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ReBoot Comes To DVD (3rd Season) 86

Posted by Hemos from the join-the-master-race-of-media dept.
bodosom writes: "DVDFILE notes in this blurb that ADV films has purchased the rights to the third season of ReBoot It's not really anime but ADV is primarily an anime distributor. If you've never seen ReBoot ... well ... I'm sorry. The canonical episode (Talent Night from the second season) is available on VHS."
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ReBoot Comes To DVD (3rd season) More

ReBoot Comes To DVD (3rd season)

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  • The Production Software... (Score:3)

    by intrico ( 100334 ) on Saturday July 22, 2000 @08:01PM (#912698) Homepage
    In case anyone was wondering what software was used to create the series, Reboot really shows off the capabilities of Avid's Softimage [softimage.com]; the program used to create it.
    Here's an excerpt from this page [softimage.com] that mentions the use of Softimage to create the series:

    Proven Productivity
    As a result of its 10 years of continuous development and refinement, SOFTIMAGE|3D is a carefully balanced, production-proven creative environment. For example, Mainframe Productions, makers of the weekly animated television series "ReBoot," uses SOFTIMAGE|3D to produce approximately 22 minutes of lip-synched, animated content each week. This is by far the most ambitious 3-D graphics production schedule ever attempted. The reason Mainframe Productions uses SOFTIMAGE|3D is very simple: productivity.
  • i would think it is :)

    its important to ME, as well as the slashdot compound, which is what really matters anyway

    i for one am really happy anime is on slashdot now , woohoo!
  • I've watched some episodes of it (since it used to be on before DBZ) and the content is quite biased towards DOS based systems! You'd think that this stuff was being written by people who had SOME knowledge of computer systems, seeing as they must work with the renderfarm that draws the stuff, but maybe the writers have never worked with anything beyond Windoze. There is always mention of command.com (always representing the controller of the computer) and other windozey ideas. Have you seen the "Vidwindow"s that pop up? Besides that, the show is pretty cool (except that "the web" (notice, not the internet, the web) is represented as being independant of other computers, as in another entity existing in nothingness).
  • I believe that I saw at least two or three episodes from the 3rd season, but I can not be asbolutely sure. I will take you advice and check it out. I like to keep an open mind, but when I first saw the show, I was really turned off.

    I think more than anything it is the CGI. I can't say I like CGI all that much, poorly done or not.

    I'll check out season three. It better be good. *grins*

    Caio,
    Fran Frisina (franf@hhs.net)
    http://www.zero-productions.com/

  • Why is it on here? What is slashdot? New For Nerds. Stuff that matters. Which essentially mean anything that Jeff, Rob, Pater, or any other slashdot author find interesting. That's what makes slashdot great. A wide variety of information. If you're looking for canned news go to msnbc.com. You can't bitch about stuff that is posted, the site is intended to be vague in focus.

    PS. Moderators- don't moderate me down because I responded to a flamatory comment. ( Or because I said bitch )

  • Come on now, let's not turn this into a flame war. Try to refrain from calling people ignorant, et cetera. It accomplishes nothing.

    I agree with you when you say the show was an important step in the world of CGI, considering it was done quite a while back, *but* I have seen similar "cartoons" such as Beast Wars, what were far superior to Reboot (at least the 1st and 2nd seasons).

    At any rate, we all have our opinions. I just don't care for the show/story/plot very much. I think that more than anything, that is why drives me away from it; not merely the CGI.

    Cheers,
    Fran Frisina (franf@hhs.net)
    http://www.zero-productions.com/

  • Help bring more animation to DVD. You can start by signing a petition to bring Batman the Animated Series to DVD here.

    I'm sure that many of us would like to see other animated series be published on DVD. Personally, I'd like to see The X-Men, Dexter's Lab, The PowerPuff Girls, The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest, Voltron, .... the list goes on and on.

    Damn, I really hope they *don't* come out with those on DVD, otherwise I'm not going to have much money left from my pay check....

  • I guess I posted too late for anybody to read this post [slashdot.org] earlier this week. And the news was old when I wrote that post.


    I will second the posts made earlier that, for episodic television, season 3 was nothing less than mindblowing when it was shown in Canada in 1997. Reboot season 3 was produced between the first two seasons of Beast Wars (or maybe overlapped somewhat with production of Beast Wars season 2) and it fares very well when comparing animation quality between the contemporary shows.

    For those who don't appreciate Reboot based on exposure to the first two seasons, you have to keep in mind that the writing was severely hacked by the censors at ABC (Broadcasts Standards and Practices - BS&P). There are numerous references to this hidden in the series. In one of the early episodes Bob uses Glitch with the command "BS&P" to break a stained glass window before flying through it; BS&P didn't allow Mainframe to show Bob crashing through the window because they were afraid child viewers might try to do the same. There's two references in Talent Night alone: the censor who complains about every act for the show, and the Small Town Binomes (Village People) who sing "BS&P" to the tune of YMCA. For more hidden references see Joe Smith's Unoffcial Reboot page [inwap.com]


    Talks regarding Season 3 finally broke down between Mainframe and ABC as Season 2 was getting completed. This is why the last few episodes of Season 2 start a darker approach to the plot, a trend continued in Season 3. In the episode with the "Army of Darkness"-style game, the tombstone that Frisket bursts refers to the deceased association with ABC as "An Unholy Alliance".



