I’ve always had a love for the classic animation styles utilized by Warner Brother and Disney artists. As far as I’m concerned, there’s just nothing quite like the old fashioned hand-drawn cartoons. Over the last few years, more and more studios have begun to replace these styles with computer animation. More often than not the computer animation tends to overshadow the stories, creating empty, soulless productions. Only a handful of studios have managed to either marry the two styles successfully, and even less have turned out some high quality entertainment. The two that come to mind immediately are Pixar and Mainframe. Pixar is extremely well-known because of films like “Toy Story 1&2”, “A Bug’s Life”, “Monster’s Inc” and “Little Nemo.” The geniuses behind Pixar have the right idea, and their productions are amongst the highest rated in computer animation circles. Mainframe is lesser known by the mass populace, but this has little to do with the quality of the productions they turn out.

They are, first and foremost, located in Canada and most of their work ends up on TV as opposed to motion pictures.

It took a while for me to warm up to computer animation, and it was Mainframe that did it for me. A few years back, they created an animated series called “Reboot”, which was about a community living within a computer’s ‘mainframe.’ Because it was computer animated, I initially avoided it at all costs, instead turning to the old Bugs Bunny / Road Runner cartoons (however badly edited) on Saturday mornings. It wasn’t until after I met my wife that I finally to the time to watch a couple of episodes. I trust her judgment and she relentlessly told me that I simply HAD to watch it. She informed me I didn’t know what I was missing, and that I would love it.

The first three seasons had already run their course, so we turned to Cartoon Network to catch a couple of episodes. After just one, I was completely hooked. The animation style was amongst the best I had seen up to that point, but more importantly, the story was good, the characters were interesting, and it made me laugh. In just that one episode, there were more cultural references (sure to go over the heads of most children) than I could count. From that day on, I made it a point to catch each episode, so I could watch them in order. There were references to everything from Tim Burton’s “Invaders from Mars”, “The Prisoner”, and even a whole episode that featured a character that STRONGLY resembled Ash (Bruce Campbell), from the “Evil Dead” film series. The guys creating “Reboot” had my kind of sense of humor.

It’s extremely hard to describe the show for the uninitiated, but as I mentioned before, it takes place in Mainframe, a city within a computer. The denizens of the town are protected by Bob, who is a Guardian. He takes care of ‘tears’ in the system and fights off viruses (in this case, the evil Megabyte and Hexadecimal). He also enters the ‘games’, which occasionally come down into parts of the city. These games are generally based on existing videogames of the time. It is his job to defeat the mysterious ‘user.’ If he doesn’t, that part of the city is destroyed. He is loved by Dot, and idolized by her younger brother Enzo.

The series was so incredibly well-written and animated, that I was disappointed when the 3rd season came to a close, marking the end of the series. Shortly after, however a 4th season was created, which aired briefly on Cartoon Network. Unfortunately, I missed it when it aired and was totally ticked off when they didn’t repeat it. Thank God for DVD.

Because the rights to the series are owned by so many studios, only the 3rd season is available in any kind of DVD release (from ADV Films). But now, thanks to Anchor Bay Entertainment, the little-seen 4th season is finally ready to hit the market. It’s a single disc set that includes all 8 episodes of the final season cut together as two feature length films.

The first, “Daemon Rising” involves a Supervirus that has spread her infection through the Super Computer, the entire Guardian Collective, the forbidding worlds of the Web and most of the known net. Only one obstacle stands in her way: Mainframe, home system of our heroes. Bob and the gang must team up with old enemies to defeat this new threat. The second is “My Two Bobs”, which as you might guess from the title, has Mainframe in a frenzy when another ‘Bob’ shows up. No one, not even the two ‘Bobs’, can tell which is the real Bob.

The DVD doesn’t really have many extras, but at least it gives you some character galleries, which helps new viewers understand a little of who everyone is. I definitely recommend this 4th season to any and all “Reboot” fans. It takes place pretty much right after the end of the 3rd season, and jumps right into the adventure. If you’re not familiar with the series though, it might take you a little bit to catch on to what’s happening.

Directed by: George Samilski / Steve Ball
Extras: Character Profiles
Specifications: Widescreen (1.78:1) Enhanced for 16X9 Televisions
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Release Date: 5/4/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Reboot: V4.0 an A.