WAIT... Remember Generator Rex?

wait remember generator rex it was cartoon  network's action-packed series about teenage   amnesiac rex salazar along with his over-the-top  awesome evo powers that allow him to generate   nearly any bio-mechanical construct for any  occasion in 2010 cartoon network breathed new   air into what originally was an obscure comic  book series titled m rex which was created by   joe kelly and duck and rollu who'd go on to  become two of the four founding members of man of   action entertainment the geniuses behind yeah but  believe it or not the spark behind generator rex   m rex came before the likes of ben 10. today  let's take a look into generator rex and see   how this pumped up to the max action cartoon  fared against the major tonal shift cartoon   network was starting to take you're one  of those glass half full guys aren't you so how's that new wallet of yours oh you mean my  extra tm wallet it's been great who who are you   looking at the live studio audience you know this  is 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today's   video noted april 23 2010 the day that generator  rex would premiere on cartoon network this was   an interesting time for the network the verge of  cleaning out the old and moving forward with the   new but let's not jump ahead and discuss that  yet just keep that in mind for later the show   follows rex exponentially variegated organism or  evo for short most evos mutated into more monster   looking creatures thanks to a major explosion  that expelled high amounts of nanites into the   atmosphere attaching themselves to almost every  living thing on earth for rex while affected by   the nanites he never was cursed with his look in  biological makeup being altered into something   resembling the other monsters putting him into  a small selection of people affected that are   in full control of their evo abilities that are  now granted to them with no initial repercussions   oh yeah the abilities part so while some do things  like this or this and even that rex has something   pretty special allowing him to at a whim shift  around parts of his body into biomechanical   weapons for combat defense and more even a sick  bike on top of this he can also deactivate the   nanites inside of others and save them from  their curse whether they are thankful or not   for that working for providence a military-esque  organization created in direct response to the   nanites that will either stop and capture hostile  evos or flat out just take them out but once they   found rex and the powers that he has their ways  started to change as if there was a way to cure   these evil evos then that's what they should try  to do first and foremost voiced by daryl sabara   yeah junie from spy kids rex is your typical  front and center action lead he's charismatic   takes things into his own hands and still has  all the charm to make him a likable lead his past   causing him to lose his memory stems from the  explosion that took the lives of his parents   after his life was saved thanks to the nanites  getting injected into him after an incident   which left him in a pretty critical condition oh  and before he was even a part of providence he   was fully transformed at one point into this  iron giant-esque form going on a rampage in   mexico before being defeated turning back into his  human form and forgetting all about what happened   through all of this he uses his abilities  to cure evos and gets a job with providence   insurance benefits 401k and his own office but  for real he basically now aids on missions to   cure as many evos as he can and oh so much more  as this show does have quite the extensive story   to explore i didn't mean that to rhyme i'm so  sorry overall the show's premise is pretty dark   and carries with it a narrative featuring more  gravitas in its presentation there are of course   lighter even campier moments but with consequences  of fights body horror thanks to the nanites and   more it's definitely skewed one way more so than  the other or even in the first episode the brutal   way in which van clice is defeated for now he is  the main antagonist throughout the entire show   voiced by troy baker he uses propaganda to make it  seem like he truly cares about evos but truthfully   he doesn't he's just a big old manipulator to try  and further his own wants and plans and just a   side note in general this show boasts a really  really strong voice cast john dimaggio is bobo   grey delisle as rebecca holliday wally kurth as  agent six jk simmons is white knight aka the tier   three sub even fred savage is here as noah nixon  they all also voice a mix of other characters in   the show as well but based on those characters  names i just mentioned rex works directly under   agent six they have a buddy cop vibe but he is  more of his handler than anything else and he's   clearly modeled after the matrix bobo haha is the  sidekick chimp who really doesn't do as much as   he would probably claim he's doing originally  a captured evo given a fresh start to work with   providence and over time has an extremely close  relationship with rex while he is looked at as a   bad influence for rex he still enjoys his duties  of fighting some evos rebecca holliday is the   chief research officer at providence she cares for  rex and is able to fix him up and help ensure his   safety one because it's her job to do so but  also she sees him as more than just a weapon   for providence agent six has that fitting name as  he is the sixth most dangerous