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Dexter's Laboratory

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Dexter's Laboratory
File:Dexterdeedee.gif
Dexter's sister Dee Dee wreaking havoc
Created byGenndy Tartakovsky
StarringChristine Cavanaugh
Candi Milo
Allison Moore
Kathryn Cressida
Eddie Deezen
Kath Soucie
Jeff Bennett
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes137
Production
Running time30 minutes (15 minutes per segment) (approx. per episode)
Original release
NetworkCartoon Network
ReleaseApril 28, 1996 –
September 26, 2003

Dexter's Laboratory (Dexter's Lab for short) was an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons for Cartoon Network from 1996 to 1998, and by Cartoon Network Studios from 2001 to 2003. The original pilot episode appeared as the second of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons (later called The What a Cartoon Show), the series was the first spin-off from that anthology program and Cartoon Network's first all-original program. Half-hour compilations appear in Britain on Cartoon Network TOO, a Cartoon Network's spin-off channel. It began airing on Boomerang in 2006.

Directors and writers on the series included Genndy Tartakovsky, Rumen Petkov, Craig McCracken, Seth MacFarlane, Butch Hartman, Rob Renzetti, Paul Rudish, John McIntyre and Chris Savino.

Premise

The premise of the series involves a boy genius named Dexter, who is approximately 8 years old. He has a secret laboratory filled with highly advanced equipment behind a bookshelf in his bedroom. Access to this neverending laboratory is achieved by saying various passwords to or activating hidden switches on a bookcase which is actually a door. Dexter is almost always in conflict with his obnoxious older sister, Dee Dee, who delights in invading her brother's lab and destroying his creations - many of the episodes revolve around this point. He once exposed his secret to his mom and dad to save the eastern part of the world (mainly Japan) but Dexter erased their memories of the events after the incident.

Dexter has an arch-nemesis named Mandark, another child genius with an unusual evil laugh. Often Mandark, through fraud or (rarely) by coincidence, attempts to take credit for Dexter's achievements. Mandark is also "secretly" in love with Dee Dee. In the later seasons, after the revamp, Mandark becomes significantly more evil, his laboratory dark-looking (instead of the bright, cartoony lab featuring the Death Star from earlier seasons) and his plans more diabolical and nasty.

The show's humor derives in part from Dexter's essentially one-sided and intense rivalry with his sister and from exaggerated stereotyping of his high intelligence and social awkwardness.

The show breaks the time-honored TV rule of returning the characters and situation to the status quo at the end of each episode; in fact, most episodes end in an unresolved state with no easy solution offered for returning the characters to normal-- i.e. Dexter is a mutated mass of protoplasm, there are multiple clones of Dexter and Dee Dee running around, the entire lab self-destructs and is completely gone, etc. However, each episode always begins from the accepted "normal" premise of the program.

An hour-long special, Ego Trip, aired on Cartoon Network in 1999, in which Dexter travels through time and meets several of his future selves. Ego Trip was originally supposed to conclude the series, but two additional seasons followed.

