Toy Story Is The First CGI Movie, But This CGI Show Came Out First

Airing a year before Disney and Pixar's "Toy Story" hit the big screen in 1995, "ReBoot" was a four-season kids' show that was entirely done with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Created by four people, Gavin Blair, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, and John Grace, "ReBoot" was about a Guardian, Bob, along with his crew, Enzo and Dot Matrix, protecting the computer world they inhabit, the Mainframe.

Episodes would have them dealing with threats from the evil Megabyte, as well as an ominous purple cube sent by someone called The User. While the animation might look dated now, for a show aimed at kids, it's fairly dark in some spots and dripping with melodrama. So much so that "ReBoot" ends on a cliffhanger after an extended period away from the screen between 1998 and 2001. Season 4 was actually two TV movies split into episodes for the U.S., and due to studio intervention, it wound up with a cliffhanger ending.

In a 2010 interview, Gavin Blair said that due to things being cut, the episode was left with a cliffhanger, but was intended to have some form of resolution. Blair states, "Basically we were going to resolve the hunt issue, but still leave some things hanging." He has also denied any inkling of any potential real resolution, on the off chance that "ReBoot" is brought back. However, it's been nearly 15 years since that was filmed, and in the 2010 interview, he joked that he'd have to "kill" the interviewer if they found out any of the plans.

Behind the scenes, the show was notorious for the Board of Standards and Practices directing the studio to make changes to the look or story, as they tried to make it "suitable" for kids. Characters with breasts were altered to form a "monobreast." This was altered again when the series broke off from ABC in Season 3. As outlined in a 1997 feature by Wired, one scene of a character giving a good luck kiss on the cheek to their sibling was cut in fear of promoting incest, much to the disgust of the creators.

Violence had to be toned down too, with Blair confused that the action-adventure show they'd sold to ABC couldn't feature a "punch-up" or "jeopardy" situation, as it might scare children. ABC had a history of this, including dealing fatal blows to "The Real Ghostbusters." The word "hockey" was banned from use — despite airing in Canada — as the Board of Standards and Practices found the word could have meaning in other regions for "a mixture of semen, urine, and feces." It also banned the word "wuss," as the BSnP claimed it could mean "wet p*ssy."

Multiple jabs at both the Board and ABC were made during the show's run. The evil Megabyte winds up having ships called "ABCs," while Season 1 featured an episode where the character Enzo finds that every performance for a party has been banned, ribbing the Board, and also featuring a "YMCA" parody, "BSnP."

Despite the setbacks and constant changes, "ReBoot" was fairly successful, and even hit syndication. Though it aired in 1994, it was conceived an entire decade earlier. Blair and Ian Pearson had worked together on the Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" music video (the two characters appear in the episode "Talent Show") and wanted to create a full show. However, it wouldn't be until 1990 that work would begin on the show in earnest. The next three years would be a lot of demo reels being sent out to TV networks, before the show finally sold for a start date in 1994.

Silicon Graphics boxes were at the heart of the production of "ReBoot." In a behind-the-scenes video, the team was using Onyx boxes, and likely the more costly RealityEngine2 version. Prices ranged from $159,900 to $634,900, depending on the configuration. The box could support up to 16 GB of memory and could hold up to 2 TB of storage. These were the same boxes behind the Nintendo 64.

The show's master files are considered lost, but the original broadcast tapes have been recovered. The media studio and popular tech YouTube channel, Linus Tech Tips, has helped with the preservation of the tapes since they were found, which have since been worked into a documentary. A live-action Netflix reboot of "ReBoot," "Reboot: The Guardian Code," aired in 2018 and was poorly received.