    There are certainly weak episodes in season 3. Then there are some real gems like "Firewall". Like many Reboot episodes, it makes numerous references to popular culture. In the case of Firewall, the episode makes references to James Bond movies, Wacky Racers, the OJ Simpson slo-mo chase, Jurassic Park.


    My only disappointment is that A.D. Vision could only get Season 3. My guess is that Polygram wouldn't release the publication rights for the first two seasons, even though they pretty well sat on them and did nothing. Hopefully those rights eventually revert back to Mainframe. I would really like to see a Reboot "Perfect Collection" including key episodes from the first two series that provide good background and character development such as "The Crimson Binome", "Talent Night", "Painted Windows", "Identity Crisis", and of course the whole of season 2's cliffhanger 4-episode arc that sets up season 3.

  • CGI the programming language = Common Gateway Interface.

    CGI the animnation = Computer Generation Imaging

    Caio,
    Fran Frisina (franf@hhs.net)
    http://www.zero-productions.com/

  • The link is this one [123petitions.com].
  • It is quite ironic, well, from a textbook point of view anyhow. I mean, take a company like Micro$oft. They make Wnidows, the not so stable for everyone OS, and they also make some great stuff, like Word. Just goes to show you that some places/people make good stuff, and bad stuff. Of course, this is all opinion. :) Cheers,
    Fran Frisina (franf@hhs.net)
    http://www.zero-productions.com/
  • $speak =~ s/me/meesa/g;
    $speak =~ s/you/yousa/g;
    $speak =~ s/I am/meesas/g;
    $speak =~ s/going to/gonna/g;
  • Reboot is terrible, it looks like a first year art student's project especially compared to last season's Transformers. Its on slashdot because not only is it CGI its also about computers. Yawn.
  • I'm not sure if it's DOS as much as the IBM CUE standards (Motif, OS/2, etc.). In 1997, Gnome and KDE hadn't advanced much yet. Actually the greatest joke is in the last episode of season 3. When "Mainframe" crashes and goes to a command prompt to be restarted, the prompt is "]". The old Apple ][ prompt maybe? Certainly not DOS.
  • Man, have you looked at some of the copywrights to some of the shows. The first season was done from 1991-93. You have to admit, those shows look great for that time. And I admit, the first season was pretty weak. The spent most of their time playing games, but the second season got alittle more serious, and the third season was great.
  • I found this extremely ironic, given that the Reboot PSX game is one of the weakest titles in my collection.

    For the benefit of those who have not played the game, the gameplay consists of finding and sealing a number of tears within a certain time limit. Failure to seal a tear before the timer expires counts as a lost life. After that is done, you have to find a series of "keys" in the level, and then you have to find the exit window to the next level.

    It sounds okay in theory, but in practice it gets old quickly. Level after level, all you do is find tears and keys, and try to get hit too much. After the third level or so of playing "hunt the tear," you begin to question your purchasing decisions. Judging by the back of the CD jewel case there are also bosses to fight (basically scaled up versions of the Reboot villains) but I can't stand playing past level 5. When Mr. Crook reminded me that there were 19 levels of this crap, I literally groaned at the prospect of another 14 levels of boring gameplay.

    Technically, the game is a mixed bag. Each level, as claimed above, feels like a small section of Mainframe, albeit a very virally infested one. Unfortunately, you won't be able to appreciate it very often because you are too busy wrestling with some of the "mushiest" control I have ever seen. Getting to some of those hard to reach tears can be a nightmare with the second-person perspective combined with poor play control. Needless to say, this only amplifies the tedium of finding tears/keys.

    The game does have a full FMV episode on it, but fans interested in that are advised to pop the CD into their PC and read the movie files directly off of it rather than play the damn game. Be advised that Mr. Crook took the words "shoddy script" to heart.

    In all, you can't expect a game as poor as this to survive off of a cartoon license with a cult following! I made the mistake of buying this game (thankfully, at used prices) before reading any reviews on it. Even at the $10 price point I had, Reboot PSX isn't worth the money. I'd try reselling it, but I can't imagine who would shell out good money for it.
  • Its on here, because Reboot is a geek classic! Anyone who was into computers in the early 90's and saw the show will appreciate why this is significant to ./ readers.

    Reboot is a anthropromorphized(sp?) parody about computers themselves, they satirized not only computer related stuff (like "Woah, can you repeat that? In plain DOS?" or "Hurry up, we don't have a ll second you know!") but an impressively large number of shows and movies not related to Computers.

    Why is it appropriate for ./ even tho this has been out on other sites for 3 days? Simple, some of us (including me) didn't see it on the other sites, but I've been looking in vain for 3 years for Season 3 on VHS and this news has made my entire month :)

    Thanks ./!, Byte me cr0n.