Characters

Main characters

  • Dexter: The central protagonist, creator and owner of the laboratory, and a junior mad scientist; red-haired, 8 years old. He speaks with an very strange accent (very hard to classify, though it is reminiscent of Peter Lorre) which is not explained. The only two people in Dexter's family that have accents are his mom (kind of a Minnesota accent) and his Uncle O' Riley (Irish accent). Some believe that his accent is a play on Albert Einstein, while others consider his accent to be an homage to the "mad scientists" of cinema from about 1930 to 1960. He considers his sister Dee Dee to be stupid and inferior, not to mention clumsy. He also makes up a superhero alter-ego for himself to gain Major Glory's respect: Dexstar. He has a peculiar quirk of wrenching a nut into a piece of metal for no apparent reason. This tends to begin an episode - Dexter is "working", wrenching the nut, when his sister comes in and ruins everything. This motion is addressed as what could be a "genetic defect" in the Blackfoot episode.
File:Bag6.jpg
Dee Dee (l)
  • Dee Dee: Dexter's simple-minded blonde 11-year-old sister. Loves ballet, dolls, ponies, unicorns and messing around in Dexter's laboratory. She is two to three times taller than Dexter and has peculiar body proportions; a minuscule torso with a large head and gangly limbs, similar to a ballerina's. To complete the ballet look, she wears a small pink tutu and ballet shoes, which usually creates a "squishy" noise while walking. Dexter once compared her to a stick and subsequently threw her to entertain a dog. She occasionally reveals a deep depth of hidden knowledge, and once functioned as a guru for Dexter, teaching him "The Way of the Dee Dee". Her best friends in the series are Mee Mee and Lee Lee, two girls her age who share her interests (and fashion sense, not to mention proportions). Her catch-phrase is "Ooooooo. What does this button do?". She wears her full length of hair down on rare occasions, mostly when sleeping.
  • Mom: Dexter and Dee Dee's red-haired mother; a mysophobe who has trouble being around the rest of the family without her rubber gloves. Although a stereotypical housewife, a few episodes imply most of Dexter's personality comes from her, including their perfectionist streaks. She speaks in a kind of Minnesotan accent. It is revealed in a flashback episode that she used to be a Valley Girl type in the 1980s, which may also be the basis for her accent.
  • Dad: Dexter and Dee Dee's blond-haired father is the stereotypical husband and head of the household, falling directly above his wife in authority. Loves bowling, golf, fishing, and has an unnatural affinity for his wife's muffins (according to him, the muffins are the reason he married Mom). Dee Dee gets most of her traits from Dad. It was revealed in a later episode that his career was that of an Evel Knievel-esque motorcycle stuntman.
  • Mandark: Dexter's arch-nemesis. Approximately equal in intelligence to Dexter, he too possesses his own laboratory, which is kind of bizarre and kind of organic-based. In his original appearance, his technology and knowledge far exceeded even Dexter's, and he ordered Dexter to shut his laboratory down since it was taking away valuable power from Mandark's lab. However, after Dexter tricked Dee Dee into destroying Mandark's lab, he has been forced into playing catch-up with Dexter, being eternally one step behind his rival. Despite her role in his setbacks, Mandark has a crush on Dee Dee, who initially resented the attention, but developed an easier relationship with him in the later series. He was originally referred to as 'Astronomonov' (possibly his last name) though his "true" name was revealed to be 'Susan' (a reference to A Boy Named Sue) after becoming a recurring character. In one episode called Dee Dee's Rival, it is revealed that he has a sister named Olga Astronomonov, who seems to be have total control over him. Though during his first appearance Dexter is thought to have seen Mandark for the first time, it is revealed in one episode that Mandark first met Dexter when Dexter was making fun of the former's real name, and this encounter triggered Mandark's hatred of Dexter.

Recurring minor characters

  • Mr. Lazinsky: Dexter's school teacher whom Dexter is eager to impress.
  • Douglas E. Mordechai III: Possibly Dexter's only friend apart from his computer. He attends school with Dexter and is similarly geeky. In one episode, they each giggle at a reproduction tape.
  • Quadraplex T-3000 computer: Dexter's computer that oversees the running of the lab and has a personality of its own. Dexter refers to his computer as "my love" or "my dear", given that the computer's voice and personality is female. In one episode, a malfunction causes the computer to express a different voice, each time Dexter attempts to fix it, and Dexter cannot cope with it, and it eventually gives him laryngitis
  • Robots: A number of mostly unnamed robots assist Dexter in the laboratory. The most consistently appearing is the Robotron, also known as the Robo-Dexo 2000. It is a several-stories-tall combat robot used for fighting Mandark, aliens, and natural disasters and its appearance mimics Dexter's somewhat in build. Entrance is through one of the feet, and its weaponry includes lasers, missiles and its rocket-powered detachable fists.
  • Lee Lee and Mee Mee: Dee Dee's best friends. Nearly identical to Dee Dee, except that Mee Mee is black, and Lee Lee is Asian.
  • Windbear and Oceanbird: Mandark's hippy parents, who don't understand Mandark's love for evil and science, not to mention his affections for Dee Dee. Windbear has been known to engage in rivalry with Dexter's father because of their conflicting beliefs, and it is unclear whether Oceanbird does the same with Dexter's mother. Windbear may be a parody of John Lennon.
  • Monkey: Dexter's caged monkey which secretly has superpowers, unbeknownst to Dexter. He stars in the back-up Dial M for Monkey cartoons.
  • Mr. Fuzzums: Dee Dee's teddy bear, who, while not an active character per se, does play a pivotal role in several episodes. He was thrown out by Dexter in one episode, which caused Dee Dee to go catatonic and only able to mutter variants of his name ("Wuzzums, Uzzums", etc.) . As a result, Dexter took Dee Dee to the City Dump to retrieve the prized bear.

