 90s.

So that's when Reboot got its first detailed

look in 91. So the production on the future episodes

and the show, of course, aired in 94 after they

had produced enough episodes. And damn, it took

them a long time to do so. But yes, at that current

time, no other company was doing this. This was

revolutionary and because of them, we have more

of the modern 3D that's much more seamless and

flawless than what originally started here. That's

true. I mean, what was just so cool, I think,

about the show is like what you said was how

they were using, they were utilizing new technology

and making a show completely just 3D. you know,

not going to hand drawn, not doing any of the

other stuff, but doing just 3D. And I think that's

really what made the series unique and really

what brought it out into the open and, you know,

made it a hit. So, I mean, we can even now get

into the setting of the show. The setting is

in basically it's in the you're inside a computer

and a computer system known by the inhabitants

as mainframe. The reason my mainframe was chosen

was because, again, because of technological

constraints and it allowed them to use blocky

looking model and mechanical animation. Mainframe

is divided into six sectors. Broadway, Kits,

Floating Point Park, Beverly Hills, Wall Street,

and Getty Prime, also known as G Prime. The names

of mainframe sectors are homages to famous neighborhoods,

mostly in New York City or Los Angeles. However,

the Kitts sector, fun fact here, is actually

named for Kittaslano, a neighborhood in Vancouver,

which is mainframe entertainment's home city.

And Getty Prime is a reference to Frank Hubert's

Dune. Also the connected floating island lost

angles the twisted and corrupted area where hexadecimal

resides was of course revealed in season the

first half of season four to have been mainframes

twin sister city Yes, very interesting of course,

you know, and it's also kind of cool to see that

Gigabyte, you know Destroyed it which is also

Megabyte and hexadecimal for those that don't

know this by now But yeah, it's the setting I

was not disappointed with where they went with

it But I was very happy to see See the the different

things that they did with the show I Despite

it all being blocking and despite it all being

in one centralized location for the most part

through the entire series it still evolved to

the point that it wasn't repetitive and boring.

So it was it was very much enjoyable. And I kind

of wish that they would go back to the show,

which, you know, of course, we'll get into more

of that on the actual rebooting mainframe show.

I knew she was up to something. And yet, despite

the length and scope of our operation, we still

do not know the true nature of the Medusa's power.

Until now. highly episodic, and most of the episodes

really focused on establishing characters, locations,

story elements, and the gigantic GameCubes that

you see being dropped in most of the episodes

of season one. So basically, in terms of the

GameCubes, when the user loads a game, GameCube

drops in a random location in mainframe. and

turning it into a gamescape. Bob is the guardian

of the system. He frequently enters the game,

reboots to become a game character, and fights

the user's character in order to save the sector.

Now, if a user wins a game, sector the cube felon

is destroyed, sprites and binonyms caught within

it turn into nulls, energy -draining worm -like

parasites. Within the series, it's actually never

clear if there's a cure or reversal for degrading

to a null, even though it's mentioned throughout

the whole, it's mentioned actually a couple times

throughout season two about how they're working

on trying to do that, to find a cure for reversing

a null, but it never actually happens. The season

also established the characters Hexadecimal and

Megabyte who are viruses, and they were the primary

antagonists in most of season one. See if you

want to get into season two. Well, the second

season was primarily also episodic, but this

one actually featured an extended story arc and

it began around the seventh episode with Nullzilla,

which reveals the As Mike put it earlier, the

incestuousness of hexadecimal and megabyte, which

they never did that. It also introduced an external

threat to mainframe the web. I did not have sexual

relations with that computer program. He did

with that virus. But yes, it introduces the web,

which was fairly new at the time. Very little

people had it, so it was a different area to

go into. So, of course, a creature or virus enters

from the web into mainframe from hexadecimal's

looking glass, which was shattered by microtv.