  • XTC isn't caffinated here? I thought that was the whole point. Not that I've ever bothered to actually buy any. I do remember being disapointed to see that the non-cola Jolts weren't caffed though.
  • if you want good anime, just watch Gundam, Urusei Yatsura, or that wonderful show, Sailor Moon

    Wow, you dis Reboot as a bad cartoon, but then praise a franchaise which has beaten the Giant Humaniod Robots Fighting cliche into the ground. And don't even get me started on Sailor Moon, the show whose only reason for popularity among adults is that it caters to pedophiles with a schoolgirl fetish.
  • No, I actually checked the ingredient list... it has the crazy Guarana, Ginseng, and other natural stimulants... but they pulled the caffeine (which is just lower then Jolt in the non-Canadian version). Probably the best you can do on the Canadian market is Jones' Whoopass Cola [jonessoda.com], which has the natural stimulants AND the high-caffeine cola. Although, good 'ol Jolt is a better deal just because of the price. =^)
    -legolas

    i've looked at love from both sides now. from win and lose, and still somehow...


  • and buy "Backstreet Boys" albums, but if i see it on the front of Slashdot i think i'm going to puke.

    sorry, lots of people liking it does not make it good. (nor make it worth putting on the front page.)

    it is crap, plain and simple. :P (and from the posts i read it seems like a sizable portion of geeks feels like i do :P)
    ...dave
  • If you've never seen ReBoot ... well ... I'm sorry. The canonical episode (Talent Night from the second season) is available on VHS."

    When I first read this, I read it as Telnet Night instead of Talent Night
    I think I've been up for too long when I start mistaking words like that for computer terms... =)


    =================================
  • heh, that was quite offtopic, but nevertheless, thanx for the link, it was quite interesting :)
  • ReBoot willl be continued in TV-movies in early 2001... there will be two moves, but I think they'll only be on YTV in Canada... to bad for you Americaners, but maybe someone'll send you a tape.
  • You Americans missed a clever joke in talent Night... back when the episode was made, YTV (ReBoot's canadian carrier and partial funder) used a big orange and yellow robot as one of its mascots... the robot made an appearance in Talent Night with logo attached, but when it was broadcast on ABC, the logo was stripped, and it probably didn't mean anythign to you... still, I got a chortle out of it.
  • What's with all this anime news lately?
    It's the tentacle penises (penii?)
    CmdrTaco LOVES tentacle penises. Espescially tentacle penis rapes involving schoolgirls.
    --Shoeboy

  • BTW, REBOOT IS NOT ANIME. It was made by Mainframe, who are based ion Burnaby, BC (just outside Vancouver).

    Mainframe [mainframe.ca] is in Vancouver proper. I have a friend who works there. I live in Burnaby.

  • I'm pretty sure one will deal with the Daemon storyline introduced during season three... Maybe the other will shed some light on the origin of Lost Angles and the demise of the twin city, hinted at in Season two (It was Bad Bob or AndrAIa, I think.) Can't be sure, though.
  • ReBoot was basically the first computer animated show. Before Toy Story premiered, Reboot was showing in Canada. I think its been over 5 years now... think about that. Pretty impressive animation for 5 years ago. Sure FF is great, but then again it is on a movie budget. Comparing ReBoot to it is like comparing Star Trek: TOS to one of the movies. Of course the movie is better. Think before slamming it please.

    On a side note i find the show quite humorous. Each time i watch an episode over a catch more jokes that i missed the last time. The average episode has dozens of jokes that most people won't get on the first or even second viewing. A lot of it is pure genius, and the story matured with its viewers (season 3 being geared more towards adults).
  • This really kicks butt. I spent way to much time recording all of season 3, then editing out the advertisments so I had 3 long tapes of pure reboot. (which I goofed on and recorded in mono)

    I mean the whole season was the bomb, but in the final episode which was 90% eye candy and then the musical to wrap it up! I just can't wait for the movies this fall!
    Geoffrey Cameron Peart
    McMaster Software Engineering
  • Perhaps he thought "CGI...Perl...News for Nerds"
  • I don't know if I'm stating what everybody knows here, but I have 2 interesting facts for you concerning Softimage|3D. First of all, it was designed by Softimage, back in the days when Daniel Langlois was head of the company, in Montreal. Softimage then got acquired by Microsoft, and Langlois became a VP over there. Softimage was shortly after sold to Avid. Second thing, I see a lot of people saying ReBoot was bad CGI. To those people I say, take a minute and look up Softimage's credentials. 98% of the dinos in Jurassic Park were created exclusively by Softimage|3D. So the sole responsibility of "bad CGI" lies with Mainframe Productions... Also, keep in mind that CGI in an 100% animated, weekly show is extremely hard to produce, and that it is quite remarkable that they were able to pull it off (by the standard of, um, that time)!
  • The blurb on the ADV link I provided is dated four months ago but that's not the point. As I said ReBoot isn't anime (and it's not a movie either but note that it didn't get the anime icon) and even though I've been known to watch some Crying Freeman I'm not interested in reading animeondvd or following ADV press releases. I do check mainframe.ca and inwap.com because I'm interested in Reboot and I read /. because I'm interested in many things. Finally, humour is delightfully idiosyncratic but I've never shown Talent Night to a computer person who didn't laugh at least twice (even if they've never heard the phrase ``Elvis has left the building''.
  • If you've never seen ReBoot ... well ... I'm sorry.