man on the planet   he also lost six years worth of memories thanks to  an accident with a memory machine there's also a   storyline in the show dealing with a six-month gap  in time that's a lot of sixes what is this toronto   anyway he's a by the books no-nonsense type  but he does have a soft spot for rex over time   and maybe even a softer spot towards rebecca and  also five now yeah i can see why she's the fifth   most dangerous person in the world they were so  smart naming them that noah nixon a friend to rex   to keep him on the straight and narrow because we  find out literally early on in season 1 that white   knight the leader of providence planted him there  and their friendship wasn't as natural like it may   have seemed to rex would have been cool to reveal  something like that way later on in the series but   sure whatever they become actual friends as the  series goes on or is it all a big con job hmm   cersei is an interesting character as well serving  as the initial love interest for rex but due to   her not feeling like she belongs integrated with  everyone in everyday society she is loyal to   the pack a group of evos working directly for van  cleiss also probably because she can do oh my god   what in the world and that's all the really really  important character well rex does have a brother   he was just as surprised trust me caesar salazar  he's older wiser and had been in space for five   years well thanks to time dilation it was only  15 minutes for him overprotective and loyal to a   fault to rex we see his character struggle with  his scientific strong-willed and fearless side   clash with choices bigger than him to save his  life or his brothers family over everything vin   diesel is proud remember what i brought up  earlier about this being an interesting time   for cartoon network and being on the verge of  an important time as the network was re-shifting   around their future plans let's take a look  at just how the show came to be and the real   challenges ahead it had to face guess it's back to  quadratic equations i'm rex trust me you've never   seen a guy like me before generator x a brand new  series on cartoon network man of action that's the   entertainment collective responsible for bringing  this show to life with ben 10 being their first   major animation production back in 2005 but for  generator rex even though it came out in 2010   it still preceded ben 10 technically you see there  are four founders of man of action two of them   being joe kelly and duncan rulu who were creating  comics under avalon comics a subsidiary of image   comics publishing joe would be the creator  and duncan would be the cover artist for the   comics aaron sod alp altner and curtis arnold also  worked on the comic by inking it in 1999 the comic   m rex was released and ran for two issues and just  looking at the images on screen i am sure you can   already see where this is going this comic became  the blueprint for what generator rex would become   from the ideas and the look of the characters a  bit rex agent 6 white knight and bobo haha just   known here as the haha were all introduced within  the comic with the same names along with a small   handful of characters that never transition from  the comics to the show but it's the story that's a   bit different rather than nanites transforming the  genetic makeup of humans into creatures it's more   about organisms gaining a collective consciousness  forming a new species fighting for dominance while   some of that translates into the show with the  evos and how some of them view their place in   this world it still has a separate vision in  mind but what does remain is the group known   as providence fast forward to the year 2000 joe  and duncan along with steven segal and joe casey   would form man of action entertainment they  would work on anything from shows to films to   comic books to video games and of course animation  one most notable comic was when they were working   with marvel and created big hero 6 which today  spawned the hit movie and of course the animated   series but their first real big break came from  ben 10 and the success that followed with ben 10   technically still running to this day with its  newest adaptation but come on from the original   series to alien force to ultimate alien to the  live action stuff you name it ben 10 was bringing   in all the attention but after the first five  years of success with ben 10 man of action wanted   to focus on something else as well because  of what ben 10 had done for cartoon network   pitching another action-based cartoon should be  pretty easy especially with its potential to do   anything similar to what ben 10 has been doing so  their obvious choice was adapting part of m rex   changing up some character designs and the story  overall for something that can build into a larger   narrative while they wanted to bring the same vibe  of ben 10 to the show they also wanted to make it   a bit more mature in ways of a complex story that  kept you watching and made you invest invested   was something to take home and think about after  watching they did just that the show premiered to   great enough viewership and support for the series  it even won a prime time emmy for outstanding   individual and animation given to chu hoy song  and nora murphy breeden for their background   art specifically for the first episode but after  three seasons with the final two-part episodes   premiering on january 2nd and january 3rd 2013 the  show was ultimately cancelled by the network