It binds with her and mainframe Nulls reacted

spontaneously and covered her to form a monster

dubbed Nullzilla. It's a bad Japanese. jump over

with Godzilla. But um, it was defeated and neutralized

by the protectors of mainframe. The web creature

located Megabyte took him over and forced him

to murder with hexadecimal forming a next -gen

super virus called Gigabyte. And then of course

Gigabyte was eventually neutralized as well and

then the web creature escaped into the bowels

of mainframe. And it of course steals energy

to stay alive and Basically, this whole season

is just chasing web creatures and eventually

ends with Megabyte and Bob kind of in a somewhat

quasi alliance, kind of like season one of Beast

Wars in that sense. Megabyte, of course, betrays

Bob, crushes Bob's key tool, Glitch, and sends

him into the web portal before closing it. And

thus is the problem that you enter into season

three. Yeah, that was a bitch because I mean,

he gets like just seeing that, just seeing Bob

get betrayed. I mean, we all knew that Megabyte

was going to do that. But I mean, oh, my God,

just. just the ending of season two was just

so heartbreaking for fans of Bob because you

got you get so used to him right and then you

see that and just and then he's like ripped he

just like ripped away from you yeah the most

loved character on the the mainframe side and

you're like what you're like the main character

is like no longer in this show right now what's

going on i mean oh my god yeah and basically

with season three um you know Enzo young Enzo

is forced to become the guardian of the system

essentially taking on Bob's role and Basically,

you know, he has to defend mainframe from megabyte

and hexadecimal with dot and Andrea to side and

basically I mean, so the first couple, basically

in season three, the first couple episodes are

you're seeing, you know, Enzo learning how to

become a guardian, learning, you know, going

to fight games by himself without Dot by his

side. And, you know, learning how to be, you

know, more of a mature character. And then finally,

in season three, episode three, he enters a game

which I will describe as a cross between Mortal

Kombat and Tekken. because essentially Enzo reboots

as, I'm gonna say I think he reboots as Scorpion

and basically they enter the game, they can't

win the game, they become trapped in the game,

so in order to survive they change their icons

to game sprite mode and ride the game out of

mainframe and because game time they accelerate

faster when they're in the game. Enzo and Andrea

matured a lot faster than they would have inside

mainframes, so now they're adult characters.

So we see Enzo adopting the name Matrix, which

is actually his surname, and carrying his new

weapon named Gun and Bob's damage glitch. And

we really see a change in Enzo Matrix and Andrea.

Matrix, he's become a hardened character and

he developed a whole shoot first, ask questions

later kind of attitude and he has a path, he

literally has a pathological hatred of Megabyte

and Andrea on the other hand has turned into

a calm and level -headed warrior and also we

see the romance between Matrix and Andrea because

The two characters make out quite a few times

throughout the series, which is very cute because

you always knew they were going to get together.

But it's cool just to see that kind of maturity

coming forward as the show went on. As the season

progresses, I mean, they're basically trying

to get home to mainframe now. So they've been

trapped for a while. They've been going through

system to system to find a portal to the web

to get back to mainframe. And as the season progresses,

they eventually they're reunited with Bob and

the crew of the saucy mare. And they return to

mainframe, which has almost been completely destroyed,

obviously, by mega minus forces. So they reunite

with Dodd. And I have to say that scene where

she reunites with with Enzo. Oh, my God. Like

you if you're like a huge fan of the show, you

probably like me, you probably teared up a little

bit. Almost as much as when you when. You see

Dot screaming at the end of episode three when

she's like, Enzo, no! Because she's like, oh

my god, he lost the game, he's gone. And she

thinks he's dead. So you see that reunion come

forward. You see her reuniting with Glitch Bob.

And basically... They reunite, they head to the

principal office for one final showdown with

Megabyte. Megabyte's defeated by Matrix, but

not before Megabyte basically screws them all

over and causes the system to crash. And essentially

all the final problems in mainframe were dealt

with by the user restoring the system, setting

everything right, and restoring everything as

it was again for our heroes, except we now have

a young and older Enzo in the same... time frame

because matrix matrix six sorry matrix icon was

set to game sprite mode so because of this he

wasn't recognized properly by the system when

he rebooted and it created a replacement of his

gender self now i'm going to get into a little

bit i mean season four it's it's it's essentially

dubbed season four but it's really too made for

tv movies because unfortunately they didn't really

get to develop They didn't really get to continue

the series after this. So this is basically the

ending to Reboot Fornia. So we have two movies

that were produced in 2001. We have Damon Rising,

which addresses the problem the Guardians were

facing in season three, which I will address

now. Basically in season three, throughout the

travels, we find out that there's a new virus

on the web known as Damon, and her virus is spreading

to... all corners of the web and the net, and

also infecting guardians. And then we also get

another movie, My Two Bobs, which brings back

a very corroded and mutated megabyte in the horrible

cliffhanger ending. The two movies were actually

broken up into eight episodes in the US, run

on Cartoon Network's Toonami, which 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. So

initial plans for the fourth season include three

films broken into 12 episodes, followed by a

13 musical special episode. Although the final

five were never produced, we're prompting the

series to end with a cliffhanger, which is what

I mentioned previously. That's why we have a

cliffhanger, because they were never produced.

