REBOOT
A 'Castle in the Sky' Fan Page

On This Page: Background | Characters | Setting | Episodes | Inside Jokes

Background: What is Reboot?

ReBoot is a Canadian-made cartoon. It was the first television show in the world to be completely computer-generated. Only 3 seasons have been produced since 1991.

The Premise

The show depicts the world inside a computer. The characters call their city "Mainframe" and they know that their system is part of a larger world called "The Net". Mainframe is populated by "binomes" (little zeroes and ones) who carry out the basic functions of running the place. Somewhat higher level functions are carried out by "digits", and the most complex functions are carried out by "sprites". Three sprites: Dot, her little brother Enzo, and the system Guardian, Bob, are the main characters.

One of the most important jobs that sprites do is enter games. Sprites become the computer-generated opponents that compete against the human user. When the user loads a game, a giant "game cube" descends over part of the Mainframe city. Anyone under the cube finds themself inside the world of the game. Inside the game, a binome or sprite can "reboot" which gives them an identity and any powers necessary to participate in the game. Winning the game is essential. If the user wins, then the game departs, erasing the sector where the game landed. Sprites losing a game risk being nullified! Sprites face other risks as well, such as computer viruses, erase commands, and magnets.

In Canada, ReBoot is supported by and airs on YTV.

The Characters

Bob - Guardian of Mainframe. With his keytool "Glitch", Bob is responsible for winning games and defending Mainframe against viruses and other hazards. Although the handsome Bob is a big star around mainframe, he's very humble and friendly. Bob thinks that Dot is really hot.

Enzo Matrix - Dot's little brother. There aren't any other young sprites in Mainframe for Enzo to play with, although he does have a dog, named Frisket. Enzo adores Bob who is like an older brother to him. Enzo is impatient and headstrong and wishes he could be older, and more like Bob.

Phong - The wise but occasionally wacky system administrator of Mainframe's Principle Office.

Mouse - A beautiful and wily rouge who hacks systems for fun and profit. Mouse isn't evil or malicious though. She and Bob have a past.

Megabyte - A virus determined to take over Mainframe. Today Mainframe, tomorrow, The Net!

Hack and Slash - Megabyte's strong but loveably dumb henchmen.

Hexadecimal - Megabytes sister. Also a virus, Hex doesn't seek to rule Mainframe, but rather to cause chaos and confusion. Hex is capricious and unpredictable. She has a soft spot for the hunky Bob.

Additional characters enter the series later...

Setting: Some Special Details of the Reboot World

Guardians
Bob is the Guardian of Mainframe. The duty of a Guardian is "to mend and defend". Guardians are responsible for the safety of their system. A guardian will always enter a game if he or she is able to, in order to protect the sector from nullification.

Tears
Tears are instabilities in the boundaries between different systems on the Net. A stable tear can be used to travel between systems. Gaurdians can create stable tears, but most other sprites and viruses can not.

Game Sprites
Normal sprites remain in their home system after a game leaves. "Game sprites" are built-in to each game. While the host sprites become the computer-controlled opponents, game sprites provide other details of the game. Game Sprites are usually a hazard to both the host sprites and the human player.

The Web
The Web is a competing system to The Net and contact with The Web or creatures from The Web can be lethal to the inhabitants of Mainframe!

The Supercomputer
The main computer on The Net. The Supercomputer sends Guardians to smaller systems like Mainframe.

Episodes

DVD List

ReBoot Inside Joke List

This list is incomplete - Have fun finding more jokes in each episode!

The character names are all computer related: Dot Matrix, like the printer; Megabyte as in memory, etc. The city is filled with words that are computer twists on common phrases like the "highway" labeled "baudway" ("baud" being a measure of the speed of data flow), ads for "Calvin Spline" instead of "Calvin Kline" ("spline" being a mathematical method computers use to draw curves), etc.

Episode 2. Racing the Clock

Binomes: Jean-Luc Picard.

Hexadecimal is another computer-related name, refering to a counting system that uses 16 digits (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F) and is often used in computing. SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), pronounced 'scuzzy' is the name of Hexadecimal's pet. Instead of the tire company Pirelli, the racetrack features 'Gifelli' (GIF is graphic interchange format, a common image file format).

Episode 5. The Tiff

"Tiff" - an argument or disagreement, or in computers, "Tagged Image File Format".

Episode 8. Enzo the Smart

This episode seems to parody Epic's "Olympics" video games and the TV show "American Gladiators".

Episode 10. The Great Brain Robbery

Although the episode title parodies "The Great Train Robbery", the actual episode parodies the famous sci-fi film "Incredible Voyage".

Episode 11. Talent Night in Hell

Many episodes have binomes dressed up as famous people. This episode includes Michael Jackson, William Shatner, The Village People ("YMCA"), and Elvis.

At the auditions, Phong can't remember the words to "Unforgettable".

One of the acts is the music video for "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits; this was the first pop music video to be completely computer animated.

