Computer Warriors

Computer Warriors is a toy line made by Mattel (best known for Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Masters of the Universe, among other hit toy lines) that has Transformers' gimmick of ordinary objects transforming into other things, as well as a story that is inspired by the Disney movie Tron. In this pilot (which never sold), evil computer viruses are released into the bitstream after a human error at the Paralax government facility, and now, the viruses aim to return to the facility in hopes of taking over the bitstream so they can control the world's computers. In response, the heroic anti-virus programs, Romm, Skannar, Gridd, and Micronn, are created by the core processing unit to capture the viruses, led by Megahert, before that can do any damage. This leads the four to the room of a boy, which causes a skirmish where they discover the ability to create camouflage shells that look like everyday objects.

I am going to be honest; this actually sounds like a good premise. Directed and written by Bill Kroyer, who was one of the main animators for the CGI sequences for Tron, writes and directs this underrated gem, as it shows off some good special effects with the holographic characters in the bitstream chase scene, and the voice actors all do a good job. It's a shame this never got picked up for a series. It would have been unlike anything we've seen.

Only one episode of this was produced and aired as an infomercial in local markets. I had vague recollections of this and remembered it mostly because of short-lived toy line that accompanied it.

About a year ago I found out that this was written and produced by Carl Macek, the man behind bringing the series Robotech to the US, so I thought I'd track down a tape.

After seeing it again all these years later, I thought it made for a decent cartoon - something I would have liked to have seen when I was younger. It had some impressive CG for the time and while the story didn't have a lot of depth it delivered a lot of action.

Then, a few nights ago, I re-watched TRON and realized something: COMPUTER WARRIORS is nothing but a blatant rip-off of the concept. You've got good programs fighting bad programs, not to mention the main character's in COMPUTER WARRIORS is Romm, just like Rom from Tron.

There are way too many similarities for this to be coincidence. Had this gone to a series, I could have easily seen the Disney lawyers going after this one.