So season four, the two movies I have to say

were just amazing. I really enjoyed watching

them, but it's a shame that it ended on a cliffhanger

because You're left with what the fuck basically

So that's that that basically wraps up Maybe

it's cuz I haven't seen the whole series all

the way through I'm willing to give it a try

but As we said, only the first two seasons are

on Netflix right now here in the US. Season 3

and the movies aren't on there as far as I know.

They will be later on because of that whole deal

with Hasbro, all their other shows. Right, yeah.

But as of this episode's recording, I've only

seen a handful of Season 1 and part of Season

2. I just find that the continuity is all over

the place. I mean, I know that it was essentially

episodic cartoons and everything else, and there's

not a really strict continuity, but, I don't

know, there's so many convoluted issues with

this series. When it comes to the characters

and everything, I was like, I just can't pay

attention. I don't know, I just couldn't really

pay that much attention to it. there's some points

I can understand that because there are some

points where it's kind of hard to follow just

because um like some of the storylines may not

be up to par with more of an adult thinking like

some of some of the individual stories themselves

like not the whole series but some of the individual

ones I have a little bit of a difficulty sitting

through um but that's with any series you're

gonna run into that so I mean, you know, I had

a huge issue second episode in. The second episode

was Enzo has a delivery service, I believe. Yeah,

racing the clock. Yeah. How the hell does he

not know Megabyte's voice? Really? Seriously?

Well, you know, whatever. He's a stupid kid,

but it gets better. You're talking about in...

you're talking about season one episode two race

for the clock race for the clock what do you

mean he does know megabyte's voice what are you

talking about you're talking about he doesn't

know that it's a bomb in the mask no he doesn't

know that well no okay yeah now i'm remembering

a little more gas he does know it's megabyte

but he doesn't know what he's delivering right

he doesn't know what he's delivering but First

of all, it's megabyte. Yeah do anything. I mean

that's like why would you I don't care if you

want to Further your business. You don't work

with megabyte you moron Well, that's what I was

saying why I compared him to Carl from the walking

dead because he constantly gets himself into

trouble and then essentially because Dot is playing

overprotective big sister. No, you are not delivering

something for Megabyte. So she makes Bob go and

do it, right? And then Bob essentially almost

gets screwed over. Steve, did you have any other

thoughts on the overall plot of the series or

any other episodes you might have liked or anything

like that? I do like some of the earlier season

episodes. I don't... My memory is still a little

foggy on it. I haven't actually sat down and

watched the whole series since I bought it. I've

kind of just jumped between episodes. Mostly

trying to jump between season three and season

four because I'm very unfamiliar with them. Yeah.

But I do like some of the aspects of the later

seasons more so than the earlier seasons, but

I think it's because it's more action driven.

And whereas the earlier ones are more just kind

of there. But it definitely grows on you as you

go along. I am saddened that the 2010 attempt

to revive this did not come to pass. Yes. And

also the later version of it, which again, we'll

get into that more. And while I'm trying to jump

over to future improvement. Over in the rebooting

mainframe, there's too many shows. But yeah,

that's we'll jump more into that detail on an

episode of that I will say that Kind of just

jumping off the off the premise kind of going

on over to the end of the music The music for

this series and the sound effects were great

Even though there were a couple of times where

I heard a few Mario effects Very much so Yeah,

I think I did catch a couple of those. I think

it was Enzo's phone thing that he carries or

whatever that is, the communicator or video game.

I don't know, he carried something around like

the first four or five episodes. Yeah, it was

like a vid or something vid viewer or something

like that. I can't remember the name of it. You

mean a little PDF thingy that Dot carried around?

Yeah. Like that looks like an iPad? Yeah. That

thing, yeah. Yeah, but no. The music was epic

and awesome and it really, really made the show

for me. Absolutely loved it. And what better

way to get geeks about this show than the intro?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. My format, Guardian. Yes. To

mend and defend. Yeah. Yes. So getting into the

legacy of the show, I'm going to take the television

broadcasts. Reboot was first broadcast on Saturday

mornings in Canada on YTV in the United States

in 1994 by ABC. Wow, this was on ABC. Holy crap.