Another act is "The Primitives". "Primitives" is a term for the basic shapes which are used to build up 3D surfaces in computer graphics. I believe this scene (with the polygons moving to music) is based on one of the earliest 3-D computer animation short films.

One binome does an excellent parody of William Shatner's poetry-recitation style (and of Shatner's hair). Shatner released an album called "The Transformed Man" that contained songs and recitations in this style .

"Dueling Banjos" becomes dueling guitars in the guitar battle between Bob and Megabyte.

"Megabyte has left the building!" [I'm sure everyone knows the real-life line was "Elvis has left..."]

Episode 13. Identity Crisis Part 2

Bob reboots into a clown with Ronald MacDonald hair, makeup and boots.

When Dot is trying to find Phong, she comes across a penguin. This might be a reference to the evil penguin from the Wallace and Grommit animated film "The Wrong Trousers".  Some people think it might be a reference to the Linux penguin, but I'm pretty sure this episode predates the Linux penguin mascot by several years.

The idea of Dot seeing a world in which she didn't try might be based on the film "It's a Wonderful Life".

Episode 17. Bad Bob

Binomes: Charleton Heston (does a famous scene from "Planet of the Apes").

Parody of the Mad Max movies.

Enzo says his new air-kart is based on the Supercomputer's "XMP".  The Cray XMP was a real-life supercomputer. 

Episode 18. Painted Windows

Artists featured or parodied include Picasso, Mondrian, Warhol, and Dahli. Works featured or parodied include the Mona Lisa, The Thinker, The Scream, The Persistence of Time, and Voice of Fire. The last of these, Voice of Fire, caused a public uproar in Canada when the National Gallery paid something like $1 million to buy it. The painting consists of three rectangular blocks of colour, two red and one blue.

Episode 19. AndrAIa

Binomes: Waldo (of "Where's Waldo"), Captain Kirk, and Captain Picard ("Make it so!", "Tea, Earl Gray, hot!").

A female binome in Bob's Game Survival class winks at him and has "I [heart] U" written on her eyelids. This was a scene in the Indiana Jones movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

Bob does a Homer Simpson "doh!"

The "AI" in AndrAIa's name is the acronym for "Artificial Intellgence".

Episode 20. Nullzilla

This episode parodies Godzilla (obviously), the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and Japanese shows of that genre (Voltron, etc.). "F.A.B." and Phong's wood-paneled office are from the Supermarionation show "Thunderbirds".

Episode 22. Trust No One

This episode parodies the X-Files, with CGI Special Agents "Fax Modem" and "Data Nully". [The X Files (TV 1993-2002) starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully]. Gillian Anderson does Data Nully's voice. Although 'CGI' has now come to mean 'common gateway interface' I suspect that at the time this episode was made the earlier use of CGI as an acronym for 'computer generated image' was intended.

Episode 23. Web World Wars

Binomes: Elvis.

Binomes huddle in a subway station with a London Underground style sign which reads "Piccadilly Circuits" (Piccadilly Circus being a real train station in London).

Episode 24. To Mend and Defend

I love this episode! The part where Dot asks "What kind of person gets pleasure from this sort of game?" and then looks accusingly at the audience really cracks me up. It's also one of the very few episodes in which we get to see the user's viewpoint (during the game).

The part with the graveyard, skeletons, etc. is obviously a parody of the action-horror genre, especially the Evil Dead movies. The user with the shotgun and chainsaw, as well as the line "Groovy" are from "Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness" (I'm sure they also had the video game "Doom" in mind). Many details in this episode, such as the sound effects and the log cabin with the trapdoor, are from the video game "Alone in the Dark".

The tombstones bear the names of ReBoot writers and producers as well as one which says "Here Lies the Mainframe Joint Venture: An Unholy Alliance".

Enzo reboots into a Michael Jackson zombie (from the Thriller video), and later does a Jackson style dance to dodge the user's bullets.

Dot reboots into an Elvira, Mistress of the Dark type character.

Episode 26. Firewall

This episode parodies James Bond films. The music, the opening titles (love the opening titles!), Enzo's suit, and the mini-helicopter are a few of the Bond details. The game seems to be a parody of the movie "Toy Story". There is also a nod to "Jurassic Park" with the wooden toy dinosaur and the famous T-Rex "roaring" motion.

A "firewall" refers to a type of computer security intended to prevent outside access to a private network. The term sounds slightly like the title of the Bond film "Thunderball" which I guess was the inspiration for the opening title theme and the other James Bond jokes.

Episode 27. Game Over

The game character that Enzo reboots into looks almost exactly like Scorpion from the video game "Mortal Kombat".

Episode 28. Icons

The game at the start of the episode mimics the opening credits from "Star Trek: Voyager", and the aliens from the movie "Mars Attacks".

"Are you a good user or a bad user?" ("Are you a good witch or..." from The Wizard of Oz).