    It's not the Bolshoi for Christ's sake. I've seen a few episodes and admired it for oh, 5 seconds. It did not change my world. Stop throwing your sensibilities in my face, especially if you're not going to give me a reason why anyone would deserve your pity for not having seen this cartoon.

    Sheesh.
  • You have a good point, but very few people understand the inner workings of a computer anyway. There are a lot of hidden messages in ReBoot (look at what some ASCII codes floating around spell out) so there is obviously some computer knowledge there. But why not spread the knowledge and put more information in there? They could have made some references to UNIX systems - after all they were living in "Mainframe" and what was the last time a mainframe ran Windows? (OK, I guess Multics wouldn't be well enough known to be used ;)
  • I see a lot of people complaining about the CG quality of the show, but I'd just like to highlight two points:

    1) Since the beignning of the show to the most recent season, the quality of the CG has improve noticibly.

    2) Think how often these shows were scheduled to come out. How much time do these guys to make one episode versus, say, how much time Squaresoft in Hawaii is taking to make the absolutely gorgeous FF movie?

    Just a couple things to keep in mind.

  • I've never seen those before. How come it isn't in the bottles? (That's the main reason I bother buying Jones. Drink from glass bottle = good!)
    Anyway, I don't think I'll bother with XTC then. If I want Ginseng, I'll stick with Sobe, at least that way my drink will taste good as well as get me all hopped up on roots. :)
  • If you want to follow that argument, then I guess we have
    to stop watching anime as well.
    After all, it has all that Japanese language and culture
    that I don't understand, not to mention a couple thousand
    years of religion and mythology to fall back on.

    It also takes serious liberties with other languages,
    sometimes just including western words, places, and
    concepts because they sound cool; not caring a whit
    to whether the original meaning gets lost in the
    process.

    I guess I have to stop watching American TV as well, since
    some of the better shows assume I have enough of a clue
    to get plot points thru context, or at least hang on to
    the series long enough to understand the various relationships
    better.

    Not to be insulting, but I assume you didn't have to explain
    "Mike the TV" to your friends as well? A lot of what made
    Reboot enjoyable for me was that I didn't *have* to understand
    all the inside jokes and terminology for the comedy and
    sometimes dramatic scenes to have appeal.

    BTW: IMHO, it wasn't DOS/Windows centric. If anything it was
    computing history oriented, and tried to drawn in terms and
    concepts from across the spectrum of Big Iron to the first PDAs.
    In other words, it tried to have something for everyone, and
    if anything, your friends were probably over-analyzing something
    that was really just a kids show at heart.
  • What's with all this anime news lately? Does japanimation :) really have that much of a following here?

    Mike Roberto
    - GAIM: MicroBerto
  • Moderators, please do not moderate this down, it is my honest feelings about this series. Thank you.

    I do not wish to be cynical... but I really do not see Reboot as a "good" show.

    I first saw the show on Cartoon Network a year or so back, when it was first on CTN. My first impression was: my god... more CGI. In addition to the CGI, it is _bad_ CGI. Examples of good CGI are : The up and coming Final Fantasy movie (get the trailer at http://www.rpgamer.com ) and some of the scenes from Gladiator.

    Aside from the poor CGI, the show is just generally lacking. I have fialed to find a plot in any of the several episodes I have watched. All I see in that show are wandering characters, full of the sensationalism that often crowds the mass media when it comes to technology.

    If you want good CGI, there is plenty of it, or, if you want good anime, just watch Gundam, Urusei Yatsura, or that wonderful show, Sailor Moon.


    Fran Frisina (franf@hhs.net)
    http://www.zero-productions.com/

  • i LOVED that cartoon series... only show that could make me get up so early sat mornings :)
  • I can remember way back when, watching ReBoot on TV before it was syndicated. I was always amazed that they did the whole show using computer animation. Looking back, its interesting to see how computer animation has progressed and become so much more advanced.
    -----------------
    Kevin Mitchell
  • I've been a reboot fan since episode one... 'The Tear' I believe. Always been big on mainframe, and season 3 was the best... But I wish they'd rerendered in anamorphic. That'd have been extra schweet.
  • Its kind of funny that Americans like this stuff. Originally, Japanim was a cartoon characature with the intent of making Americans the object of ridicule during The War.
  • FYI, ReBoot is computer animation, not anime. And, I am assuming that anime/animation has a large following here, just like any topic would here. I personally think that this is relavent, but if you don't, don't click the link. It's pretty obvious through all the flame wars around here (you did remember the asbestos underwear, right?) that the subtitle of this site should be YMMV.
  • Good thing i'm not American, eh? =^)

    Of course, that does mean that i get no caffeine in my Mountain Dew, non-cola Jolt, and XTC [slashdot.org]. M'eh.
    -legolas

    i've looked at love from both sides now. from win and lose, and still somehow...

