Bruce Von Stiers

The animated series Reboot went through a bit of a transformation during its third season. The search for the Guardian, Bob, was still going on. But somehow the young sprite, Enzo, and his girlfriend, AndrAia got sucked into a game and are roaming around the net. They hop from game to game, trying to make it back to Mainframe, their home. ADV Films has released a few DVD discs in a Reboot collection. A few of the episodes featuring the storyline I mentioned above are on a DVD disc that is called Reboot: The Net.

The episodes on this disc are Icons, Where No Sprite Has Gone Before, Number 7 and The Episode With No Name. Each episode is over 20 minutes long with opening and closing credits.

Some of the extras for the disc are a character gallery, biographies of selected characters and a character animation test. There are also several line drawings in the Concept Designs section and a Game Guide that describes the Game rules that Matrix (Enzo) and AndrAia must adhere to. Trailers for other ADV Films titles like Farscape, Generator Gawl and Gasaraki are included here as well.

We find in the first episode, Icons, that somehow Enzo is now grown up. The net seems to accelerate growth in sprites. Not only is Enzo grown up, so has AndrAia. She is a stone fox now. That is, she looks really good for a computer generated animated character. She has also gained a smoky sultry voice. Enzo now calls himself Matrix and is somewhat of a hardcase.

The two heroes land in a particular system. They must cause the User to lose a game in order to save the system. This game is a combination Diablo and Streetfighter knockoff. Can they stop the User from getting from winning all of the fights? But of course.

The second episode is Where No Sprite Has Gone Before. Matrix, AndrAia and Frisket, the dog, are transported into yet another system. This episode pays homage to Star Trek in that most of the dialog and locales in this new system are reminiscent of the famed Star Trek show. The people in this system are protected by the Hero Selective, whose leader looks suspiciously like the Guardian, Bob, that Matrix is looking for.

The system is protected by group of bodiless beings called the Spectrols. The Hero Selective members used to be Spectols before deciding to emulate characters from Game Cubes that had entered the system. But what they think will protect them may actually be a virus that will crash the system. AndrAia and Matrix have to help them, even if they don’t want any.

Number 7 is the third episode. In this episode, Matrix and company hop into a game that seems a lot like Mainframe. What a minute! Could this really be Mainframe? Could they really be home? Not so fast. Things aren’t what they seem. When they reboot as characters in the game, Matrix becomes Megabyte and AndrAia becomes Hexadecimal. This strange twist gets even stranger as the episode moves along.

The last episode on this disc is The Episode With No Name. The trio ends up in a portal system. They will have to find a vessel that will take them into the web. Then they can find Bob and make their way back to Mainframe.

Matrix runs into Turbo, another Guardian, who tells about how he and some other Guardians have been infected by the super virus Daemon. They try to stop Matrix from reaching the web. They also want him because he carries the pure code from Bob.

Reboot: The Net is a great continuation of the Reboot collection. The computer generated animation is crisp and the storylines are enjoyable, even though they borrow a lot from both sci-fi and adventure films.

Matrix has a Die Hard and Escape From New York kind of toughness. And AndrAia is a hot, sultry female warrior.

Reboot: The Net is available at most DVD retailers. You can also order a copy from ADV Films at www.advfilms.com.