Rebooting old shows.

[VGAddict]

Rebooting old cartoons/shows is very popular these days, cashing in on people's nostalgia. Even this very forum is about a reboot of an old cartoon.
 
I see it as a double-edged sword. On one hand, you have a built-in audience of people's nostalgia, and a chance to bring an IP to a new generation. On the other, people who grew up with the show/cartoon often complain about how different the reboot is from the original.
 
What do you think? Is it good, or should they focus on making new ideas?

[Noedig]

The reboot(Generation 4.) is by far the best of MLP there is.
It has better character development, the main stories are more interesting, and lastly, it's funny.
This show does not make parents cringe or be disgusted(Other than the possibility of intro/outro theme songs...).

[DreamySunday]

The reboot(Generation 5.) is by far the best of MLP there is.

Sorry to burst your bubble but theeres only been 4 gens of Ponies

[Noedig]

Oops.

You're right. Lemme correct that!

[panzerschreck]

The Powerpuff Girls reboot, is kinda, well.. garbage.

[PulseWave]

Not only do reboots of old shows tend to be crappy, at least seen from the point of view of older fans who see their favourite show defaced by modernisation.

 

But they also pose the threat of launching an entirely new fandom although there is already one.

• Be it because the existing one is too obscure so that those who love the reboot don't even know it exists.
  
• Be it because the audience of the reboot is too young to care for what had been on the Web five or ten years ago (or what has been around for 10, 15 or more years and therefore isn't the newest, hottest **** around).
  
• Be it because the existing fandom hasn't seen any upgrades or modernisation itself and has been populated by the same few fans for years – and instead of breathing new life into the existing fandom, new fans start anew and ignore the "old farts".
  
• Be it because the new fans' attitude is radically different from the old fans'.

 

To be fair, there has been a My Little Pony fandom before the bronies appeared. These old fans are the MLP collectors. And they were not amused to say the least when the bronydom appeared because the bronies started over, ignored the collector scene just like they ignored (or downright loathed) the older generations and took only some two or three months to outshine everything the collectors had achieved within more than a decade.

 

Part of the problem was that the collectors didn't and partly still don't understand the bronies. Some do watch closely what happens in the bronydom, but others barely know that we exist, and they think we're collectors specialising in G4 because – as strange as this may sound – they aren't even aware of the existence of a TV show (justified in places like Germany where MLP:FiM got next to no promotion at all). So they think we're just a younger, wilder, mostly male crowd competing for the same collector's items. And if you as a brony try to demonstrate to them what bronies really are and do (especially our fan creativity that goes way beyond the imagination of fans who haven't seen much beyond custom ponies so far), it'll be hard for them to comprehend what they've just seen.

 

One reboot that's still uncertain to happen but that I'm quite sceptical about is the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers half-live-action, half-CGI movie that had been announced a couple of years ago, much to my old buddy ACRacebest's excitement. Hardly anyone knows that the Rangers already have a fandom which may be small but dedicated and with a rich tradition of creativity, and those are mostly thirty-somethings and older. Add to that that the main fan forum is hard to find because it hides from search engines, and that most of the other important fan sites were launched in the 2000s or earlier with hardly to no maintenance in this decade, let alone upgrades.

 

As much as I'd see new fans breathe new life into this fandom that does need some fresh blood, I fear that if this film happens to hit home with a crowd similar to the bronies (I'm afraid the film won't target the old fans like the Boom! comics did), they'd just start over, neither knowing nor caring for the already existing fandom. (I mean, how many of you would be interested in fanfics released in 1996 or 2002 or a fan-made graphic novel released in late 2003?) Also, if the film's "origin story" should contradict the TV show's pilot, the new fans would declare that the film is canon and the old show is not (also because they don't want to deal with something produced a quarter-century ago for a late Generation X/early Generation Y audience and for comparably tiny 1980s or older CRT TVs that looks horrible on a full-HD flat screen).

[Lyipheoryia]

Some reboots are actually very good...but most of them are just insults to the original show.

I mean, how many of us can look at Ghostbusters 2016 and actually say, "Wow!  It totally measured up to the original series!", or watch the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series and agree that, "It was better than the original"?  Especially with Disney's new interest in remaking their old animations into live-actions, it's been case after case of "maybe this will turn out OK?"

 

Going back to @PulseWave's point~  Yes, most people who were fan of the G3 aren't super-happy with the G4 bronies, but I do know quite a few G3 fans that enjoy the G4 as well (including myself).  I'm glad G4 was made, but it would have been nice if they had kept some of the references to G3 in-show.  

[tacobob]

I enjoyed reboots of He-Man And Thundercats...Both took what were cool about the previous series and dumped the sillier and or awful aspects of their shows. It also helped that the censors are not as bad as they used to be....Unfortunately both shows were killed due to their poor toy sales.

 

Voltron is the next series to get a reboot and they've done a pretty good job....Just wish they dumped the mice. Always hated those guys.

[SteelEagle]

Reboots should be valued for what they are and taken on their own merits. They must also be taken in context. A reboot when done right will recapture the spirit of the original. This may leave fans of the original out in the cold. The show may appeal to the same demo it did in the past, but the plder fans may not be in that demo anymore, and their nostalgic glasses will be fully on.

[Rosewind]

I like to see reboots done right. Lookit FiM! 

 

I think the new Ducktales coming up will be awesome. I also like how some reboots are keeping checks on social relevance, such as giving more primary roles and attention to female characters. I hope this paves the way for older franchises a lot of people never got to experience.

[Mutt]

The upcoming ReBoot reboot twists my guts into a fiery knot of pre-emptive disgust and disappointment.

[DreamySunday]

Sounds like a good time.

[tacobob]

3 hours ago, Mutt said:

The upcoming ReBoot reboot twists my guts into a fiery knot of pre-emptive disgust and disappointment.

 

Are the creator(s) of the original working on the new show?

 

Also, along with reboots...We're seeing more continuations of old shows thanks to Netflix....They've brought back MST3K....Also also for CN..Samurai Jack.  And both are really good.

[Mutt]

Rainmaker entertainment is producing it but... It's live action, featuring four teenagers... who go inside a computer sometimes with the aid of an artificial intelligence... with cg segments. So it's a very extreme reboot for ReBoot.

[tacobob]

Erm. I hope this isn't what it will look like....

 

http://www.polygon.com/tv/2017/3/29/15105720/reboot-live-action-reboot

 

Looks like a PS2 game.

[Mutt]

PS2 games never looked that good.

[tacobob]

And speaking of reboots.  This looks to be fun...And the guy behind it (Rob Renzetti) has been involved in a ton of toons, from FIM to Gravity Falls....And from what I've seen, it reminds me a lot of Gravity Falls..Which is a good thing..