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Back-up segments

Dial "M" for Monkey

File:Dialmformonkey.jpg
Dial "M" for Monkey.

Early seasons of Dexter's Laboratory featured a back-up segment entitled Dial "M" For Monkey. The Dial "M" for Monkey shorts feature Dexter's lab monkey, Monkey, who (unknown to his master) secretly has superpowers, fights evil, and has human partners; the Commander (who seems to exist only inside display monitors), and Agent Honeydew, a character inspired by The Avengers' Emma Peel.

She also seems to be romantically involved with Monkey. Monkey seems to be on call to save mankind at any time and has battled enemies Quackor the Foul (the duck, named "Ducky" belonging to Dexter's nemesis, Mandark), Rasslor (voiced by "Macho Man" Randy Savage and inspired by Champion of the Universe), Huntor (a character inspired by Predator and Kraven the Hunter), Simion (a highly-evolved chimpanzee voiced by Maurice LaMarche), Magmanamus (a lava monster voiced by Brad Garrett), Barbequor (a parody of Galactus voiced by Frank Welker), Orgon Grindor (voiced by Jim Cummings), and Peltra among others. The character has also appeared in the What-A-Cartoon! short "Dial "M" For Monkey." The title of the segment derives from a DC comic Dial H for Hero or the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Dial M for Murder".

In a 2001 episode (again, made after the revamp), Monkey and Quackor make up their differences and fall in love over a passionate kiss. Mandark and Dexter enter, arguing over whether Ducky is in Dexter's possession, and both promptly faint upon seeing Monkey and Ducky sitting on top of a large egg.

The Justice Friends

Later seasons featured The Justice Friends as a back-up segment. These shorts featured the comical misadventures of the superheroes Major Glory, Val Hallen, and the Infraggable Krunk as they attempted to live together peacefully as roommates.

This segment is a spoof of the superhero and sitcom genres. The title Justice Friends recalls the Justice League and Super Friends. Ironically, they are usually parodies of the Avengers.

  • Major Glory, a semieffective caped stars-and-stripes hero given to overdramatic patriotic dialogue, is an obvious combined parody of Captain America and Superman. His love for publicity and of the paparazzi can often present more harm than good. His secret identity is concealed by several masks instead of just one.
  • The Infraggable Krunk (Krunk for short), an overgrown muscle-man with arrested mental development, caricatures the Incredible Hulk. He wears green shorts and has purple skin -- a parody on Hulk's purple shorts and green skin.

The Justice Friends are part of a larger superhero organization, whose members seem to be a parodic nod to the later seasons of Super Friends where multicultural heroes were created for the sake of political correctness, as all of the original Justice League members starring in Super Friends were white. The individual members are mostly parodies of the Avengers.

These other Justice Friends include:

This organization sometimes battles equally parodic enemies such as:

The Justice Friends make an appearance in the episode of The Powerpuff Girls ("Members Only"), with Major Glory as head of the "Association of World Super Men," which includes a different set of superheroes also caricaturing national stereotypes. The organization, however, forbids female superheroes from membership.

Krunk's favorite show was the Sesame Street-like Puppet Pals show; "Puppet Pal Mitch" and "Puppet Pal Clem" appeared irregularly in their own vignette segments during the latter part of Dexter's Laboratory's original run. The segments consisted of only a single running gag that Krunk, and at least one other child, found delightfully funny. It involved any variety of questions or jokes Puppet Pal Mitch would pose to Puppet Pal Clem, but no matter what the question or answer, it would always involve the word "bonk" and Clem getting hit on the head with a rubber mallet by Mitch.

In their various appearances throughout the show, the Puppet Pals have been actual live-action puppets, while other times they have been animated characters just as the rest of the Justice Friends. The Puppet Pals made occasional appearances on The Powerpuff Girls as well, parodying their own joke. yo mom taste good

History

Dexter's Laboratory ended its initial run in 1998, but re-entered production in 2001. The new episodes which ran for two more seasons, had a different production team than the originals. The last two seasons were criticized by many fans for sporting altered character designs, altered background designs, and changing characters personalities. Tartakovsky had very little to do with the last two seasons, as he was busy working on Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars.

