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Reboot: The Guardian Code |OT| This is bad, very bad...
- Thread starter BADMAN
- Start date
iyiyikes...I don't remember which episode where they referred to one as a binome but they basically look like this
Pretty much everything in the cyberworld looks like these wheely robot guys. Also they have no personality.
Thanks.
Who do you think it is aimed at? The only purpose whatsoever of rebooting an old series is to use the well-known name to get the fans of the original series or people who have heard of it, particularly when using an IP that isn't well known and beloved by the public in general. By calling it Reboot and making a big deal about Megabyte and the original characters being in it, they have made their point that this show *is* aimed at us fans of the original. Sure, it may *also* be aimed at a new generation of watchers, but by using the license they are making a statement.
I don't remember which episode where they referred to one as a binome but they basically look like this
Pretty much everything in the cyberworld looks like these wheely robot guys. Also they have no personality.
I thought that was Hack and Slash.
Special treat: my AD at the time just posted pic of Megabyte redesign he did with another artist. It would have been awesome...
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No, you're feeling entitled over something that is not meant for you. Just look at the facts Rainmaker/Mainframe has been trying for over a decade to get a Reboot reboot and failed at it, how many times did we get a "it's happening". It was never a super successful series or a name that anyone was willing to finance since it had no real value and by pure luck it got the 4 seasons it did and it was never a smooth ride.
I see The Guardian Code as a way to "trick" a Reboot revival by implementing the idea of a show about VR which despite what this forum thinks is still a buzzword and using that show as the ReBoot revival they always wanted. I do think from the last episode it'll be more and more like old ReBoot but even if it isn't then yeah, I do think the ReBoot name is hurting the product a bit but it's not a horrible show either.
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Dude neat! I really would have preferred that Megabyte design. Great binome concepts too
Looks like a bionicle but it's leagues better than what the current design is.
What's the point though? The IP only has meaning to old fans since it's otherwise unknown to today's kids. To younger generations, it might as well be a new IP, it requires the same marketing push as if it were one.
Besides, setting aside concerns regarding continuity or faithfulness or whatever, which I acknowledge is something that only fan should of the original show might care about, the quality of the thing itself is awful. Bad writing, two-dimensional characters. I'd rather a kid watch a show like Steven Universe than this, it's not a good way for them to spend 22 minutes.
Good children's television doesn't talk down to kids, and the best of them tell complex stories that speak sort of truths about the world through whatever lens the creators wish (like Avatar: The Last Airbender, or I'd argue, the original ReBoot). Although all children's entertainment may function as both art and product, this really feels skewed towards the latter, designed to be a multimedia experience to maximize revenue (see their cash-grab mobile game tie-in with micro transactions). It's a very dumbed-down show that seems built to cater to what folks think kids like, without recognizing that children are complex human beings capable of understanding plenty (and they don't need audience surrogates like real-life teens. I had no trouble empathizing with computer people back in 1995).
The artwork posted in this thread is cool though. I know talented people worked on this, but the direction from higher up is so disappointing.
ReBoot was a show that really captured my imagination when I was a child, and I know this show wouldn't have had the same impact on me.
In the first episode, the Sourcerer uses virus-insects to attack the UK power grid through a weak spot in the fabric of cyberspace (so much LOL). There are some little "round" guys (probably binomes) that appear to being doing maintenance on it, and after the Guardians stop the bugs, some "bulkier" robots (with a four-hoverboard setup instead of a wheel) seem to crawl out of nowhere to help the round guys effect repairs.
In the second episode, the Sourcerer (LOL) doesn't know what happened to disrupt his plan, so he looks to see if there's anything in "Mainframe" that he can use, and he finds/reactivates Megabyte, as seen here.
He then proceeds to "upgrade" Megabyte with code of his own design, which gives Megabyte a new look and new powers, and a leash (which Megabyte immediately starts trying to find a way out of).
Megabyte tests his aim against some random doggo who I'm sure I don't recognize. Also, there are nulls scurrying around.
Megabyte takes a stroll past Dot's Diner, before the Sourcerer drags him out of Mainframe to begin helping him with his laughable goals. Now is probably a good time to note that Megabyte's new VA sounds nothing like Tony Jay, but the new guy is absolutely killing it. The actor is doing a fantastic job portraying Megabyte, and I totally did not expect that.