  • Anime has a huge following, here and everywhere... find out why, watch some!
    If I may, I'll point you to CmdrTaco's post in Ask Slashdot, Essential Anime [slashdot.org]
    I'd say the fact that it has over 1000 comments attached would prove that the anime enthusiasts are in force :)
  • Dear Bowie,
    I appreciate the fact that you have managed to make an entire post without pimping your fucking propaganda site. (outside of your sig) I think this may be a first for you.
    Congratulations! If you keep this up, I won't have to stick my Dremel (with the grinding bit!) up your ass and demonstrate the variable speed settings.
    --Shoeboy
  • the slashdot compound, which is what really matters anyway
    Moderators, did you catch that? This dudes totally kissing the /. crews collective ass. Don't let him go unrewarded!
    --Shoeboy
  • The show is hard enough to understand for alot of the people I know anyhow, I was always explaining things to them. I think the DOS/Windows-centricness of it is merely because the target audience was a DOS/Windows-centric one. In order for a show to be successful the majority of the viewers have to understand it. Let's just be thankful that they made it as realistic as they did.

  • Well, the graphics at the time it came out were just unbelievable. Alot of my friends know very little about computers but still completely enjoyed the show. I don't think that a strong knowledge of computers was really required for the show at all. It helps of course, maybe provides a bit more insight into what was happening or could happen.
    All in all I think the big success factor for the show was revolutionary animation and a completely unexplored plotline. There had never been a show like it, besides, it's kinda fun to think that people are running around in you computer and playing your video games with you! ;-)

  • yeah, thats all nice Taco...wheres my section for Hentai I requested?

    I'm pissed....we used to watch tenticle porn and schoolgirl rape together.
  • Blockquoth the poster:
    *but* I have seen similar "cartoons" such as Beast Wars, what were far superior to Reboot (at least the 1st and 2nd seasons).
    Ironically, of course, these two shows are produced by the same company, Mainframe Entertainment. In fact, a far more fair comparison is third-season ReBoot with early Beast Wars, since they are much more contemporaneous.

    Oh, and the storyline picked up tremendously in Season 3, too.

  • The two new movies aren't due out until next year. Tentative date on the first movie is Summer 2001, while the second movie is Christmas 2001. The first movie will take up where the third season ended, and will wrap up the whole Web/Daemon/Virus plotline. The second movie is supposed to be the start of an entirely new storyline.

    As for release, aside from the broadcast on YTV in Canada, nothing else is known. It's expected that Cartoon Network will pick up the movies (as they already have Reboot), and that ADV has the rights for DVDs.

  • Blockquoth the poster:
    seeing this story on the front page made me wonder what's next? we need some quality control here, people.
    Unfair and unjustified. Whether you like it or not, a sizable enough slice of geekdom enjoys the show, and it is obviously intensely computer-related (in a Tron-like metaphorical sense, as well as the obvious CGI sense). Thus, it is pretty clearly "News for geeks".

    Your enjoyment of a topic doesn't make it a "good" one, nor your lack make it a "bad" one.

  • Re:no way! (Score:3)

    by ellbee ( 93668 ) on Saturday July 22, 2000 @08:53PM (#912753)
    Me too. I couldn't believe that hacker humor could make it into Saturday morning cartoons. The concept of Phong being Phong shaded (hey, where's Goraud? He could be called Henri and have a French accent) was enough to get my lousy butt out of bed on onto the couch where it belonged. ReBoot and The Tick reignited my interest in cable TV and changed my life. I hate them.
  • Well, I hate to say this, but the really essential stuff in Reboot is the 2nd half or so of Season 2, and then all of Season 3 (actually there's a fair amount of worthless stuff in Season 3, but it's mixed in too closely with the really kick-ass stuff to ignore)

    But when I first saw the show on ABC I also thought it was stupid. D'oh!

    As for the CGI - well, perhaps it can be excused by keeping in mind that the story is set within the 'computer world' previously described by Tron. Not cyberspace, which is a UI metaphor, but the lives of the various programs and such that make computers work. Obviously it gets stretched a lot....

  • It depends on your taste I guess. I've found a lot of shows are much more enjoyable in groups. I'm in a club at uni where we just sit around watching videos every so often (mostly SF and anime). It's much easier to spot the jokes and appreciate them when lots of other people are doing the same.

    I haven't seen reboot for a while - last time I watched it on TV it looked relatively boring as far as the story was concerned. Then we watched an episode of it in a group and all the humour was a lot more funny.

    ..but then I'm recently addicted to Dragonball Z and Slayers - both of which are incredibly cheesy. The animation is.. well.. anime.. but they have some good and humourous writing though, which is why I enjoy watching them. :)


    ===
  • Warning: Spoiler

    If you want good CGI, there is plenty of it, or, if you want good anime, just watch Gundam, Urusei Yatsura, or that wonderful show, Sailor Moon.

