Dexter's Laboratory
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| Dexter's Laboratory | |
|---|---|
 Dexter's sister Dee Dee wreaking havoc |
|
| Genre | Animated television series, Comedy, Science fiction |
| Running time | 30 minutes (15 minutes per segment) (approx. per episode) |
| Creator(s) | Genndy Tartakovsky |
| Starring | Christine Cavanaugh Candi Milo Allison Moore Kathryn Cressida Eddie Deezen Kath Soucie Jeff Bennett |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original channel | Cartoon Network |
| Original run | April 28, 1996–September 26, 2003 |
| No. of episodes | 137 (List of episodes) |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
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.
Contents |
[edit] 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.
[edit] Characters
[edit] 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 a very strange accent (very hard to classify, though it is reminiscent of Peter Lorre) which is not explained. The only other two people in Dexter's family that have unusual 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. Ironically, despite his genius mind, Dexter seems to be superstitious and gullible. He was voiced by Christine Cavanaugh and Candi Milo.
- 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 create 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. She was voiced by Kat Kressida and Allison Mooreno.
- 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. She was voiced by Kath Soucie.
- 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. In order to impress Dexter's classmates during "Bring Your Dad to School" day, he pretended that his career was that of an Evel Knievel-esque motorcycle stuntsman, mentioning in passing that they wouldn't be too impressed if they found out he was a "boring old scientist". He was voiced by Jeff Bennett.
- Mandark: Dexter's arch-nemesis. Approximately equal in intelligence to Dexter, he too possesses his own laboratory, which has a very red-and-black color scheme and may be 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. It can also be assumed that it caused Mandark to become evil, as he appears to be simple and peace-loving before the encounter, a sharp contrast to his evil personality later on. He was voiced by Eddie Deezen.
[edit] Recurring minor characters
- Mr. Lazinsky: Dexter's default teacher, though he is often interchanged with other teachers depending on the story. Mr. Lazinsky seems to be a generally upright and knowledgeable teacher. He could be seen as a parody of a stereotypical British professor.
- 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 both listen to a science recording, naturally giggling at "Chapter 6: reproduction".
- 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. Dexter cannot cope with this, 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, but most frequently the Giant Dexo-Robo (a parody of various giant robot anime). 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.
- Pony Puff Princess: Dee Dee's idol (A horse or a unicorn, parody of My Little Pony).
- Koosalagoopagoop: A multi-colored dinosaur-like creature (voiced by Dom DeLuise) that originates from Dee Dee's imagination. Among imaginary friends, only Dee Dee and Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls actually like him. The character is a combined parody of H.R. Pufnstuf, Barney the Dinosaur and Snuffleupagus.
- 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.
- Action Hank: A television action hero; essentially a combined parody of Mr. T, G.I. Joe, and Shaft. The name may be a pun on Action Man, a doll/character very similar to G.I. Joe. Along with Major Glory and Albert Einstein, he is idolized by Dexter.
- 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.
[edit] Back-up segments
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 superhero with overaffected American patriotic costume and mannerisms, is an obvious combined parody of Captain America and Superman. He is also Dexter's personal hero, and appears to be the leader of the Justice Friends, as shown in the back-up segments. 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—though this may also just be for comic effect.
- Val Hallen (the name is a portmanteu of Valhalla and Van Halen) is an axe(guitar)-wielding Viking god of rock with Southern Californian mannerisms, a melding of the Mighty Thor and rock and roll guitarist Eddie Van Halen.
- 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. He is also very childish, throwing tantrums and loving childish television shows (The Puppet Pals).