In episode 3, Megabyte invades a Minecraft-style tower defense game, on cell phones. Probably free to play. One of the Guardians is coincidentally in that same game trying to get some practical experience and not be a useless load (and the show presents this behavior as being bad), and he's snuffing Game Sprites left and right, and the show points out that he's an asshole after he snuffs a User and forces her to respawn, but makes no mention of anyone in the world having any sort of problem with Megabyte infecting the game and turning it into his personal throne room/army. Probably because Megabyte just made the stupid free to play cell phone game suddenly awesome.
Halt intruder.
Megabyte infects the Game Sprites and turns them into his "Sentinels", who very much resemble Hack and Slash (although none of them have any personality, and Megabyte snuffs one of them for dropping their lance, refusing to accept any trace of bullshit from these utterly-disposable minions).
He converts an army of them, with at least one Captain.
In episode 4, the Guardians pass by some sort of transit hub on the Internet, and the Binomes (if that's what they are) are seen a bit more frequently. On the right is that "round" style one I mentioned earlier, in the center is the "beefier" one with the hoverboards, and on the left is a new guy who I haven't really seen. And the new guy seems to have a ReBoot icon.
Meanwhile the Sourcerer (LOL) has Megabyte direct his army towards the firewalls protecting a tech company. These little brown guys are seen trying to defend the firewalls. One of them even jumps into the line of fire to try and take a bullet for the firewall.
At the end of the episode, the Guardians drop a minor virus off at a "viral prison" which is guarded by these guys who resemble the brown defenders (similar face, same tank treads), but these guys are two or three times bigger than the ones seen above (and these ones have ReBoot icons).
There were also some helicopter gunships which had their guns trained on the Guardians the entire time, as it seems this prison don't wanna take no shit from anyone, Guardian or otherwise (I'm sure it's gonna get wrecked very soon).
I can kinda see some of the designs we did back in 2014 morphed into something else. Those two guard look kinda like Hack and Slash redesigns I did. Some remnants from my Binomes could be there...
Thanks for all your effort. Very kind.
Thanks for all your effort. Very kind.
Still is Canadian. YTV paid to make it (which is why it's so cheap). And it's supposed to begin airing exclusively in Canada on YTV sometime in June (exact date/time still to be determined). It's not clear why there's a delay for Canada.
One of my ex Mainframe friend is trying to make me watch it so we can shit on it in context. I really want to join in on that fun but I simply cant get past like 5 minute mark. Lordy its so bad...
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lololololol i am cringing so hard reading that description... i don't think its safe for me to watch the show then.
Episode 1 and 2 are ROUGH, but I dunno, it grew on me as I watched it.. it got a little better, but the 'hacker/sourceror' storyline is bullshit.
VERA is the best part of the live action bit (first episodes notwithstanding), and megabyte is the best part of the 3d.
Megabyte at least is going against everything "new" in this show.. he's still rebelling, he has his own agenda, and has a strong dislike toward the hacker.. so it's almost a meta commentary on the whole reboot of reboot... and it gives me hope. It still feels like the exact same character.
Pfft, you guys made a lot of Barbie movies you can handle one episode of this one ;)
Jokes aside I'm a bit sad as you posted up some neat artwork that didn't get used. My friend at Rainmaker said I'd enjoy the helmet designs and I think they were referring to the older helmet designs :\
I only will acknowledge good stuff done by Mainframe lol.
I could try alcohol to make it bearable but i dont want to die from alcohol poisoning...
I could try alcohol to make it bearable but i dont want to die from alcohol poisoning...
Jesus man. This show I just don't like this leader character .Parker just seems like a generic archetype also. Vera is meh .the girl is also has all.these unbelievably bad lines .I'm.bot used to see megabyte being bitched around either . Will go through all episodes though before giving final thoights
Thanks! I googled an image of them in the show. What's even the point if they're not the main heroes.
I did see some nice helmet designs back in 2014. Dont look like these tho...
I'm not feeling entitled, I'm honestly asking, you say that Reboot fans are not the target audience for the new Reboot show; so what is the target market then? If this show named Reboot using the Reboot IP and characters isn't meant for people who know what the Reboot IP and characters are, then who exactly are you saying it's for? What is this mysterious audience that would watch a show because of the IP, that are not fans of the show?
The target audience of the show is children. It's not the adults who watched YTV 20 years ago, it's the kids who watch YTV today.