    Well in the penultimate season 3 episode, as Mainframe falls apart, there is a binome who looks a lot like Sailor Moon who waves about a scepter to try to save people. She gets squashed by a falling piece of building (and there was great rejoicing!). Does that count?


    Don't knock something just because it's dated. It was a blast to see Luxo Jr. again as one of the leaders for Toy Story 2. It brought back to mind seeing Luxo Jr., Red's Dream and Tin Toy at animation festivals in the 80's. For all that the CGI in Gladiator is amazing, and the direction by Ridley Scott was outstanding, I prefer the script and presentation in Anthony Mann's 1964 version of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [imdb.com]. The heroic charactors in "Gladiator" seem to condemn the violence of the circus, and yet the movie almost continually exploits it. Decline and Fall may have its faults, but it doesn't fall prey to that odious habit of modern Hollywood of going straight for the emotional jugular.


    P.S. I don't have the Reboot series memorized, I just happened to get motivated to watch my Season 3 timeshift tapes again earlier today because of the impending DVD releases.

  • I have to admit it would've been cool to just once hear Bob say "Fsck you, man!" to Megabyte! ;-)

  • XTC doesn't taste too bad - sorta like Mountain Dew, but thicker. Whoopass cola tastes kinda like Dr. Pepper. Both are somewhat uncommon (more uncommon then, say, regular Jones. I think there are only 2-3 convenience stores that stock it here. You can order both off of their website) and pretty pricey (expect to pay $2.50 CDN per 250ml can of each).
    -legolas

    i've looked at love from both sides now. from win and lose, and still somehow...

  • Haha! I wasn't attempting to defend ReBoot PSX, although I guess it looked like that. The game was indeed very weak. Most of us we're extremely green to game development at the time. There's a reason you haven't played past level 5 - the difficulty ramping is so obscene at that level that it's practically impossible. I don't know of one person who's finished ReBoot, actually!

    I absolutely agree with your entire message!

  • I first saw the show on Cartoon Network a year or so back, when it was first on CTN. My first impression was: my god... more CGI. In addition to the CGI, it is _bad_ CGI. Examples of good CGI are : The up and coming Final Fantasy movie (get the trailer at http://www.rpgamer.com ) and some of the scenes from Gladiator


    Isn't it a little unfair to compared today's cutting-edged CGI to the first CGI TV show ever? For the day (1996 IIRC), it looked damn good. And it defintely got better as it went along.

    Aside from the poor CGI, the show is just generally lacking. I have fialed to find a plot in any of the several episodes I have watched. All I see in that show are wandering characters, full of the sensationalism that often crowds the mass media when it comes to technology.


    Have you seen the 3rd season or the first and/or second? The third season is so far beyond the other two you'd find it hard to believe they are the same show. It has better animation, a continuing plot, real action, all the good stuff.
  • Just don't look at the big board,'Bat' Guano, if that is your real name.
  • This show is just chock full of references, such as the obvious "Megabyte" the villain, or "Dot Matrix". All the little rectangular guys walking around are 1's, all the little round guys are 0's. Most of it is pretty obvious, but some has really made me think. I've pretty well figured most of them out, but "Enzo" is one I never did get. Anybody know what this is a reference to?

  • The point about them not being picked up in the States (particularly for season 3) was partly the cause of the improved storyline and plotting for season 3. The staff of the show had long felt that they were being unduly cramped by BS&P - Broadcast Standards & Practices - and felt they had a chance to cover more ground without that restriction.

    Some specific examples come to mind - the "BS&P Approved liferaft" [inwap.com], and Dot's monobreast [wired.com] (search on 'monobreast' inside the article).

    A more important and less noticably point is that the Canadian episodes were 'censored down' for U.S. viewing [inwap.com]. There was consistent pressure to control language and imagery, but there were also apparently post-production cuts. If you watched it in the U.S., missing bits may contribute to plot inconsistencies.

    Although "YRO" may not be the original reason this item made it to /., it's a good thing to note here; if you are getting the originals on DVD, then there is one less snipping layer between you and the creators of the work...

  • I question why this is on slashdot.. its not really any news because its coming to DVD.

    FYI this information was released 3 days ago in an ADV press release..

    If your looking on any anime information goto

    http://www.animeondvd.com

    instead as its allways upto date and has a great forum and you can even get a response to studio reps sometimes =)..

    Anyhoo in closing.. leave it to a dedicated site.. this is more proof that slashdot is going downhill...
  • When ReBoot was first on Cartoon Network, they only had season 1 and later season 2, which were not the best examples on CGI in the current context, but were very advanced for their time, and were passable as far as plot for saturday morning fare. Your typical cartoon didn't deal at all with people being deleted or nullified. Season three was much better, and bear in mind it was meant to look cartooninsh... They finally worked out the issues with explosions consisting of blue expanding spheres, and used particles to good effect, along with all the other animated-y goodless they could now use with increased processing power, and over a year of lead time.

