Before there was Disney Pixar’s Toy Story, there was ReBoot. The late 1990s classic debuted on YTV in Canada and ABC in the U.S. in September 1994, a year before the world met Woody and Buzz Lightyear.
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In May 1993, a group of Brits invented computer animation at the Granville Island Hotel.
OK, that is somewhat hyperbolic. But Gavin Blair, Ian Pearson, and Phil Mitchell — along with early collaborator John Grace — were definitely on the cutting edge when they created ReBoot, the first fully CGI TV series.
“The whole time we were making ReBoot, especially in the early days, we were sure that there were other people who were trying to do the same kind of thing,” said the 63-year-old Blair, now retired. “So we were like, ‘Let’s get on with it.’”
Produced entirely in Vancouver, first out of makeshift offices in hotels and then in office spaces on Water and on Howe, ReBoot debuted on YTV in Canada and ABC in the U.S. in September 1994. Toy Story, the first full-length CGI feature, arrived a year later.
For four seasons and 48 episodes, ReBoot followed the adventures of Bob, a guardian of the digital city of Mainframe, along with diner owner Dot Matrix and her younger brother Enzo as they battled villains like Megabyte and Hexadecimal, two computer viruses. It ended in 2001, but the show has lived on in the memories of fans — including two Vancouverites, Raquel Lin and Jacob Weldon.
“I’ve known those guys all their lives, basically,” Blair said. “Raquel, she’s the most Dot Matrix person I’ve ever met.”
A couple of years ago Lin and Weldon approached Blair about the idea of making a documentary about the series.
“I said, ‘Yeah, it’s a great idea.’ I didn’t hear them from them for a while, and then they got back to me and they’re like, ‘We submitted a pitch.’ Then, ‘We’re making the documentary.’”
In September, 30 years after the show’s debut, Lin and Weldon released ReBoot ReWind to YouTube. Produced with funding from Telus StoryHive, the eight-part series is a soup-to-nuts exploration of the show, from its creators’ earliest CG animation projects like the Dire Straits music video Money for Nothing to the groundbreaking series’ afterlife in the minds of old fans and new.
“I think what we always tried to do was put something in the show for all ages,” Blair said. “I’ve had people come up to me at conventions and say, ‘I watched the show when I was eight and I loved it because it was CG. It was colourful and wacky and zany, and Bob was really klutzy. And then I watched it again when I was 12, and I saw a whole bunch of stuff that I hadn’t noticed when I was a little kid. And now I watch it with my kids and I’m laughing at things that the kids have no idea what I’m laughing at.’”
During the series’ run, Blair and his fellow animators slipped in homages to James Bond, Mad Max and Evil Dead. These are among Blair’s favourite episodes.
The series ended with a cliffhanger, though, leaving ReBoot open to a potential wrap-up — or reboot.
“I’m happy with what we did and I’m happy with where it’s at,” Blair said.
“I’m not happy with the cliffhanger. It’s a really good cliffhanger, as cliffhangers go. But would it be nice to tell the rest of the story? Yes, of course it would. But also, we’ve moved on, and time has passed. But in this business, somebody might come along and say, ‘Hey, I saw that documentary, and I’ve seen the new old, new footage, and it looks amazing, and here’s a bunch of money.’ So you never know.”
As for Vancouver, where Blair and Pearson still live, the Brits “fell in love with it the minute we stepped off the plane. It was June and were like, ‘Oh my god, what is this place? We’re not going back. Well, I’m not going back.’ And Ian was like, ‘I’m not going back.’ So yeah, we made a life here.”