Reboots. You either love them or you hate them. You either find them exciting in what they could lead to, or you could whine and moan that they're ruining your childhood. People have often tried to cite this trend as something that became prevalent in the turn of the century, but it was going on for a lot longer than most give it credit for. I mean, the nineties gave us everything from multiple Addams Family reboots to movie reboots of everything from Flipper to Lassie to Dennis the Menace (the American one at least). It's the sweetest plum. Being able to farm the love and nostalgia that people have for their childhood favorites, and having the ability to share it with their kids. Like Leonard Nimoy once said "The cosmic ballet goes on."
But the questions that can be asked are "what makes a good reboot?" "Does a franchise even deserve a reboot?" and "Where is the line between updating the franchise and keeping it true to the source material?" And no two better examples were given in the past couple weeks than that of Muppet Babies 2018 and ReBoot: The Guardian Code. So, let's take a look at both of these and see how they exemplify how to and how not to reboot a franchise.
Let's start with Muppet Babies. Released in 1984, Muppet Babies was an animated adaptation of Jim Henson's Muppet Characters. For seven seasons until its run ended in 1990, the show followed the adventures of Baby Kermit, Piggy, Fozzy, Animal, Gonzo, Rowlf, Scooter and Skeeter as they use their imagination to go on many wacky and wild adventures in their playroom. Using the fun humor of Jim Henson, and even mixing in actual footage from films like Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz (a major reason the original series hasn't seen DVD releases), the show proved a massive hit and remains a fan favorite among eighties kids.
So when news first broke that Disney was rebooting the series for Disney Junior, people were concerned. Particularly in that the show was axing characters like Rowlf, Scooter and Skeeter. But when more footage and info arrived, including news that the show would be produced by Mr. Warburton of Kids Next Door fame, people became more relieved. In the past few weeks, Disney has released more footage of the series in the form of "Show and Tell" shorts, featuring each of the show's cast. And they feel exactly like their original counterparts. Kermit is still Kermit, Piggy is still Piggy, etc. Even the new addition of Summer Penguin is a fun character that still exemplifies the imaginative spirit of the original. As for the lost cast of Scooter, Skeeter and Rowlf? Well, Scooter and Skeeter have been seen in photos in the background (with other baby versions of the Muppets) so the show may bring them on, or at least remind the older fans that they didn't forget.
With new footage even showing references to the live action bits, and a heavy focus on the imagination of the babies, it seems that this is a reboot that follows in DuckTales' footsteps. Being a show that still feels true to the original series, while being something new and fresh for a new generation. And while I'm far from the age bracket intended for Muppet Babies, I can't deny that it's a show that I actually would love to watch. It's a rare example of doing everything right.
And now let's get to ReBoot: The Guardian Code. I've reviewed every episode of ReBoot for this blog back in the day, so I know quite a bit about the show. It was released in 1994 and is regarded as the first fully CGI animated series. Set in the computer world of Mainframe, Bob, a guardian from the supercomputer, is tasked with saving the people of Mainframe from the dangerous viruses Megabyte and Hexadecimal. He also has to enter the deadly game cubes and battle with the User, whose games of pleasure can lead to the destruction of the innocent people of Mainframe. The show started as a more lighthearted episodic series until season two focused more on darker elements. This led into the pitch perfect third season, and the unfortunate three movie fourth season that just ended up being two movies, leaving us on one hell of a cliffhanger.
ReBoot lasted from 1994 until 2001 and has had fans clamoring for more for almost two decades. You often get the people who look at ReBoot's animation and claim the show to be bad on the surface of its dated look. But the strength in ReBoot was always its characters, its storytelling, and its unique world. Mainframe (now Rainmaker Studios) had been working for years to find some way of bringing the show back in some form. There were even rumors of a movie, but that fell through. Ultimately though news came out that there was indeed going to be an actual ReBoot... err... reboot. Announced in October of 2013, the show was in some development hell for a while until news finally started to form in 2017. And, ooh boy were people not happy.
With the trailer finally dropping in February of 2018, ReBoot: The Guardian Code sees the story of four high schoolers who go to Alan Turing High School. This school just happens to have the ability to teleport people into the computer world. The kids have to learn to fight against an evil cyber terrorist who is using Megabyte and Hexadecimal to take over the world. So, in other words, this is feeling like an unfortunate case of ReBoot in name only. And that's a big bummer to those who waited for something that felt like a continuation or a fresh start forward.
What makes Muppet Babies works is that it feels recognizable to the source material. You watch for a moment and you know it's Muppet Babies. But this show with the live action and animation that somehow looks worse than 1994? This is ReBoot? Now granted, the show premieres on Netflix and YTV very soon, so I'll still be giving it a watch to judge it for myself, but the general sense I get here is a sense of a brand that wants to distance itself from what it was. Trying to clean slate itself, but wiping away way too much of what made the original such a classic. Ultimately turning this more into a reboot of Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad instead of ReBoot. Will the gamble be worth it? We'll find out soon enough I guess.
And that's a look at two completely different reboots. One that wants to honor the source material by staying close to the original and another that feels like it has the name but not the charm. I don't have high hopes for ReBoot: The Guardian Code, but hopefully it can prove me wrong. In the end, it could ultimately be the case of a bad trailer that makes a show look worse than it truly is. As for Muppet Babies, I like what I see and I hope it gets another chance to make dreams come true for a new generation.
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