The president of Rainmaker decided that it was in his company's best interests to revive the dead "Mainframe" brand and "ReBoot" IP and make a push back into episodic television. And when his plan-A of making something that appeals to existing ReBoot fans failed (as it has failed again and again for almost two decades), he proposed compromise after compromise, until the project finally achieved some bare minimum of traction and moved forward in a way that is unappealing to those of us who are not the target audience, but does meet the company president's goals (make something, move forward).
I don't mind all that. But the writing of this new show is just so cringy. I watch plenty of kids shows and enjoy many of them. THIS kids show is just terrible so far. I can't even get through an episode... I still talk to a lot of ex-Mainframe ppl on FB and it's universally panned by all of them. Especially those who worked on this reboot early on.
Yeah, I'm working my way through it, and I would say the digital stuff is barely passable, Megabyte is good, the live action stuff is bad, the the Sourcerer has exceeded "bad" and crossed into "so bad it's good" territory. I'm honestly suppressing a chuckle the entire time that guy is on the screen.
Although I don't think this show is very bad by Rainmaker's "Barbie movie" standards. Here's a review of The Secret Door, one of the Barbie movies that I thought was actually one of the better ones, and I reviewed for PonyGAF back at the old place due to some crossover appeal.
The Guardian Code and the Barbie movies don't hold a candle to the original ReBoot or Beast Wars or War Planets (although the less said about Beast Machines, the better), or great modern cartoons like Steven Universe or Gravity Falls or Star vs the Forces of Evil, or even something a little more comparable like Tron Uprising, but it feels like those are unfair comparisons.Cheerilee said:The first thing to mention about this movie is that I like the idea of the fictional character "Barbie" fictionally starring in movies. These aren't movies about Barbie, they're movies featuring Barbie as [insert character]. Somehow, I really like that concept. Also, I like Kelly Sheridan as the voice of Barbie. She's a great actress, and I've been a fan ever since her role as Sango in the English dub of InuYasha, although she did plenty of good work before that, and just prior to MLP:FIM, she was the voice of Cheerilee. Not sure how I feel about that (leaning toward "it's awesome"). Also, like MLP:FIM, Barbie movies are made in my home town of Vancouver, by Mainframe/Rainmaker, the company that famously made ReBoot and Transformers Beast Wars, before falling apart and becoming irrelevant, and yet somehow surviving for the next 20 years, apparently by making Barbie movies.
Anyways, this film opens with an introduction to Alexa.
She's a modern-day Princess from the modern-day Kingdom of Genericland. But she has social anxiety disorder, and is blowing off her ill-defined modern Princess duties in favor of her true passion, reading books, particularly fantasy novels regarding fairy tale Princesses. I found this character setup to be great. It's not often that we ask what modern-day Royals think of Royal stereotypes, and it's understandable for a modern young Royal to develop SAD, and it gives new meaning to her fantasy outlet, because this kind of fiction is speaking directly to her.
Alexa breaks into a song about how much she loves books, and the song is effective in conveying that Alexa loves books. But the songs in this movie aren't up to Danny Ingram's standard. That's not to say that this song is bad, but it makes me appreciate how even on a bad day, Danny Ingram is still pretty great.
So Alexa's pissed-off Queen-mom demands that she attend her waltz lesson, which is where this movie takes a turn for the worse. The dance instructor is painted by the movie as comically uptight, and Alexa doesn't seem to be displaying signs of SAD, it looks much more like she simply does not want to learn. Which is also weird, because in Alexa's song numbers, she starts breaking out ballet moves. Now I'm not a dance expert, but even I know that the waltz is easy, and ballet is hard. But I'm going to cut the movie some slack here and say that Barbie (aka the actress in this movie) is skilled at ballet, and uses it to convey Alexa's emotions, while Alexa (the character in this movie) hasn't learned the waltz yet. Oh yeah and, Alexa's pair of friends cheer her on with calls of "Go Alexa! You're a Royal, so you can do everything perfect on your first try, without the need for effort or study!" Assholes.
Then Alexa comically breaks her dance instructor's leg. Haha, he was old. Old people are lame. Now that he's out of the way, Alexa's friends try to teach her some of the moves that kids these days are doing, and Alexa actually puts in some effort this time, but she still can't get it right. Grandma pokes her head in and seems pleased to see that Alexa is making some progress towards becoming a well-adjusted person. Grandma rewards Alexa with somemore cracka new fantasy novel, and Alexa sings her way outside to go read it in their massive walled garden. She finds her way underneath the canopy of a large tree, where a magic door appears on the stone wall. She hears servants running about looking for her, so she steps through the door into magic-land, where she gets a magical costume change.