    If you look at other more recent Mainframe fare, you'll find that for intensionally cartoon-ish looking CGI, it's quite good... This doesn't could season 1, 2, or 3 of Beast Wars (Beasties in Canad), but it does include Beast Machines and War Planets, which were both eye candy, again with not too bad writing considering they were cartoons, and that as serializations they sometimes had to refresh the viewer's mind as to what had occured of late. (They also kept artificially inserting cheesy lovey-dovey dialog between Black Arachnia and... whoops, season 2 Beast Machines spoiler.... But I forgive them for that, at least in part because of the decent theme music.)

    Action Man seems to be another step up in maturity, with real-ish characters, and however an outlandinsh plot, at least the semblance of intelligent attempts at resolution. Once you get past the Fox Kids-Mandated catch phrase, the show ain't too bad, if you like cartoons, and I assume you do.

    Also, remember Mainframe has put out more CGI for broadcast than anyone. They therefore deserve a little respect.
  • Sorry forgot a link to the accual press release

    http://www.animeondvd.com/press/advfilms/adv007. htm
  • For those of you that didn't understand cybersonic's post, here's a translation:

    very very cool :) i own over 60 titles from ADV films :)
    Translation: I am a loser, my vast collection of anime gives me something to do when I'm not playing D&D or masturbating.

    all i REALLY want is Cutey Honey and Slayers movies (all of em) on DVD!
    Translation: Sometimes I combine my masturbation and anime habits. Espescially when watching la blue girl.

    oh... and Bubblegum Crisis 2040 on DVD would kick ass as well.. its SUCH a good quality anime, and in a digital format, would look great on my big screen tv
    Translation: The last time I got laid there was a republican in the white house.

    DVD of Variable Geo would rock too... i dont have too many requests, do i? :)
    Translation: Thanks to homegrocer.com I haven't had to leave my house in almost 6 weeks.

    --Shoeboy
  • hgahgahlaghaghaghalag!!!!!!!!!!!!
    --Shoeboy
  • I've been with this show from the beginning, on the original station that bought it (YTV - Canadian only), and it's great. I've seen episodes done in 1994 (They had a 'making of' or something, I don't remember exactly), they were quite awful, but cutting edge for the time, it had the same characters, content, etc. The thing with CGI is that cutting edge one year isn't cutting edge another. Beasties, Beast Wars once it was exported to the US (also by Mainframe, the company that made reboot), had better animation than Reboot Season two. However Season three of Reboot had better animation than Season 1 of Beasties, who then ran Season 2 which was better than Season 3 Reboot (Note: in case you're wondering WHY Season 3 was delayed it was because they were working on Beasties ;)! It never ends! Their latest program, Beast Machines, is absolutely fantastic animation wise. Good plot too. This company is really great, I love all of their shows. Anyway, back to the point, I see all these people posting complaining about the CGI, the barefacts are the show was released in 1996, it was cutting edge! Their 1994 footage was cutting edge for 1994, everything this company does is cutting edge.
    --
  • I was a designer and producer on Electronic Arts' ReBoot for the Sony PlayStation. In the name of research, I read and re-read every "script" of that show in what had to be one of the most tortuous periods of my life. I wrote over 700 lines of voice over for the original cast of the show and an entire 22-minute "prequel" episode to the series, in addition to designing the interactive version of each of Mainframe's 7 neighborhoods (each neighborhood had 1-5 levels within it - the game had 19 total, I believe).

    EA got the ReBoot license in early 1995 when Don Mattrick (our studio head at the time) heard that Microsoft was after it. The license was then bounced around the studio until my group got it in late '95. The game wasn't completed until February of '98, hitting stores just before the end of March. By then the license was thoroughly dead, no one even remembered the show, and marketing (justifiably) chose not to support the product. Consequently, it went on to sell about 50,000 units, not even breaking even (the game cost US$2.1M to produce!).

    It's got to be one of the worst "cartoons" ever made. The minor degree of fame it did achieve (at one time it was broadcast in over 50 countries), was largely due to the fact that it was the only computer-animated show of its kind back then. Once other cartoon shops caught up with Mainframe's technology (Mainframe is the Vancouver company that made ReBoot and now makes Beast Wars, Weird Ohs, Imax stuff), ReBoot's shoddy script and bland modelling sunk it for good. Season 3 was never picked up by a major network in the States, to the best of my knowledge. And now they're putting out a DVD? I can't imagine who would shell out good money for it.

  • >My first impression was: my god... more CGI.

    When you were seeing Reboot for the first time I was saying goodbye to Reboot. I cought Season 1 and 2 but never saw Season 3.
    The show would then continue life on The Cartoon Network (I don't have Cable).

    So I had a diffrent impression. I didn't expect the advanced CGI you see in movies like Final Fantasy becouse such graphics were not yet posable.

    Your looking at say... the Internet was in 1992 when 28.8k baud was fast and looking at your own cable modem and saying "Got you suck".

