Now, we all have TV shows or movies that really define our childhood. I know I do. And when we reach that final episode, as the credits roll, we get this hollow feeling in our chest and think to ourselves that this is it; it's over. Now what? But then the next thing you know, you see an announcement of a new show with a familiar title. You think that the show you thought done forever was going to continue on after all. But then you see the show starting over from the beginning and it feels so different from what you've seen before. That is because, my friend, the show was rebooted.
First, as always, let's start with the "what". A reboot, for this article, is basically a remake or restart of a TV show or movie, but nearly if not completely changed from the original. And I have seen plenty of them while growing up. I'm still seeing them today.
One good example is the Spider-Man series. There are plenty of different versions of the TV cartoon about everyone's favorite web slinger, first created by the one, only, the legendary Stan Lee. The ones I'm most familiar with are the animated series from the 1990s which I saw sometimes as a wee lad and Disney's Ultimate Spider-Man in the early to late 2010s during my college years because, well, I never outgrew cartoons yet. The rest either ended before I was even born yet, fell under my radar for whatever reason, or were released when my cartoon crave started to fade. At present, there are ten different retellings of the popular, arachnid-themed superhero that I know of from a little Googling.
The web slinger's even got a live-action movie series that's been revived two times so far. In all, three different actors played the titular character. As a kid, I've seen actor Tobey Maguire don the costume (he was the first). Then Andrew Garfield showed up in the role. Tom Holland's the current live-action Spider-Man, and I am enjoying his run as the character.
Another good example of a reboot from my childhood: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who have been the center of five different TV series. The first time I saw New York's shelled defenders from the sewers, it was around the beginning of the millennium on a channel host to 4kids Entertainment shows. I can't say I was a fan of it, no offense to anyone who is a fan. It just wasn't my cup of tea. Personally, I enjoyed the Nickelodeon's version (the first one) more. Nickelodeon, a TV channel for kids, also made another reboot of the turtles brothers' adventures, but I had already moved on from cartoons by then.
The turtles also got the live action treatment. The first in the early 1990s and rebooted in the mid 2010s.
Transformers. Everyone knows about the Autobots, a band of heroic robotic aliens from the planet of Cybertron with the power to transform into all sorts of cars, planes and ships. My earliest memories of the Cybertronians was of them as robot animals. I also vaguely remember when they got the Japanese touch. But the version I know best is the one that saw the return of actor, Peter Cullen taking back the reigns as the voice of arguably the greatest transforming robot in the history of transforming robots, Optimus Prime. That version of the Autobots' adventures was known as "Transformers Prime", and its sequel, "Transformers: Robots in Disguise". At the same time, they started getting the live action treatment too. Since then, there have been plenty more animated reboots, each different from the last.
Side note: I don't care what you say about cartoons or movies based on cartoons, but a speech by Peter Cullen's Optimus Prime, with that voice . . . nothing short of AWE-INSPIRING. The man's not just talented, he's got heart poured into his work. He really sets the bar high for voice actors everywhere. Anyway, back to the topic.
When talking about cartoons that keep getting rebooted, one cartoon that should never, ever be left out is, of course, (Drum roll please) . . . Batman. That's right. The caped crusader. I have seen quite a few different versions of the caped crusader while growing up. And new ones are showing up even now when I'm an adult.
Batman first entered my life in the '90s in his DC Animated Universe version. As a kid, I couldn't quite enjoy the dark, brooding stories, so I rarely watched it. However, I quite enjoyed the next version in the early 2000s in "The Batman". The one that came after, "The Brave and the Bold" was my most favorite.
And it's not just cartoons. Like Spider-Man, Batman's also got quite a few live-action iterations too. I've glimpsed the great Adam West's take on the character when a TV channel decided to bring his show back for the day's audience. I soaked in the movies where each Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney got a chance to play the billionaire vigilante. And I've seen all three of Christian Bale's take on the character. But after that, my priorities shifted and I haven't gotten around to seeing the versions of Batman that came after.
Now this is just the tip of the ice berg. There are so many cartoon shows, cartoon characters, stories from my childhood of TV and the Big Screen that have been rebooted over and over. I cannot possibly list them all for fear of making this post too long and getting readers to quit halfway. So, instead, I'll conclude it here:
So many cartoons and fictional characters entered my life when I was a kid. And most of them stuck around to today when I got facial hair, with new looks, new lives and new stories, living life differently from what I remembered watching growing up. Nowadays, I don't watch as many cartoons as I used to, if at all. I'm a grown up now, and with that comes a lot more important stuff to occupy myself with. But perhaps, when there's truly nothing else to do, I'll sit back, relax and see what new version of my childhood's companions' been cooked up this time while surely sure that they'll still be around when my hair's turned white.
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