The Justice Friends are part of a larger superhero organization, whose members seem to be a parodic nod to later seasons of Super Friends in which multicultural heroes were added to the original all-white cast for the sake of political correctness. Most of the Justice Friends members seem to be parodies of the Avengers, including:
- White Tiger (Black Panther)
- Sam-R-I (Silver Samurai, Swordsman)
- Living Bullet (Iron Man)
- Phan Tone (Vision)
- Ratman (Batman; especially the 1990s animated series and Spider-Man persona merged)
- Tiki Torch (Human Torch)
- Miss Pell (Scarlet Witch)
- Capital G (Black Goliath or Apache Chief because of his ability to grow/his multiculturalness)
- E-Male (The Flash, Quicksilver)
The Justice Friends often battle equally parodic supervillains such as:
- Comrade Red (a Communist stereotype, a parody of Red Skull or Baron Zemo, maybe Loki as well)
- She-Thing (a parody of Ogress and She-Hulk in the episode where she and Krunk fall in love)
- Rasslor (a parody of Marvel's Champion, an intergalactic wrestler voiced by Randy Savage)
- Heckhound (a parody of Daimon Hellstorm and possibly Hellcat)
- Barbequor (a parody of Galactus)
- Silver Spooner (a parody of the Silver Surfer)
- Dr. Diablos (fused Dr. Doom and Diablo with fewer powers and using a glider similar to those of the Green Goblin and Hobgoblin)
- The Disgruntled Postman (parody of The Joker)
- Mental Mouse (a parody of MODOK)
In addition to their own segments, the Justice Friends make other appearances in the series. Major Glory appears in several Dexter's Laboratory episodes and vignettss, portrayed as Dexter's personal hero. Most of the Justice Friends team appear in the Dexter's Laboratory episode Last But Not Beast, where they join Dexter to combat the giant monster Badaxtra. The three main Justice Friends also make a crossover appearance in the The Powerpuff Girls episode Members Only, where Major Glory grudgingly initiates the Powerpuff Girls into the all-male "Association of World Super Men," an organization of superheroes caricaturing national stereotypes.
[edit] The Puppet Pals
The Puppet Pals, Puppet Pal Mitch and Puppet Pal Clem, were Muppet-like characters that first appeared in the latter part of the original run of Dexter's Laboratory in short live-action vignettes. The Puppet Pals segments consisted of a running gag in which Puppet Pal Mitch tricked Puppet Pal Clem into saying the word "bonk", whereupon Mitch would hit Clem on the head with a rubber mallet.
In the Justice Friends segments, the Puppet Pals, in animated form, were Krunk's favorite gaand television show, to which he was addicted. The Puppet Pals also made crossover appearances on The Powerpuff Girls.
[edit] 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, storyline and character backgrounds, different sound effects (which were mostly all classic Hanna-Barbera sound effects) and changing character 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.
[edit] Dexter's Laboratory: The Hip-Hop Experiment
[edit] Crude humor
Though Dexter's Laboratory is a children's cartoon, there have been a couple of cases that foul language was written into the script. One episode was 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.
In the episode "Dexter Dodgeball", the word "crap" was used 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.
Yet another crude word is given in the episode Decode of Honor. In the part where Dexter and Dee-Dee are arguing about each other's fan club, Dee-Dee mentions a group of letters to be decoded. She stated the letters I, D, K, S, and C (Dee-Dee: Oh Dexter, your club is for big I D K S C!), which is an anagram for "dicks".
[edit] Cultural references
There have been various cultural references involving the appearance of Dexter's Laboratory. An anime music video for this series was created by They Might Be Giants. It showed the characters in 1960s anime form. 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.
The most common appearances of Dexter's Laboratory was a short cameo of Dexter himself in various cartoons (a very often seen style of the station). Dexter made cameo appearances in The Powerpuff Girls, I Am Weasel, Time Squad, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and has also been seen as a balloon in Codename: Kids Next Door. A thinly disguised version of Dexter appears in the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Eddie Monster" alongside the Eds from Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy and Pikachu from Pokémon. In the hour-long episode "Good Wilt Hunting" there are two characters (adults) who seem to be crafted after Mandark and Dexter.
In the cartoon series, the most common cultural reference seen are common references to the band The Beatles.
The NFL on CBS theme song, Posthumus Zone, is a knock-off of the Dexter's Laboratory opening song.[citation needed]
In one episode Dexter and DeeDee travel to a fictional Latin American nation in search of the mysterious Chupacabra. The Chupacabra was an unknown creature possibly of extraterrestrial origin that supposedly attacked livestocks, mainly goats (the name "chupacabra" literrally translates to "goatsucker") throughout the region, mainly in Puerto Rico and Mexico.