    What they pulled out of Reboot was cutting edge. What you have today is the great grandchildren of Reboot.

    I understand what your saying... By the time it showed up on cable there were far better examples of CGI.

    But then... don't look at Reboot and compare it with a movie that hasn't been released yet.
    You'd be commiting the sin of damming one of the early pre-talkie classics for not having specal effects.

    I rember when someone e-mailed me the .wav of the Season 3 intro....
    "This is megaframe..." - Megabyte

    Thats gona be worth getting

    BTW.... Movie spinoff of a game? How many game spinoffs have there been allready? How many sucked?
    Plotline first.... technical quality second....
    Pokemon the movie had a chance only becouse the video game was spun off from the TV show as was the movie. (yeah I know America got the game first... thats a marketting thing... easyer to introduce a TV show when it allready has fans)
  • What? You mean I can't make a Jar Jar with perl?
    How am I ever going to make the worlds most annoying perl code if I can't make JarJar.pm?
  • It's one thing to simply look at the CGI and say "Oh, that sucks" or something like that and dismiss the *whole* show. As an animation (not just anime) fan, there's more to any animated work besides the animation, though the animation can contribute to the overall quality of the show.

    With that in mind, yes, the first 2 seasons of Reboot were probably decent with CGI (given the timeframe), but they had great storylines. As pointed in the article blurb above, "Talent Night" is probably the best one of the first 2 seasons to start with. Without spoiling, there's references to "Spinal Tap", music videos, William Shatner, and a bunch of others. Season 3, on the other hand, starts a season-long saga that has a really good thought out plot, and the cgi is much improved (more organic looking scenes at various points). Throughout the series, the main characters (Bob, Dot, Enzo, and Megabyte) are well-defined, and don't vary that strongly over the series.

    Again, remember that the time frame of the show (mid-1990's, almost predating Netscape 1.0). For it's time, it was technologically great.

  • This doesn't even deserve the 0 than an AC troll gets.

    Aside from that, how is the Freenet project going?
  • I mean, really, what does s/^[^./?]+..\d*/\1\/\1/

    Haven't been doing Perl for too long, but I'd guess this means replace a string starting with a sequence of ?'s amd /'s and ending a number with SOH/SOH

    If I got that right, I'll be so pleased with myself:)
  • Someone who calls Sailor Moon "wonderful" is telling *us* what's good and what isn't? I think we can all safely discard your opinion now.

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad

  • This really kicks butt. I spent way to much time recording all of season 3, then editing out the advertisments so I had 3 long tapes of pure reboot. (which I goofed on and recorded in mono)

    If you recorded them from Cartoon Network, you didn't goof. Cartoon Network broadcasts in mono. It is my understanding that they use the other audio channel in the satellite downlink for the SAP (usually Spanish) audio. The reason your TV says it's in stereo is because SAP is an extension to stereo broadcasting. So the cable company just plugs the mono audio into both inputs of the stereo encoder, and the other channel into the SAP input.
  • Anyone heard anything about the two new movies? Mainframe's site [mainframe.ca] says that there will be two movies released on YTV, a Canadian TV network. Will these be released in DVD or VHS format as well, or, for that matter, will they be shown on Cartoon Network?

    Mike Hollinger.
  • I have a teeny-tiny Frisket glued to the top of my monitor. Nobody knows who he is.

    if it ain't broke, then fix it 'till it is!
  • I belive that the cartoon channel plays ReBoot now since its no longer on regular tv. I just forgot what time its on though.
  • Since you claim this isn't flaimbait, I'll assume you're just ignorant about the show.

    If you're going to critique the CG, you should at least consider that reboots predates every other fully animated TV series. To compare it against FF movie and Gladiator is a bit like comparing a 486 to 1GHz Athlon. It's just a bad comparison.

    The fact that this was done in the early '90's is actually a very important technological step in where CG stands today. You can probably find more history about the web somewhere.

    BTW, REBOOT IS NOT ANIME. It was made by Mainframe, who are based ion Burnaby, BC (just outside Vancouver).

  • Download me, Bob... (Score:3)

    by Legolas-Greenleaf ( 181449 ) on Saturday July 22, 2000 @07:20PM (#912782)
    Heh... Reboot was one of the coolest cartoons i've ever seen. It really played on the computer metephors quite nicely... i was *quite* disappointed when they didn't make a season four.

    For people unfamiliar to the show, Joe Smith's Reboot page [inwap.com] is probably the best internet resource on the show. I think i have my Megabyte action figure around somewhere... :^)
    -legolas

    i've looked at love from both sides now. from win and lose, and still somehow...

  • very very cool :) i own over 60 titles from ADV films :)

    all i REALLY want is Cutey Honey and Slayers movies (all of em) on DVD! oh... and Bubblegum Crisis 2040 on DVD would kick ass as well.. its SUCH a good quality anime, and in a digital format, would look great on my big screen tv

    DVD of Variable Geo would rock too... i dont have too many requests, do i? :)

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