ReBoot: The Guardian Code (Live-Action/CG-hybrid, Megabyte confirmed and shown (UPDATE: Bob, Dot, Enzo, Hack, and Slash also!))

[Hero of Legend]

 

Full size (click)

 

PR:

 

VANCOUVER, BC and BANFF, AB--(Marketwired - June 08, 2015) - Corus Entertainment has given the greenlight to Mainframe Entertainment -- the television division of the multifaceted Vancouver-based animation studio Rainmaker Entertainment (TSX VENTURE: RNK) -- to produce 26 half-hour episodes of a reimagined version of the classic and first-of-its-kind CG-animated television series ReBoot. ReBoot: The Guardian Code, a hybrid live-action/CG-animated series to be distributed globally by TWC/Dimension Television (excluding Canada) commences production on the heels of the series' 20th anniversary, featuring cutting-edge technology that will reboot the ReBoot universe to create a groundbreaking multi-platform experience. The announcement was made today at Banff World Media Festival by Jamie Piekarz, Director of Content, Corus Kids, and Michael Hefferon, President and Chief Creative Officer, Rainmaker Entertainment. The series originally premiered on Corus' kids channel YTV in 1994 and aired until 2001.

"We're thrilled to be working with Mainframe to bring back an exciting new, reimagined version of this classic animated series to Corus Entertainment," said Jamie Piekarz, Director of Content, Corus Kids. "The new ReBoot will feature the same action and comedy that viewers loved in the original series, but with an updated technological universe that will fascinate a new generation of kids."

"We are delighted to receive the greenlight from Corus Entertainment to move forward with the production of ReBoot: The Guardian Code," commented Hefferon. "Technology is ever-changing and ReBoot: The Guardian Code will utilize the very technology inherent in the concept of the show -- and prevalent in kids' everyday lives -- to drive a new type of relationship across multiple platforms. ReBoot: The Guardian Code and associated brand extensions will deliver mass appeal with a technology focus, empowering kids with the tools and confidence to chart their own course in a world that is increasingly dependent on and powered by technological knowledge."

Created by Michael Hefferon, ReBoot: The Guardian Code is based on the original ReBoot created by Gavin Blair, John Grace, Phil Mitchell and Ian Pearson. The YTV series was the first of its kind -- a fully CG animated television series. Ahead of its time, the original series electrified viewers with its groundbreaking animation style and stories of heroic Guardians who battled viruses inside computer systems. Twenty years later, ReBoot: the Guardian Code upgrades that original concept for today's tech savvy kids.

Transcending age groups with appeal to kids, tweens and teens, ReBoot: the Guardian Code is an adventure-comedy series about four teens (Austin, Parker, Grey and Tamra) who discover that they're next-gen Guardians with a mission to save the world, by defending it in cyberspace. The Internet revolutionized the world, but it also left it vulnerable to attack. With the help of VERA, the last surviving cyberbeing from the original Guardian Program, our heroes stream into cyberspace where they use their awesome code-based powers to battle viruses that have been unleashed by a ruthless hacker. Known only as the Sourcerer, he seeks to rule the world by controlling cyberspace. Original fans of the show will be happy to hear that Megabyte will be back and he's getting a major upgrade. ReBoot will showcase leading edge technologies and bring coding into the mainstream for kids.

When Austin, Parker, Grey and Tamra are not trying to stop viruses from overloading a nuclear power station, or remotely opening a dam to flood a city, or playing Criss Cross Crash Hour with a city's transportation grid, our heroes are being typical teens: arguing with their parents over curfews; dealing with crushes; or trying to avoid getting suspended for skipping class when they're really on a cyber mission to save the world!

Over the course of its four seasons in the 1990s, 48 x 22 minute episodes of ReBoot were sold to 84 counties (YTV in Canada and ABC Network and Cartoon Network in the US), with the last new episodes airing in 2001. Complementing the television series was a ReBoot toy line produced by Irwin Toys along with a video game produced by Electronic Arts.