Backup says "now we are seven". "Magnificent," sighs Matrix. The movie "The Magnificent Seven" was a western that starred Yul Brenner, James Colburn, and Charles Bronson. (It was based on Akira Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai" - both are very cool films.)

Matrix and the male binomes reboot into Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" style characters, while AndrAIa seems to reboot into Xena, and the female binome into Gabrielle from Xena: Warrior Princess. The rebooted Matrix looks somewhat like the actor from Highlander: The TV Series.

The object of the game is to retrieve the "gold tooth of sysop"; sysop being a term for the system operator of a computer bulletin board system (BBS). Later, the user says "I want the tooth" and Backup retorts "You can't handle the tooth!" (the famous "you can't handle the truth" line from the film "A Few Good Men").

Outside the Principle Office of the endangered system is a Nerf foam dart gun, but it's labeled "Nerd" instead of "Nerf".

At the end there is binome version of Enzo (with red cap, yo-yo, green face, etc.)

Episode 29. Where No Sprite Has Gone Before

This episode was written by D.C. Fontana who wrote many scripts for the original Star Trek. The episode is full of Star Trek sound effects, character parodies (Robert Cursor as Captain Kirk, Pixel as Spock, etc.), and famous lines ("make it so", etc.), and the plot is typical classic Star Trek. AndrAIa even uses a classic Star Trek style tricorder to examine the tears.

This episode also parodies Marvel/DC Comics style superheroes such as the Fantastic Four, and Catwoman from Batman.

Episode 30. Number 7

Lots of terrible golf jokes in this episode. The worst is when the number 9 binome is rubbing his back and Phong asks "How's your back 9?" (which in golf terms means, how well do you play the second half of an 18-hole round of golf).

The golfers are the end are a tiger and a shark (presumably references to real life golf stars Tiger Woods and Greg "The Shark" Norman). There's also a sombrero, the significance of which I'm not sure.

"I will not be filed, index, briefed, debriefed, etc..." I think this line is from "The Prisoner" but I'm not sure.

"There can be only one." - Highlander!

Episode 31. The Episode With No Name

The city is sort of set up like Mos Isley from Star Wars, especially the bar. There are storm trooper binomes and Star Wars music (like when Matrix walks into the Canteen) as well.

When Matrix makes his big jump from rooftop to rooftop, the "super-strength" sound effect from the TV show "The 6 Million Dollar Man" is heard.

Matrix commands his gun to go into "Death Blossom Mode" (a reference to the movie "The Last Starfighter").

The silver-skinned woman's ship says "IMAX" on the side (I think?).

Turbo's key tool is named "Copeland" which was the development project name for the Macintosh OS 8 operating system.

When Matrix asks Glitch to scan for means of transport, a red light scans back and forth accompanied by a "whirring" sound (just like KITT's scanner on "Knight Rider").

The episode title is a take-off on the famous "Man with No Name", Clint Eastwood's character in his famous "spaghetti westerns". The episode climaxes in an Old West style "shootout" between AndrAIa and the infected female guardian (with appropriate background music and sound effects). [Is the female guardian a parody of a specific person?]

Episode 32. Return of the Crimson Binome

I am guessing that the names of the pirates have some significance to the animators but I don't know for sure. There's also a "Mr. Norton" which could be a reference to Peter Norton of The Norton Utilities.

There's a stow-away penguin on the ship (he's under a box that gets blown up).  Again, not sure if he's supposed to be the penguin from the Wallace and Grommit claymation film "The Wrong Trousers", or the Linux mascot penguin, or something else entirely.

A "Ray Tracer" is a type of program used to generate the colouration (lighting and shadows) for 3D computer graphics like those used to make ReBoot.

Episode 34. Web Riders On The Storm

"Riders on the Storm" is a popular rock song (by The Doors, I think).

The penguin also appears in this episode.

Episode 38. System Crash

Binomes: Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts.

Episode 39. End Prog

Binomes: Sailor Scouts (in the intro), Captain Picard.

"We're doomed!" moans a binome [a C3PO line from Star Wars]

The square bracket prompt that the user sees "]" is the prompt that the Apple II used (I think... I know I've seen it before somewhere at any rate).

The brilliant reprise at the end uses the Gilbert and Sullivan tune, "I am the perfect model of a modern major general".

In the musical, the scrolling background includes a tiger and a shark, which I assume is a flashback to the episode "Number 7".

The dance that the Megabyte character does seems familiar; I suspect another Michael Jackson imitation.

Movie 2. My Two Bobs

The Gateway command is clearly a copy of the Stargate from the Stargate movie and TV series.

Mike The TV: "Is that really your pussy Mrs Slocombe?" Mrs Slocombe was a character on one of the greatest TV comedies of all time, "Are You Being Served?". One of the many running gags was Mrs Slocombe's double-entendre remarks about her pet cat.

Don't you love it when a plan comes together? Dot paraphrases Hannibal's famous catch-phrase from the 1980's TV show "The A Team".

(Note the Reboot TV movies were later split up into regular TV episodes.)