While Bob is considered the show’s main protagonist, as well as the guardian of Mainframe and whatnot, it seems the first season of the show for the most part focused plots more around Enzo and Dot. Apparently the main reason for this, especially for Enzo, was that the creators believed that Enzo would become more of the popular character, since especially around that point in kid’s media, there was a major focus on trying to be more relatable with kids. With how the show changes its format later on, it becomes all the more clearer that Enzo was always going to be a bigger focus than Bob, and we’ll see him get the most development. This is really not one of those massive development episodes, but there is some. Let’s look at “Enzo the Smart”.
We open the episode in a game. This one looks to be an RTS/Rampart style game where castles have to be defended by enemy assault. Everyone’s castles are easily decimated by the User’s cannons, but Enzo manages to survive. After managing to do minor damage to the user’s castle, Enzo thinks that the best way to destroy the user is with a bigger, heavier cannonball. However, Enzo’s strategy fails as the cannonball just falls out, making them an easy target for destruction. Bob’s castle remains with a smaller cannon. Despite Enzo’s claim of “bigger is better”, Bob manages to easily defeat the user with a sharp shot to his gunpowder supply. The game is won, and Enzo feels down.
Despite Bob and Dot’s pep talk to Enzo that “he’ll be smarter later”, Enzo is impatient, and wants to be smarter now. Which leads him to the principal office to ask Phong for advice. And of course, the only way to get any answer from Phong is to beat him in his game. But at least for once it’s over something as simple as “how do I quick fix being smarter?” and not “HELP! MY FRIEND IS DYING! I NEED TO SAVE HER!” Phong’s priorities are indeed strange.
Enzo loses quite easily, and after complaining, Phong gives in and helps him out. He takes him into a special area that’s not to be seen by others to give him an item useful in his quest for smartness. An interesting little reference in the episode shows a statue of a lamp with the initials “JL Senior” engraved on it. JL stands for John Lasseter and the lamp is the beloved Pixar mascot.
Phong takes Enzo into the read-only room, which has every bit of information in Mainframe. Phong lets him stay provided he doesn’t touch anything else. Despite Enzo’s interest to learn, he wants to learn everything as fast as possible. But that fails as he becomes bored of it. He learns of the clock speed room, which will help make Enzo smarter than everyone. In the clock speed room is a giant swinging pendulum. Enzo wishes to be twice as smart as everyong in mainframe. After the lights flicker about, Enzo realizes he isn’t any smarter. But upon leaving the principal office, he sees that everything has become pixelated and 8-bit.
It slowly begins to dawn on Enzo that he didn’t make himself smarter, but instead has made everyone in Mainframe dumber. Especially Bob and Dot, who are now so stupid that they can’t even open the door to the diner to get out. It’s especially funny to see Bob acting more like a dumb macho hero., and Dot thinking a zipboard is a hat. But before Enzo can return to restore the clock speed, he is chased down by Dot and Bob believing he stole a hat. And of course, to compound the problem is an incoming game.
This time the game is a series of track and field events. We also learn that Mike the TV, the game’s announcer, is the only one not affected. He’s clearly dumb enough already. The goal of the game is to defeat the user’s team. And with Enzo rebooting as the team coach, this makes things even worse. Enzo’s team is ready to win, but are of course too stupid to know what they’re doing. Meaning of course that they fail miserably in all of the events. From awful shotput throws, to throwing each other through basketball hoops. And one of the more hilarious moments where Bob misses the pole vault entirely and just runs off with the pole.
However, they have a chance to win if they can win the eliminator. Realizing he’s the only one that can handle it, Enzo enters it himself. And of course the eliminator is like a crazy American Gladiators style event. It has everything from rope swinging, a giant pinball area, and a roller blading section. But as Enzo tries to catch up, his team keeps ruining his chances at success. With time running out, Enzo tells his team that he’s switched them to the user’s team, which helps him catch up. And with their annoyance, finished up with a tackle by Bob, the User loses the eliminator and Enzo wins the game.
Enzo restores the clock speed to its original format, as Mainframe returns to its original level of intelligence. It becomes clear that Phong perhaps knew all along that Enzo was going to do this. The episode ends with Enzo studying the slow and basic way.
“Enzo the Smart” is an episode that still holds up. Mainly in the humor department. Seeing all of the inabitants of Mainframe, especially Bob and Dot become silly and stupid is hilarious, especially in the game at the end of the episode. It’s also a great episode for Enzo, as we see that he can handle himself well in a situation on his own. It’s all about character growth, which while not the biggest amount of it, it’s still there, and it keeps this from just being another filler, and makes it one of the better episodes of season 1.
But the next episode may give this one a run for its money for the title of “Best ReBoot filler episode”, as we see magic, action, and the most unlikely hero ever.