About Corus Entertainment Inc.
Corus Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian-based media and entertainment company that creates, broadcasts and licenses content across a variety of platforms for audiences around the world. The Company's portfolio of multimedia offerings encompasses specialty television and radio with additional assets in pay television, television broadcasting, children's book publishing, children's animation and animation software. Corus' brands include YTV, TELETOON, ABC Spark, W Network, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network (Canada), HBO Canada, Historia and Séries+, as well as Nelvana, Kids Can Press, Toon Boom and 39 radio stations including CKNW AM 980, Rock 101, Country 105, 630 CHED, Fresh Radio, JUMP! 106.9, Q107 and 102.1 the Edge. A publicly traded company, Corus is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:CJR. . Experience Corus on the web at www.corusent.com.

About Rainmaker Entertainment
Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Rainmaker Entertainment Inc. is a multifaceted animation studio and one of Canada's largest producers of CG animation. On February 15, 2013, Rainmaker's first feature film, Escape From Planet Earth (distributed by The Weinstein Company), opened on 3200 screens across North America. Originally established as Mainframe Entertainment, the company produced the first ever CGI animation series, ReBoot, and over the course of its 15+ years of innovative history, Rainmaker has continued to break new ground in animation, telling engaging stories and creating compelling characters for all media. In addition to projects Rainmaker has produced with partners and clients including Mattel, The Weinstein Company, Hasbro, Lionsgate and Sony, Rainmaker also develops proprietary projects for both film and television. For more information, visit www.rainmaker.com.

 

Canada is excluded for some reason (of all countries), unless YTV specifically is doing it? But Corus owns YTV so...

Obviously Megabyte being confirmed raises the near decade-long question; who will succeed Tony Jay as Megabyte? Unless they justify the recast with a very different voice with the upgrade (like how Gigabyte was voiced by Blu Mankuma aka Tigatron in BW), who knows.

The whole live-action and CG thing reminds me of that show, what was it, that featured kids playing a game and Mainframe animated the CG game parts. I can see this being the same, where Mainframe, or whatever the world will be called, is CG but the real world is live-action.

 

AND, look at the head's reflection, IT'S MEGABYTE!!!

 

 

UPDATE: Bob, Dot, and Enzo are confirmed. Bob will be in the pilot episode.

 

Hefferon said that Bob, hero of the original series, will be a part of the pilot episode and that other beloved favourites, such as Dot and Enzo, will have a role to play as well.

 

Edit: AND Hack and Slash!

 

Megabyte's memory-challenged henchmen Hack and Slash will be back as well, Hefferon said.

 

Dem bones dem bones dem, DRY BONES!

[goku262002]

Insane, its no longer talk now.

Hmm, its a shame that there is not going to be any more old characters returning other then Megabyte and this VERA, and the LA is going to rub me the wrong way but it'll be good seeing the CG universe of Reboot back on TV.

For kicks I hope they throw in some classic 90s CG.

EDIT: oh right the most important question, will this show explain how Season 4 was supposed to end? or was that explained in that short lived webcomic?

[Hero of Legend]

Bob and the others will surely be there at some point, how would Megabyte be the only one?

[Celestia]

Not in Canada (at least at first)...uhh, that's really weird, but okay? I'm not too bothered, I'll just watch the episodes online in a way that's incredibly legit. Yeah. Seriously though, hope they clarify what that's about because it'll be really weird if we don't get the show at around the same time as other places, considering where Corus is based and all.

 

Anyway, I'm super excited for this. ReBoot is something I always wish got a proper ending, or continuation of some kid at least. To put this in perspective, as much as I love Sonic, I wasn't nearly as frustrated by SATam's cliffhanger as I still am over ReBoot. To say I've dreamed of this is putting it mildly. ~10-year-old me would be bouncing off the walls even more than present day me is.

 

Bob and the others will surely be there at some point, how would Megabyte be the only one?

[Tani Coyote]

Oooo, I need to give this a go purely for nostalgia's sake. This show was the shit when I was younger.

 

"Mainframe Entertainment." ...I'm guessing they were set up just for this and/or changed their name just for it? Too perfect!

[JezMM]

Oooo, I need to give this a go purely for nostalgia's sake. This show was the shit when I was younger.

 

"Mainframe Entertainment." ...I'm guessing they were set up just for this and/or changed their name just for it? Too perfect!