As she's admiring the scenery, a resident of this world tries to put an arrow through her skull. Introducing human Rainbow Dash (voiced by Ashleigh Ball) and human Pinkie Pie (not voiced by Andrea Libman). Turns out they're a little antsy because of evil villains, which is why they're shooting first and asking questions later. But they're lucky that they missed, because Alexa identifies herself as a Princess, and all Princesses have magic, which can defeat the villain. How do they know this? Because rules, that's why. And who is this villain? She's the Princess of this world, but she was born without any magic, and got kind of pissed about that, so she began magically stealing everyone else's magic... My brain cannot repel nonsense of this magnitude. It might be fine if fake-Pinkie was saying this stuff, and it was intended to be ironically stupid, but Rainbow Dash is the one saying it with a straight face.
Then the evil Princess' tracking rodents come along because they smelled fresh magic, and the gang hides. Ummm... maybe now would be a good time for an arrow to the brain? The good guys apparently shoot first and ask questions later, unless they know that they're dealing with bad guys. Bad guys get to live. Normally I'd ignore fantasy heroes not going for the quick kill, but this movie armed the heroes and showed that they were willing to kill random strangers. It's like Chekov's Gun. Don't include it of you're not going to use it.
So the trackers eventually leave, and the human ponies show Alexa where the last of the magical people are hiding. They're all fairies and mermaids. They've also got unicorns, which are just horses, not people. And a Queen unicorn, hidden in a different location, which holds all the magic of the land.
Then we're introduced to the evil Princess, and she's an annoying twerp. She's voiced by Tabitha St. Germain, but not Tabitha's pretty Rarity/Luna voice, it's beyond her "Pepper" voice from Littlest Pet Shop. And then she gets an evil song, which is nails-on-chalkboard bad, but I'm sure it was deliberately bad, because Tabitha didn't get a singing double. Yes, some movies try to be deliberately bad sometimes. I remember when MLP tried to have the Cutie Mark Crusaders sing deliberately bad, and it ended up secretly awesome. Not the case here. This is just painful.
Then Alexa sings about how great it is to have magic in this world, and be able to do whatever she wants, changing flower colors and whatnot. Then she comes up with a new plan. If the evil Princess is stealing people's magic, why can't Alexa just use magic to turn people magical again? Problem solved, without the need for fighting. It's actually a good idea, but it doesn't work. Alexa still has to get everyone's magic back from the villain.
The evil Princess claims another victim, and decides to really obviously tell the victim that she knows where the Queen unicorn lives, and is about to attack there. Then she releases the victim. And follows her to the hideout. Based on this intel, the fairies and mermaids send Alexa/RD/fake-Pinkie to go retrieve the Queen unicorn and bring her back to the hideout. This world deserves to get conquered by a ten-year-old. Alexa makes a magic carpet for the journey, and in a nice little moment she notices how RD is enjoying the sensation of flight again, so she flies low over some water so that fake-Pinkie can dangle her legs in the water and experience the sensation of fast-swimming again. This was a nice touch, showing firsthand how the victims are hurting, and how the hero is kind and giving. The Queen unicorn invites Alexa to ride on her back, but bucks the other two, because getting tossed from a horse is funny and totally doesn't put you into a wheelchair until you die like Christopher Reeve.
Oh noes, it was a trap. The evil Princess tries to drain Alexa's magic, but she isn't strong enough to do so, and Alexa escapes, magic intact. Obvious plot time: The evil Princess is going to drain the horses, power-up, and become a threat again. Yawn.
Alexa eventually stops running, comes back to survey the damage, and resolves to confront the evil Princess. The evil Princess, meanwhile, drains the horses and the entire world turns grey. Alexa and the gang spy on her through a skylight, and Alexa has a plan. Employ the element of surprise, magically open the skylight, and deliver an arrow to the brain? No, barge in through the front door, past the large guards, feigning surrender, and demanding to see the evil Princess. Amazing plan.
Before the magical battle can begin, the trackers are brought in to asses the situation. Turns out, Alexa has much more power than the evil Princess, even though the evil Princess has just absorbed all the magic in the world. What the hell? Just how incompetent is this movie? And if Alexa has that much power (more power than anything or anyone in this entire universe, combined), and a selflessly giving nature, how was she unable to recharge one mermaid and one fairy? So, now that we know that there's no real danger and the bad guys stand absolutely no chance of winning, it's time for the magic battle, which is pathetic. And I'm talking animation and directing, not emotion and stakes, which were already destroyed. Will somebody please put an arrow into the evil Princess' head while she's distracted, and end this movie? No, apparently not.
