In the past few days there has been some interesting news about two beloved animated television series that are being rebooted. While I usually don’t get very excited about reboots of good shows and in this case exceptionally great shows. While on the surface the announcements seemed to be exciting but once I started to read up about them there were some major red flags that popped up about them.
Powerpuff Girls is being revived by Cartoon Network and seems to be a great idea until there were two little details that Cartoon Network decided not to do. First the original creator of the show Craig McCracken does not appear to be involved with the new series. While a lot of reboots of successful series rarely have any of the original talent involved in this case the show worked because of the vision of McCracken. The other and more disturbing thing was that none of the original voice actors of the main characters were asked back for this new series either. Tara Strong (Bubbles), E.G. Daily (Buttercup) and Cathy Cavadini (Blossom) are the heart and souls of the characters and breathe the life into them with their amazing voice work. They were caught off guard with the announcement and took to twitter to voice their displeasure.
https://twitter.com/RealEGDaily/status/608046334117937152
Even creator McCracken summed up most peoples feelings and nailed it.
While this is not the first time that the Powerpuff Girls has been “re imagined”. Back in 2006 Cartoon Network Japan did the Powerpuff Girls Z known as They’re Here! Powerpuff Girls Z. That series ran 52 episodes and at the very least did make the show its own thing by re-designing the characters and creating new ones for the series.
This new series seems to just make more episodes without anyone that was involved with the original series. It seems pretty pointless to me. The three main girls are Amanda Leighton (Blossom), Kristen Li (Bubbles), and Natalie Palamides (Buttercup).
The three that they got to do the voices are pretty green with limited acting experience and pretty much no actual voice work before this. Cartoon Network says that they are re-designing the show but the promotional artwork that they posted didn’t seem very new and fresh and the only difference that I could tell was the outlines of the characters seems to be a bit thinner than the original but they look pretty much the same. Below is the new and original so you decide.
So how is this going to turn out at this point is anybody’s guess but fans of the original show are probably not going to be very impressed with it but honestly Cartoon Network could care less because the real audience for the show is going to be kids who have never even heard or seen the original show.
Reboot was the first CGI animated Saturday morning series that started in 1994 on ABC and was produced by Mainframe and created by Gavin Blair, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, and John Grace. The show was very cutting edge at the time and did improve visually each season with the improvement of technology. What made the show great was the fantastic writing on the show. The series was one of those rare ones that was really made for adults but kids could watch and enjoy also. They cleverly named the characters after computer terms. Dot Matrix, Frisket, Bob, Mouse, Hexadecimal, Megabyte, Hack & Slash to name a few. The new show is produced by Mainframe but none of the original creators are involved and the current Mainframe company is in name only to the original. None of the original creators work for the new company that is called Rainmaker Entertainment.
This new version seems to be in name only because in the press release they describe the new series as;
Reboot: The Guardian Code, a hybrid live-action/CG-animated series
“We are thrilled to receive the greenlight from Corus Entertainment to move forward with the production of Reboot: The Guardian Code,” commented Hefferon. “Technology is ever-changing and Reboot: The Guardian Code will utilize the very technology inherent in the concept of the show—and prevalent in kids’ everyday lives—to drive a new type of relationship across multiple platforms. Reboot: The Guardian Code and associated brand extensions will deliver mass appeal with a technology focus, empowering kids with the tools and confidence to chart their own course in a world that is increasingly dependent on and powered by technological knowledge.”
What???? The original show took place in the animated computer world. What the heck is the point of live action. A little research turn up a show named Zixx that combines live action and CGI and ironically the Rainmaker started to do the animation for the show in the second season. It seems that is the way that Reboot: The Guardian Code is going to go. The shame about this show is that there is so much potential to create a new world of Reboot based on the original concept but this seems more like a gutting of an original and amazing show and instead making some half assed crappy kids show with no originality. While most people are not familiar with Reboot if you get a chance to watch the show you will understand why I am very hesitant to get too excited for this re-imagination of Reboot.
I still have a small glimmer of hope that the show might turn out well but without any of the original creative team involved and the mixing of live action has me fearing the worst for this reboot of Reboot.
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