 

Mainframe Entertainment was the original company that created ReBoot, and they renamed themselves Rainmaker later.  So this Mainframe is "new" in the sense that they're a division of Rainmaker, clearly given their own name as a throwback.

 

 

Anyway gonna be honest I'm not as excited for this as I wish I was.  I always thought that there's no way they could satisfyingly continue the cliffhanger storyline of the original while also making the show accessible for newcomers.  Either this is a brand new canon, or it will barely reference the original series at all even if it is canon with what happened inbetween being very broad in interpretation.  Either way we are never getting the conclusion we wanted all those years ago, and certainly not as it was planned (which was basically just 5 more episodes that they weren't able to produce, sob).

 

 

Honestly the live action stuff sounds grossly unappealing to me.  ReBoot was about this real world inside a computer, part of the magic was that you never saw the outside world, but I guess they're just not confident in not providing that context for kids of what the virtual world is exactly.  I hope it's a good show either way, but it's definitely a... well, reboot, intended for kids, not the original fans.  If they can placate those fans on the side then bonus, but otherwise... yeah.  I don't blame them, I didn't expect anything different, but still will never get over how close to the end of the intended storyline we came in the original series which will never ever be concluded as it was planned to be.

[Blue Wisp]

The whole live-action and CG thing reminds me of that show, what was it, that featured kids playing a game and Mainframe animated the CG game parts.

Code Lyoko? Loved that show. 

 

Never really watched Reboot, but I've heard of it. Love the character designs, specially Hexadecimal and Megabyte. Hoping this is good. 

[Shane]

The whole live-action and CG thing reminds me of that show, what was it, that featured kids playing a game and Mainframe animated the CG game parts. I can see this being the same, where Mainframe, or whatever the world will be called, is CG but the real world is live-action.

That show was called Zixx.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

*Live Action*

 

Hmm...always raise an eyebrow over that, because I'm a bit sick of live action being too predominant in most of our media. Granted, animation is hella expensive by comparison. But still, I kinda wish this was fully animated instead of being a CGI hybrid, but we'll just see how it turns out first and reserve judgement then.

[Your Vest Friend]

The CG/Live Action hybrid stuff reminds me of Ace Lightning for some reason.

[MamboCat]

omfg Megabyte... but yeah, without Tony Jay it wouldn't be the same Megabyte now, would it?

 

I wonder if Hexadecimal will still be around, and the whole idea that viruses evolve (or whatever the virus equivalent of mitosis would be! )

 

I vaguely remember the cliffhanger the last episode ended on, but it would appear that this is a totally separate thing?

 

And I just spotted what Jez said and I'm pretty much in agreement; the show was about a computer system being like a city. Most of the appeal at least for me was the idea that the residents of Mainframe were all the characters you as a User would play against! The idea that a Game would just take over part of the town and stuff,and the people would just be like "uh, whatever!" like playing games against the User was their job! The "normal life" stuff like hanging out in Dot's diner was still within the context of the computer world. Moving that to a bunch of normal teens (but in their spare time are totally superheroes!) is a bit kinda... meh.

 

Anyways; kids show, it's for kids!

[Hero of Legend]

That show was called Zixx.

THAT'S the one, thanks!

[Hero of Legend]

Told ya! Bob, Dot, and Enzo are confirmed!

 

Hefferon said that Bob, hero of the original series, will be a part of the pilot episode and that other beloved favourites, such as Dot and Enzo, will have a role to play as well.

[goku262002]

Told ya! Bob, Dot, and Enzo are confirmed!

[Hero of Legend]

Hack and Slash also!

 

Megabyte's memory-challenged henchmen Hack and Slash will be back as well, Hefferon said.

[JezMM]

I sure hope so, but it may be safer for mental wellbeing to keep expectations low, just in case.

[Hero of Legend]

YTV confirmed!

 

http://www.ytv.com/blog/reboot-is-getting-rebooted

[iDEATH]

I know this is gonna be revolving around a new set of characters with only the occasional cameo from the original cast, but I really hope they take the time to give some closure to the original series rather than have it just jump from that cliff hanger into some new plot line where everything's hunky dory again.

 

Regardless, I'm super excited for this, Reboot was one of my favourite shows growing up and it still holds up really well to this day despite the dated cgi, if the writing's of the same quality as the original, this could be something special.