The Presentation
Now we come to the elephant in the room: the reboot’s presentation. Partially because of the limitations of CG during the 90s, the original show went for a PlayStation FMV cutscene look. The characters appeared as if they jumped out of a video game, because video games were a major recurring element of the show. Even in the later seasons where the CG was noticeably better, the characters retained their uncanny valley appearances. Plus, some featured unique designs that made them look like anthropomorphic computer programs without relying on unnecessary and cluttered circuit line patterns. For example, the hacker program, Mouse, had orange static for hair and Hexidecimal had interchangeable creepy white masks instead of a face. She changed masks by waving her hand or turning away from the camera, which told audiences she was a powerful virus who more than earned the title ‘Queen of Chaos.’
The CG in the trailer pales in comparison and features generic, over-designed, and techy details that infect every millimeter of the digital landscape and characters — a stark departure from the expressive and colorful designs of the original ReBoot. Worst of all, the trailer features landscapes that only use one color palette. One scene includes dark green buildings against a dark green background, and another has silver pylons and a silver sky. No image in the trailer stands out, which screams lazy design. The original show’s creators not only knew how to design eye-catching characters and locales, they also were able to use the limitations of 90s CG to their advantage, which is not something that can be said of the trailer.
