It’s time to continue out look through the first season of ReBoot. And it’s also that one episode of the series that I swear almost every animated cartoon has. The shrinking episode or to be more specific, the Fantastic Voyage parody. On the surface, this could have easily just been another overall forgettable filler episode like “The Tiff”. The only difference between the two is that this episode finally introduces us to a character they mentioned back in “The Crimson Binome”. Who is Mouse, and what is her history with Bob? Let’s find out in “The Great Brain Robbery”
We open the episode at Silicon Tor as the our heroes are busy with a game. Megabyte is waiting on Mouse, knowing her history of thievery. Despite a a ninja like entrance, Mouse is late. She doesn’t take too long to head into the giant submarine that just so happens to be placed in the middle of the room. And as she heads there, Megabytes stares at her butt with a bit of pleasure. It’s funny. Guns have to be censored, you can’t jump through windows, hockey is the word of the devil. But standards and practices have no problem with villains ogling the heroes like horny schoolchildren.
Even though he has Mouse on payroll, Megabyte tells Hack and Slash to delete her should she try to fall out of line. Considering the track record of Hack and Slash so far in the series, I don’t think Mouse has to worry about deletion. The plan is to shrink the submarine, and place the sub into an energy shake that Bob will drink. They get into his brain, and tap the information about the supercomputer from it.
The game finishes up, and all of them are famished for lunch at Al’s restaurant. I guess Dot’s diner was too far away, and they needed food now. Unbeknownst to our heroes, Megabyte’s goons are all around, and drop the sub into Bob’s drink. It all seems like it’s going to plan. However, before Bob can drink his shake, Enzo sips it instead, ingesting the sub in the process. The sub still heads into the brain, believing their in the right brain. Hack and Slash’s buffoonery however causes Enzo’s body to spasm out, causing concern from Bob and Dot.
They take Ezno to the principal office, and it seems that Phong doesn’t need them to play his game before getting any answers. Phong examines Enzo, and discovers that Hack and Slash are inside his head. Bob decides the only way to stop them is to go inside Enzo. As that happens, they hack into Enzo’s brain to see what is in his mind. However, Megabyte soon realizes that they botched things up and entered Enzo’s body.
But Megabyte has another plan, realizing that now Enzo being in the principal office can mean that he can gain access to the core, giving him the ability to control Mainframe. Bob is entered into Enzo’s head, and attacks the submarine. Hack and Slash try to stop Bob. But of course, being Hack and Slash, it means they are quickly beaten. Though the missile fire they’ve done inside Enzo’s head can’t be too good for him. However, despite being able to dispose of Megabyte’s goons, Bob is easily captured by Mouse.
Meanwhile, the controlled Enzo manages to enter the core before Dot and Phong can get to him. Bob and Mouse have their reunion for the first time since Bob arrested Mouse in the supercomputer. Bob also informs Mouse about how Megabyte in the core will means that all of them will be erased. Feeling double crossed, she pulls the plug on the control of Enzo, giving him control of his body. Megabyte has lost again.
But with Megabyte feeling screwed over, he turns off the compression field on the sub, meaning it will return to normal size in moments. Which means a splitting headache for Enzo if they don’t make it. But of course all tension still leads to success as Enzo sneezes out the ship. Bob’s saved his brain, while Dot is jealous of Mouse. This little tiff gives Mouse perfect time to escape. And all that’s left to settle is what to do with Hack and Slash. And so the episode ends with Megabyte awaiting Hack and Slash’s arrival, all the while unaware that the miniaturized duo is beneath him.
“The Great Brain Robbery” is another fun episode of the show. We get an interesting adventure with enough action and some good humor. Seeing Enzo’s body go crazy, and utter things at random provides some of the episode’s strongest laughs. The stock “Fantastic Voyage” plot doesn’t just feel like a copy and paste story, which really helps it. It’s also good to see Megabyte again after a few episodes, and although once again his plan leads to failure, he does at least look far less pathetic than he did back in “In the Belly of The Beast”.
The real interesting character of the episode is the debuting Mouse. While still a mysterious character, we do know that she is a criminal sprite who has a history with Bob. However, it also seems that she’s neither good nor evil. She simply does what she’s paid to do. In this case, infiltrate the head of Bob for any information about the supercomputer. She’s a great character, has a really well done design (that even Megabyte approves of apparently), and definitely fits well into this show. Thankfully this isn’t the last we’ll see of her as the series rolls on.
In the end, while the first season is already clogged with simple episodes like this, it’s still a fun enough episode that hasn’t aged that badly. It’s another one of the best from the season. But with this episode, we have only three more to cover for the first season of the show. And the next one is another silly episode, that takes a few much needed digs at a certain BS&P that loved to supply plenty of BS.