Yes, it was. It was cancelled on ABC after the

Walt Disney Company purchased the network. Episodes

continued to air in Canada. Some episodes from

the first and second seasons could still be seen

in U .S. when Cluster Television distributed

them during the 1996 -1997 season. It would be

a year before new episodes aired on YTV due to

mainframe's involvement in the Transformers Beast

Wars. And Shadow Raiders, what the hell is Shadow

Raiders? Shadow Raiders is War Planets. I don't

know if you remember that back in the day those

toys would go War Planets. It's basically the

same essential cast used from Reboot and Beast

Wars and then that again and it's their 1998

series so about every few years they launched

a new show. It just shows how much more technologically

advanced they got since Reboot and Beast Wars.

Yes. Moving on over to the VHS and DVD release,

there were a number of VHS tapes. The second

season was never released, even though Polygram

remained 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 AD Vision to release a third season on DVD,

spanning four volumes. All 16 episodes were published,

separated by each story arc of four episodes.

Really where it really makes any real difference

here is... In 2010, Shout Factory announced that

it was acquiring the rights to the show and would

release the complete series on DVD. That's really

all you really need. Complete series on DVD in

digital formats. And it rocks. In 2011, yes,

Steve has the complete series set. I have the

box set, the 9 DVD set. Ah, stop rubbing it in.

And the box art on it is cool. Yes. Steve, you

want to talk about the network censorship a bit?

Yes, I will. I will. The show's early jokes,

at the expense of board of standards and practices,

came from frustrations 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. This is another

typical thing that companies or animators like

to do to kind of give the finger without doing

so. That's true. 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. That

being said, the character Dot was considered

too sexualized by BS &P. Wow, BS. Yeah bullshit

and people or no board of style. I know I was

giving my own I was giving my own You're gonna

give his own little spin on it. Yes bullshit

and people there we go 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 mono breast as Lightly

heard so wait a second dot is the first animated

character to have breast cancer No, she's the

first one to have a uniboob Unibib. However,

starting with season 3, the monoboob 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 vulgar slang terms.

Oh, you're joking. I didn't know that. Yeah,

no, it's so stupid. In the episode Talent Night,

one scene of Dot giving her brother enzoase,

Stirli kissed on the chin, was cut due to BS

&P's fear of promoting incest, and the insinuation

which Pearson described as one of the sickest

things I've heard. Yeah, I'm gonna get into that

a little bit if you don't mind. Go ahead. That

was just ridiculous. When I, you know, I didn't

even know this until doing research on the show,

but honestly, that's, yeah, that's sick. I mean,

come on. First of all... like it's it was his

birthday and she's his older sister and instead

of her like you know giving him like a kiss on

the chin like you know like a sisterly kiss she

what does she do she spin i think she spins his

hat around instead which looks kind of retarded

which i will yeah that's the thing with you because

she doesn't like i mean because look how intimate

look how much more intimate she got with bob

than her little brother whose birthday it is.

Like, so that was okay for her to be wearing,

like, a sexy, skin -tight red dress that'll slit

up the side and basically, you know, rubbing

up all against Bob, but her giving her little

brother a kiss on his birthday is considered

incest? Like, it doesn't make any sense. I mean,

if I were to compare it, I would say, you know,

the way Dot was acting was a lot more seductive

than... her you know with the plan to just give

Enzo a kiss on his cheek to say happy birthday

you know like oh my god give me a freaking break

like yeah come on these network sensors they're

freaking retarded on any show that they're involved

with you know because you've been through this

with other shows too but just that part oh my

god i mean because that was an awesome episode

That was a way better episode than episode 10,

The Great Brain Robbery, which I will not watch

ever again. I'm not going there. I know enough

to not have to talk and watch it. But yeah, that's

just crazy. I mean, some of the things, I mean,

and the whole monoboob thing, give me a break.

Well, they corrected that with Blackarachnia

and Beast Wars right away. And they also corrected

it later on in season three and season four,

because look at Hex Decimals reboot. Look at

look what a hexadecimal is wearing. Look at her

outfit. Look how drastically her outfit got changed.

She's wearing like a bustier and like She looks

like a little like a little Virus like a little

stripper virus or something, you know Look at

the way she's dressed She's gonna play the glitch

Steve you agree with me? Oh, yeah And then look

and then look at when she comes with sprite she

still sexed up and also and then even with dot

I mean in one and like in a Tomb Raider kind

of game you see how dot got sexed up in the Tomb

Raider game thing like give me a bloody break

like Pass that they were concerned about Like

come on. They're stupid Tara you want to go briefly

over the revival? I didn't know, I think Steve's

gonna take that. Oh, okay. Yeah, it basically

is for the revival Rainmaker income fund in 2006,

bought out Mainframe Entertainment and renamed

it Rainmaker Animation, which in my opinion,

since that happened, I haven't quite cared for

half the stuff that's come out of that company.