Trivia

File:Dexter Poster.jpg
A poster for the first What a Cartoon! episode of Dexter's Laboratory.
  • In the Japanese language version of the series, Ayumi Kida provides the voice of Dexter, even during the revamp. She would later go on to do the voice of Dib in Japanese version of Invader Zim.
  • There was an episode created as a gag for the crew on the show called "Dexter's Rude Removal". It was never meant to air on Cartoon Network, and contained foul language. It was shown only once at a comic convention.
  • The word "crap" was used in the episode "Dexter Dodgeball", when Dexter submits his excuse letter from gym to his coach. The episode has aired on Cartoon Network in United Kingdom several times, but in later showings of the episode the word "crap" was simply removed. The episode is frequently shown in the UK during the nightly "Cartoon Cartoons" hour, in which the word is not censored.
  • Tartakovsky and colleagues such as Craig McCracken and Rob Renzetti often caricature themselves into the series.
  • There are various references to The Beatles in the series. Some examples are a Yellow Submarine-esque submarine in the episode "Golden Diskette". Also, there was a scene in which Dexter and Dee Dee perform the classic trick of hiding behind newspapers, then folding the newspaper at the crease to look around (as done by Paul McCartney in the Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night).
  • Dexter's Dad is a motorcycle daredevil (as revealed in an episode of the 2001-2003 run).
  • In the movie Signs, Graham Hess's daughter Bo was watching Dexter's Laboratory on TV. The episode shown was Don't Be a Hero.
  • A complex and contrived joke is in a short when Dexter goes up to his sister laughing, and says "A physics professor and his assistant are working on liberating negatively charged hydroxyl ions, when all of a sudden, the assistant says, "Wait, Professor! What if the salicylic acids do not accept the hydroxyl ions?" And the professor responds, "That's no hydroxyl ion! That's my wife!"" An interpretation can be found at [1] at the fourth major post.
  • Dexter is in 4th grade while Dee-Dee is in 6th. However, in one episode he was promoted to Dee Dee's class after passing gym class.
  • A sexual reference is made in the episode "Dee-Dee and the Man" by Dee-Dee's replacement. When Dexter asks if he could see the woman posing as Dee-Dee to dance, she responds by saying, "Ok, but it's fifty bucks extra." She probably thought that Dexter was asking her to do a strip dance, and indicates herself as a stripper by asking for money.

Voice cast

Titles in other languages

  • Bulgarian: Лабораторията на Декстър
  • Chinese
    • Hong Kong: 怪物實驗室 literally: "Monster Lab"
    • Taiwan: 德克斯特的實驗室; dé kè sī tè de shí yàn shì; literally: "Dexter's Lab"
  • Croatian: Dexterov Laboratorij
  • Dutch: Dexter's Laboratorium
  • German: Dexters Labor
  • Estonian: Dexteri laboratoorium
  • French: Le Laboratoire de Dexter
  • Hebrew: המעבדה של דקסטר; Hama'abada Shel Dexter
  • Hungarian: Dexter laboratóriuma
  • Italian: Il Laboratorio di Dexter
  • Latvian: Dekstera Laboratorija
  • Lithuanian: Deksterio Laboratorija
  • Thai: ห้องทดลองของเด็กซ์เตอร์ (Hongtodlong Kong Dexter)
  • Japanese: デクスターズラボ (dekusutāzurabo) (Dexter's Lab)
  • Korean: 덱스터의 실험실 (R.R.: dekseuteoui silheomsil)
  • Macedonian: Лабораторијата на Декстер
  • Portuguese: O Laboratório de Dexter
  • Serbian: Deksterova Laboratorija
  • Spanish: El Laboratorio de Dexter
  • Swedish: Dexters Laboratorium
  • Polish: Laboratorium Dextera
  • Romanian:Laboratorul lui Dexter
  • Russian: Лаборатория Декстера (Laboratoriya Dekstera)
  • Greek: Ντέξτερ" (Dexter)
  • Danish: Dexter's Laboratorie
  • Norwegian: Dexter's Laboratorium

See also

Wikiquote has quotations related to Dexter's Laboratory.
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