Was ReBoot REALLY banned in the UK?

[Yukaphile]

The 1994 CGI animated cartoon! ReBoot! Been on a big binge-rewatch kick, and wanted to ask this. I hear Season 3, which let's be honest, is the best, sexiest, grittiest, most creatively realized of the whole bunch, meaning the most violent, was actually banned in the UK midway through its run, which doesn't shock me. You begin by immediately ditching all that the BSnP had set up, with added sex appeal (Dot finally got boobs, hooray! ^_^), eyes begin popping out in the zombie games, Enzo messily loses a game, Megabyte grows increasingly more villainous, often killing bystanders just to prove he can, Matrix is a walking pile of badass that shoots first, asks questions later, we see a raucous party later with heavy drinking and throw up, ofc, and a ruined Mainframe that's just ripped into shreds and a real sense of hopelessness till the restart, lots of screaming and fire and darkness as the system crashes. I'm not shocked that the censors would underestimate what kids can handle. I'm just wondering if that really happened?

[clearspira]

It wasn't banned as such. From what i remember it was pulling low ratings and they used the controversy over how ''scary'' it was as an excuse to cancel it. You got a lot of that back then in the UK. The other main controversy I remember was over Lord Zedd in Power Rangers. Which amused me at the time as that was when the show got good imo.

I enjoyed Reboot. I remember as a kid desperately wanting to own Glitch. The thing is like a sonic screwdriver for your wrist. The CGI has aged so badly that I suspect I wouldn't even be able to watch it for nostalgia value now though. It hurts my eyes to look at it.

[Yukaphile]

Oh, I see! Thanks for the clarification.

I love the CGI. Being a virtual environment is easier to accept for me. It's basically on the same level as Babylon 5's CGI.

[Yukaphile]

I want to say this.

I think our obsession with high graphics is killing the way studios sell stories. These days CGI plus misleading benchmark tests (Affirmative Action diversity hires and deceptive marketing "firsties" that were already pioneered decades ago is rightly called out, but it is hardly the only example) allows the new generation of participation-trophy high-school dropout writers to shove through increasingly weaker scripts simply because they have a higher ability to fail and still make money regardless. And you know, there IS a power we have as consumers. Me, I never went to see Force Awakens. If we got a new Star Wars Legends novel or a comic book set in the older C-Canon timeline, okay! I'd be there in a heartbeat. But I have no desire to invest in Disney Star Wars for all the aforementioned reasons I cited.

I mean, my God, how many children's shows these days are just shallow, soulless retreads largely due to the CGI allowing the management team to hire lazy writers? Looking at you, Clone Wars. Now take a classic nineties show like ReBoot, which was the first digitally animated kids show. I know Season 1 was slow and meandering, but they were literally pioneering a whole new type of business and really suffered such unreasonable censorship that butchered their end result, you could let it slide. Most of Season 1 isn't so terrible (beside the literal dog-shit episode) as much as really, REALLY slow-paced. Season 2 was a step up, much faster-paced. But Season 3... holy God, does it respect the viewer with complex, mature, and sophisticated story arcs about revenge, coming of age, trauma, loss, hope, faith, depression, and finally, home and what it means to be home.

ReBoot is a great story, but the graphics were made in the 1990s, so... that makes them verboten, I guess? STORY is what matters the most, and yet these days it feels like story only takes 50% priority, while polished HD sheen takes up another 50%, and you don't get the best quality that way or anything with a real impact on pop culture. To go with the Force Awakens example, I think most people are over it. How many people are talking positively about it? I see few, in all honesty. It's finished. While ReBoot or the aforementioned Star Wars Legends have small but wildly passionate fans who still discuss our favorite stories to this day, despite being completed decades ago. Because the plot and the characters mattered. NOT how it was delivered. When the packaging matters more than the contents layered in it, then you have a growing problem with entertainment media.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

If it was banned then it probably deserved it wouldn't you say?

[Yukaphile]

I'd consider it a badge of honor to be banned because it was "too violent." That shows you're doing something right if the censors don't like it.

[Madner Kami]

It's basically on the same level as Babylon 5's CGI.

What? Get an appointment with an optometrist. Your eyes are clearly malfunctioning.

[Yukaphile]

I've heard people bitch about both with equal fervor. Come on, if you're gonna call ReBoot's graphics dated, fairness demands you do the same for B5.

[Madner Kami]

I can call Babylon 5's CGI dated easily and still call it miles ahead of ReBoot's CGI, because it is.