That's also why damn near everybody that was

involved with the original Mainframe do not work

there anymore and wouldn't start their own companies.

But in 2007, Rainmaker was announcing plans to

create a trilogy of reboot films with illustrator

and animators from, you know, not only Rainmaker,

but also the people that worked on reboot. It

was also in conjunction with a website, Zeros

to Heroes, which again has to do with a couple

of the people that were involved with reboot

and doing their own thing at the time. So that

got canned and so they had a development of a

reboot webcomic where fans were able to submit

their own art and designs and potentially end

the series and they did a pitch and reboot arrival

was the winning one. Suffice it to say they had

a whole other storyline in there. I've read the

comic, it's quite good. So I would recommend

going over to Zeroes to Heroes to read it. They

also had Paradigms Lost, which also has to do

with the aftermath of the hunt on mainframe,

showing the devastation and zombie gnomes and

everything else like that. But yeah, as far as

all that's concerned, there was a lot of random

stuff back and forth between Rainmaker and the

Zeroes to Heroes. And then, in 2008, a new countdown

appeared on the official Reboot website to launch

the second installment of the comic. And there

was also, in 2009, not only in addition to the

fan site and the comics and everything else,

they were going to basically make a new series

out of it. There was a... I think 22nd preview

trailer on their site, which is now nowhere to

be found. I downloaded that at one point. I don't

know where I put it. I'm going to have to find

it. But they show basically a modern animation,

and it says now loading. This is Guardian version

2 .0, and it shows this badass looking Guardian.

And I'm like, that's not Bob. It looks like Turbo.

I'm like, it's not Bob. And yeah, it did look

like Turbo though. So I was kind of like, hmm,

I wonder, um, because they, you know, they had

that teaser out in 2009 and, uh, it was revealed

and in their animation reel, that's what it was.

And yeah, in 2011, Rainmaker basically said,

um, they're there on their, their slate of things

to do is including a film based on the classic

series reboot, but that'll probably never see

the light of day, unfortunately. Yeah As much

as I would love to see that Yes, I mean, yeah,

we got so hyped up for it. I mean going back

to 2010 I mean it was all over Facebook. It was

all over Twitter. It was all over everywhere

and then I think it was just a really big disappointment

for the fans because it was almost like okay

We're gonna get you so hyped up for it and now

Okay, man, you know, we're not gonna go forward

with it and then it wasn't until I think last

year, I think, the later part of last year on

Twitter when they did announce that Nail, they're

gonna go forward with a revival, like a film

franchise based on the classic reboot. I think

that's on their agenda now. Yeah, and actually,

speaking of that, there's a guy that looks like

Bob on the Rainmaker site. Oh really? It's eerily

like Bob and it's just in development and then

there's no name nothing and it's got some like

otter looking... Maybe that's it. Yeah I mean

I like Rainmaker and you don't get me wrong like

I love Rainmaker and that's probably because

yes I will admit to this I they they are the

ones behind all the Barbie movies okay And I

know you're gonna say that but I really like

the Barbie movies and I don't care I'm 21 I will

admit to that but I do enjoy watching them. I

thought they're really well done and I mean Just

I'm excited to see what's gonna happen with three

bit now because it is 2012 so I am really really

hoping and this is my message on behalf of all

the fans out there Rainmaker mainframe entertainment,

whoever is really gonna spearhead this Please

don't screw this up. Please give the fans what

we've waited for for god knows how many years.

We want to see, we're not so much interested

in seeing a whole, you know, remake of the reboot

series. We really want to see you take where

you left us off in the end of season four with

Megabyte and see that, you know, done in animated

form. Because yes, the comic did resolve all

that. but we really need closure because that

was not cool rainmaker they would have see here

here here's my problem hold on i'll let you go

ahead and then i'll i'll here's here's my problem

with them continuing it from where it left off

just from what we've discussed in this episode

yeah sadly mr tony jay has left us yeah i know

he's passed away so unless unless they in like

I hate to say it, but unless they reboot Megabyte

and upgrade him to something else and give him

a different voice, I don't want to see someone

in that same animation model trying to do a poor

impression of Tony J and stuff like that. I'm

sure there are very many talented voice actors

out there that might be able to do a good Tony

J impression, specifically Maurice LaMarche maybe.