After the evil Princess gets tired of losing the hopelessly pathetic magic battle, she falls back on her trump card, the magic suck, which is guaranteed not to work. Oh noes, this time Alexa is making absolutely no attempt to resist it. The evil Princess has discovered Alexa's one weakness, suicide, the bane of all nerds. But shortly after absorbing all of Alexa's magic, the evil Princess' magic wand explodes, because it cannot contain the power of more than two universes. And does the magic power return to it's original owners? No. Does it settle onto the ground and power up everyone present? No. Does it flow into the Queen unicorn, the apparent source of all magic in this world? No. For some reason, it all flows directly into Alexa, the recently depowered loser of a magic battle. And it powers her up, so now she's more powerful than two worlds and has a new dress and everything.
Alexa grants magic to those she sees fit, but she probably kept a bunch for herself, because she keeps the new dress. Then she goes home. The evil Princess' parents return from vacation somewhere, and did the cute widdle Princess try to destroy the world while they were gone? Oh yes she did? How adorable. Someone put an arrow in all three of their heads.
Alexa emerges from under the tree to find servants looking for her, but she's wearing her Super Saiyan dress, which is a serious flaw in the movie, if you ask me. If she depowered to her original dress when she passed back through the door, one could choose to believe that the adventure was real, or one could also choose to believe that Alexa was hiding under a tree for a few hours, reading the fairytale that her grandmother gave her (which would have been a pretty lousy fairytale). We "saw her" have the adventure, because she inserted herself into the story, and we "saw it" the same way we saw music videos happen once she started singing about how much she loved books. But this movie did not do that, because this movie is stupid. Alexa's fantasy adventure is confirmed to have actually happened in this movie-world.
Alexa now meets with some commoners and has no more social anxiety disorder, and goes to the ball, where she has somehow mastered the waltz. And then she interrupts the ball to play music that the cool kids these days listen to, and puts on a show for the crowd, perfectly dancing the modern dance that her friends had failed to teach her. Strike a pose to end the movie, because Alexa is so awesome and extreme.
Oh and, the movie ends with a repeat of Tabitha's nails-on-chalkboard song. Movie's done. Time to eject that DVD. No, don't wait and read those credits. The people who made this movie would actually prefer it if you don't read the credits.
This movie is terribly written. Did anything in Alexa's previous character (being a book-obsessed fantasy enthusiast) help her to succeed in a fantasy world? No. Well, almost nothing (I am being very generous). At one point, she made a magic carpet, so we can say that she's probably seen Disney's Aladdin, or is at least marginally aware of it. Did Alexa's adventure in the magical world help her overcome her start-of-the-movie shortcomings? Nope. Those problems just magically went away. The villain learned nothing, she was simply beaten by an impossibly powerful force and had her magic taken away again. Did the citizens stand up for themselves or support Alexa? Nope. They were merely saved by an all-powerful being who stood no possible chance of losing (short of an arrow to the brain). I've seen a few of these Barbie movies now, and bad writing seems to be a hallmark. Some people could say that I'm being too harsh on a movie meant for little girls, but this movie isn't even a good movie for little girls. This movie teaches bad lessons and Alexa is a terrible role model. Which is sad, because this movie had a lot of good things going for it.
I recently watched a bunch of "Hunter Street" (a live action kids mystery show) on YTV, and Hunter Street was definitely better than The Guardian Code, but at least it felt like a more appropriate matchup.
What I've seen of this feels like the writers only watched the first couple of episodes of TOS and said "Yeah, we understand this show."
Aaaannd... I just saw episode 10. It is amazingly horrible. This is an achievement.
Ohmigosh, I just looked and the writer (and face!) of this episode is Mark Leiren-Young, and he wrote the last two episodes of season 2 of the original ReBoot. My brain is seriously imploding.
Ohmigosh, I just looked and the writer (and face!) of this episode is Mark Leiren-Young, and he wrote the last two episodes of season 2 of the original ReBoot. My brain is seriously imploding.
That honestly might be what happened. There's no punished Bob or 2nd Bob. I don't think I've seen reboot all the way myself because of how the schedule was back then, but I still believe they weren't erased or killed.
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