[edit] Trivia
- 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 here[1].
- In the episode "Dollhouse Drama", Dee Dee apparently plays dolls with a poseable action figure named Darbie — an obvious pun of the Barbie action figures. Even the name is one letter off.
- The episode "Dial "M" For Monkey's" title was taken from a play by Frederick Knott titled: "Dial "M" for Murder"
[edit] Voice cast
- Christine Cavanaugh - Dexter (Seasons 1 and 2, Episodes 53, 54, 55, and 57C)
- Kath Soucie - Dexter's Mom, Computer Voice, Agent Honeydew, Oceanbird, Lee Lee
- Candi Milo - Dexter (Episodes 56, 57A, 57B, and Above)
- Allison Moore - Dee Dee (Seasons 1 and 3)
- Kathryn Cressida - Dee Dee (Seasons 2 and 4)
- Kimberly Brooks - Mee Mee
- Jeff Bennett - Dexter's Dad, Windbear, Additional Voices
- Eddie Deezen - Mandark
- Frank Welker - Monkey, Mr. Luzinsky, The Infraggible Krunk
- Rob Paulsen - Major Glory, Puppet Pal Mitch, Additional Voices
- Tom Kenny - Val Hallen, Narrator, Puppet Pal Clem, Additional Voices
- Sirena Irwin - Dexter's Grandpa
[edit] Titles in other languages
- Bulgarian: Лабораторията на Декстър
- Chinese
- Croatian: Dexterov Laboratorij
- Danish: Dexter's Laboratorie
- Dutch: Dexter's Laboratorium
- Estonian: Dexteri laboratoorium
- French: Le Laboratoire de Dexter
- German: Dexters Labor
- Greek: Ντέξτερ" (Dexter)
- Hebrew: המעבדה של דקסטר; Hama'abada Shel Dekster
- Hungarian: Dexter laboratóriuma
- Italian: Il Laboratorio di Dexter
- Japanese: デクスターズラボ (dekusutāzurabo) (Dexter's Lab)
- Korean: 덱스터의 실험실 (R.R.: dekseuteoui silheomsil)
- Latvian: Dekstera Laboratorija
- Lithuanian: Deksterio Laboratorija
- Macedonian: Лабораторијата на Декстер
- Norwegian: Dexters Laboratorium
- Portuguese: O Laboratório de Dexter
- Polish: Laboratorium Dextera
- Romanian:Laboratorul lui Dexter
- Russian: Лаборатория Декстера (Laboratoriya Dekstera)
- Serbian: Deksterova Laboratorija
- Spanish: El Laboratorio de Dexter
- Swedish: Dexters Laboratorium
- Thai: ห้องทดลองของเด็กซ์เตอร์ (Hongtodlong Kong Dexter)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Dexter's Laboratory at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- The Dex Files - large list of facts and trivia for almost every episode of Dexter's Laboratory.
| Cartoon Cartoons |
|---|
| Codename: Kids Next Door • Courage the Cowardly Dog • Cow and Chicken • Dexter's Laboratory • Ed, Edd n Eddy • Evil Con Carne • The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy • Grim and Evil • I Am Weasel • Johnny Bravo • Mike, Lu & Og • The Powerpuff Girls • Sheep in the Big City • Time Squad • What a Cartoon! • Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? |
| Other Cartoon Network original series |
| Camp Lazlo • Class of 3000 • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends • Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi • The Life and Times of Juniper Lee • My Gym Partner's a Monkey • Squirrel Boy • Chowder • Zoot Rumpus • Phibian Mike |
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements | Shows on Cartoon Cartoons | YTV shows | Television spin-offs | 1996 television program debuts | 1990s TV shows in the United States | 2000s TV shows in the United States | Dexter's Laboratory | Animated television series | Mad science | Fictional laboratories | DC Comics titles | Television shows set in California | Fictional characters portrayed by the opposite sex