and   yeah it's partially for the reasons you think  the extra money makers surrounding the franchise   not making so much money we will get into  all the extra stuff later on in the video but   essentially toy sales are what killed this  franchise like so many other great shows   again partially with a question mark at the  end but also as we go on to talk about as well   it did have a proper ending kind of it finished  the majority of what the main story was leading   up to while leaving some major things open-ended  that could have seen a continuation so whether   it was a real cancellation or the show just ended  the extra merchandise surrounding the show wasn't   doing what the network needed it to do some also  chalk it up to the ratings getting lower during   the second season but even still there are a  bunch of different variations that contributed   to the show ending i mean ben 10 merchandise  has made somewhere over 6 billion dollars so   yeah kinda hard to live up to that also scheduling  conflicts hurt the series as well it was taken off   lineups and shuffled around a lot even having  episodes 56 through 60 for some reason released   onto itunes to purchase before they even aired on  tv suffice to say it got a little messy and i am   sure raiding specifically played into that part  of the release schedule another thing to note   was the changing of the old guard to the new as  newer what we see now as modern cartoon network   styles of cartoons came to be with stuff like  adventure time and regular shows starting this   new wave for the network heck you can even throw  chowder on that list too it's part of the reason   the newest iteration of ben 10 looks like this and  less like this it's the reason we no longer have   this teen titans and now have this teen titans now  this isn't a concrete 100 reason but it was smack   dab in the middle of cartoon network heading in a  slightly different direction the show overall was   a surprisingly great time the adventure we follow  rex and the crew on for these three seasons is   full of new twists and turns that shake up the  formula with each season feeling different yet   familiar season one is a very clean introduction  to the series finding a nice footing for who these   characters are how they play into the story  and just how freaking cool they are between   the powers or weapons being used each character  has their own distinct personality and role even   with the monster-esque evos they all felt unique  had interesting character designs and were given   cool spotlights no matter if the role was small or  ongoing season 2 favors a more lighthearted tone   with what felt like more comedy added over season  one but even if some would consider some of these   episodes filler they never felt boring personally  i don't mind filler if the filler has some true   form of entertainment value and clearly this show  had that for me but it also added so much more to   the characters making them richer extending out  their lore and adding the most shocking twists   yet with rex's brother and especially the ending  with the awesome but misunderstood villain breach   where rex is teleported six months into the  future a future that has drastically changed   from the world he was living in just moments  ago gone are agent six and rebecca holliday and   white knight is allegedly no more with a new  person in charge a mysterious woman drenched   in black named black knight they really knew how  to name these people you'll call me black knight time to generate into the transforming rex ride  shoot save the day season three however gives us   a lot of answers right off the bat that we were  left having at the end of season two black knight   tries to manipulate what the new providence is all  about with these new collars that would control   the behavior of evos but her efforts to earn rex's  trust fall flat as we learn about the real effects   of the collars controlling the evos against their  will and this gets even more complicated when   family matters get involved as caesar works for  black knight and aids in the process of making   and using these collars this mistrust leads  to rex finding agent six and rebecca holliday   in a new counterforce operation with their own  base and white knight is revealed to be alive and   well hey good for him that's all within episode  1 of season 3. the rest of the season goes even   crazier first with ben 10 specifically the ben  10 from ultimate alien as he gets brought into   rex's reality for this double length episode  crossover and it becomes such a fun team-up   episode dealing with the pocket dimension prison  a rogue prototype ai in it being my multiverse   of madness anyway we find out this season that  egyptian lore and mythology now play a role as   unlike rex going six months into the future that  van cleis went all the way back to ancient egypt   all of this ending in a really climactic battle  in the two-part finale end game with these meta   nanites all coming into play in the fifth  metananite which is also the strongest one   residing inside of rex so black knight needs  to use him in conjunction with the rest of the   consortium this group of powerful elites that  are the higher ups of black knight even if it   seems that she's in control at the end to put  rex in with the other collected metananites now   installed into the consortium's bodies finn  clays messed with the process though so rather   than all the power that they would have had  ends up being a fifth of what it could be   but the