Mean if Maurice LaMarche can do Don Adams, I'm

sure he can do Tony Jay, but I don't want them

to Do it poorly is really what I'm saying here

if they are going to do it. What were you gonna

say Steve? Well, I was gonna say There is there's

a couple ways that they could go about doing

that About rebooting mega megabyte losing it.

I almost said mega frame and then frame and yeah

just too many megas in there. They could technically

evolve the character or mutate the character

somewhat because I mean obviously technology

has changed massively since then so they have

to give them all an overhaul which would make

sense that if they're you know they could do

upgrading you know at the very beginning and

kind of Bridge the gap that way and then mutate

them and then they can change the voice any way

they want Yeah, yeah, and you know hell had David

K. Do a you know another Megatron ish knockoff

on it That regal British voice almost Sean Connery

But not using the Megatron ish or or even get

someone that can imitate Tony J really well I've

heard many good fan impressions that I can't

tell the difference. Yeah, so But suffice it

to say I would love to see that come to fruition,

but I sincerely doubt that we'll ever see the

light of day again So I think we're gonna take

a quick break and then we are gonna go to The

commercials and we'll come back to close the

show after that Grab your helmets because it's

time to assemble mask the geek cast radio network

has launched mass to mayhem with your hosts optimus

solo and TF2 and Mike this podcast covering all

75 episodes of mask will feature in -depth analysis

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come listen to animation aficionados and if you

disagree with us you could be a guest on a future

show available on iTunes the Zune market and

animation aficionados calm Sort of omens give

me psyched beyond psyched. I see a new episode

of tune gas coming this week We are back and

Steve final thoughts on reboot Definitely, kicking

a show. I definitely recommend that everybody

sees this in some capacity because, let's face

it, without this show, there wouldn't be the

utter awesomeness that has led to various 3D

shows beyond it, including the revival that caused

Transformers to go back into the mainstream.

And, you know, of course, this shows a very nice

look into the world of your PC. Tara, final thoughts?

Final thoughts on Reboot. Just amazing show and

again, just elaborating on what Steve said, without

Reboot, we really wouldn't be where we are today

with animation. And the cool thing to note about

Reboot is that it was actually, this was done

actually way before even Toy Story came out in

theaters. So this was pretty revolutionary for

a show. It's a classic and I really suggest you

watch it. If you like Transformers Beast Wars,

if you like kind of old school CGI stuff, you

will love Reboot. You'll really enjoy it. It's

really a show. I think if you have young kids,

you may want to expose them to this because it's

a classic and everyone needs to watch it. And

the cool thing about it is that, yes, you can

find it on the internet, you can find it on YouTube,

you can even find it on Netflix and DVDs and

stuff. So it is available for newer audiences

to get exposed to it. But yeah, definitely it's

such an amazing series that I'm so glad I got

to grow up with. And before we close this off,

I'm just looking forward to rebooting mainframe.

Little pun there. In the podcast, it's really

just gonna be a really incredible journey and

we hope that you will join us for this journey

into mainframe So with that, I will that's my

thoughts just awesome for me I I love the voice

acting of Tony J's megabyte amazing villain for

me. I just couldn't get into the series Maybe

it was because I wasn't watching it when it was

on originally I'm very thankful for it, you know

starting up, you know, the new 3D era of animation

and everything else like that. So thank you for

joining us here on Tooncast Beyond There are

still ways you can contact with us or leave feedback

for the show. Visit the website GeekCasterRadio

.com, you can comment on all the different posts.

Yes, we will interact with you that way. You

can send us email, it's feedback at GeekCasterRadio

.com. Leave the show's feedback in iTunes. We

have new iTunes reviews. Of course, if I could

find the stupid thing. Alright, so Tooncast Beyond

got a new review as of April 7th, 2012. Fantastic

as always, 5 -star reviews from Writing... Addict

169. Somehow these guys top themselves with every

new podcast they put out. They make any day fly

by with tons of laughs and sharing interesting

facts from each show. Everyone seems to have

a great chemistry with each other and it really

makes you wish you were doing the podcast with

them. They bring an air of professionalism and

it's fantastic to hear what they think of each

show through the eyes of an adult. I cannot wait

to see what other shows you guys cover. Keep

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back in time here on Tooncast Beyond and wish

you'll join us next time when we will be once

again jumping into the DeLorean for more DeLorean

time with the Fleischer Superman cartoons. For

now, I am TF2 and Mike with Tara the Rising Star

Steve Megatron Phillips and I think we're gonna

let Bob close the show. Stay frosty.