real side effect is that each of them  are now biomechanical evos themselves they look   awesome and they fuse together okay voltron the  only way to stop this now seemingly invincible   threat is the full biomechanical evo rex's  ultimate form activated by his omega-1   nanite omega evo form with the full robotic body  that he is in complete control of but with just   one risk losing all his memories once again but  that wasn't good enough and he loses the fight but   hey he keeps his memories this time so there's a  plus this all leads to a final secret about rex's   family the meta nanites and rex himself they  were secretly programmed to only work and be   controlled by wrecks so in a final effort rex  absorbs the remaining metananites and becomes   omnipotent a being of ultimate power using  his power to in one burst cure everyone in the   world from the nanites returning everyone  back from their curses or appearances   back into humans faced with a final choice of  staying this all-powerful being or take out   these powers for good so nothing wrong can come  from it he chooses to then permanently destroy   the metananites for good and now the only evo  left in the world is rex who vows to continue to   protect earth it's all pretty powerful stuff it's  a lot to take in but wow was this a fun ride with   exciting revelations awesome characters and it had  an ending that satisfies the journey we have taken   and even an open door if more was to come from  the series i have a love-hate relationship with   action cartoons my true love is vibey fun  hangout slice of life cartoons over anything   and some action cartoons feel like there is no  real purpose or thought out reasonings for why the   action is even happening plus the investment work  of following along the whole series but if one   is as good and as rich as generator rex then the  whole thing can captivate me this show had so much   to offer in terms of lore and world building every  new concept introduced made sense for the world   the characters weren't one-dimensional they were  fleshed out to the point that even the villains   felt like they believed their reasonings for what  they were doing or were trying to do rather than   just being the bad guy because the show needs a  bad guy it ticks so many boxes for me from the   genres i do like the science fiction aspects were  really cool and felt like a lot of time was spent   crafting them so when stuff like time dilation  and time travel are brought into the show it felt   more natural and more intriguing rather than just  too much all at once but like i mentioned earlier   the show firmly ended at the end of season 3. we  kind of know why this all happened kind of don't   but it wasn't for lack of trying there were  a lot of outside cartoon items produced first   the toys mattel worked on a cool line of action  figures featuring rex and his different abilities   as well as other various evos even larger versions  of his abilities now the original origins of the   show came from comics but it all came full circle  once generator rex would appear in comic form once   again within cartoon network action pack number 51  which is the network's own collaboration with dc   for a series of comics that featured basically  all of their intellectual properties that ran   from 2006 to 2012. also there was some novels  or books in general that were produced but the   show had an abundance of video games mostly flash  based games like usual abbas arena nanite master   enemy alliance evo showdown as well as appearing  in tko as a battler character as well as being a   character in fusionfall it also had a full-fledged  major release video game from activision called   generator x agent of providence released on the  nintendo ds 3ds and wii the playstation 3 and the   xbox 360 in november of 2011. it was your typical  3d beat em up light puzzle solving platformer   rex did make an appearance like with every other  cartoon network property at the time and okko   let's be heroes crossover nexus special as a stone  version of himself oh and if you thought that the   team up with ben 10 was going to be his only  interaction with ben well do i got news for you   in 2021 ben gen 10 an episode of the newer  iteration of ben 10 with more cartoony looks to   the whole show featured rex visiting ben's world  and getting into some fun shenanigans so after   almost a decade we did get some more generator  rex content after all so could this be a backdoor   pilot to potentially bring the series back in  a new way yes we'll have to wait and see i just   wouldn't expect the same generator x we had a  decade ago but for now that's it for generator x   one of the coolest cartoons that i feel sadly  gets overshadowed and i think it's totally worth   your time to either revisit or experience all  for the first time if you have seen it though   let me know your thoughts on it in the comments  below would you like to see this show come back in   any shape or form thanks so much for watching make  sure to hit the like button and subscribe for more   content like this follow me on twitter and i'll be  back soon with another video but until then later you

Channel: Jordan Fringe

Views: 589,002

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Id: pPgnhrICCsU

Length: 23min 0sec (1380 seconds)

Published: Fri May 27 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Storm_Raider_34]

Why is that the only thing people remember!!! I’ve met people who thought Generator Rex wasn’t a show and only existed for the crossover!