Now Available from Warner Home Entertainment
In 1996 the cable channel Cartoon Network had solidified itself as a competitor with fellow kids channels like Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. After spending many years playing reruns from their massive Hanna Barbera back catalog, the channel began to dabble in airing their own original series. They recruited a slew of brilliant creators to offer up their own unique animated series, and among them was “Dexter’s Laboratory.” Created and animated by Genndy Tartakovsky, “Dexter’s Laboratory” was an entertaining and often hysterical animated show that dove head first in to the over the top realm with an extraordinary premise packed to the brim with comedic potential.
Tartakovsky’s series revolved around Dexter, a self described boy genius who spent his days in his secret laboratory tucked in the walls of his room. Devising various schemes and devices, Dexter is forced to contend with his mundane suburban life, as well as an intrusive and destructive older sister named DeeDee. “Dexter’s Laboratory” had a lot of fun with its own premise, often delivering on plots that spanned the entirety of a single episode. Other times, Tartakovsky would deliver at least three short segments, one of which would star Dexter. Tartakovsky would inevitably widen Dexter’s universe introducing excellent side characters and tertiary characters.
This included Dexter’s super powered pet monkey known as “Monkey,” the goofy superhero team the Justice Friends, all of which were loving spoofs of the Marvel superheroes, and even a nemesis known as Mandark. “Dexter’s Laboratory” spanned a successful run from 1996 to 2003, inevitably ending on a wonderful legacy with a show that was abundantly creative, incredibly funny, and absolutely memorable from beginning to end. Along with the late, great Christine Cavanaugh as Dexter, the series brought on a slew of excellent voice actors like Tom Kenny, Kath Soucie, Kat Cressida, and Eddie Deezen, only to name a few.
The series does drop off greatly in quality in its final few seasons as original Dexter actress Christine Cavanaugh officially retired from acting, handing the reins over to Candi Milo acting as her replacement. Milo is a fine voice actress, but her introduction helped usher in vastly inferior episodes of the series until its inevitable end in 2003. That thankfully doesn’t hurt the memory of the series as a whole as Tartakovsky delivers such a simple premise that offers an embarrassment of riches in entertainment.
Thankfully “Dexter’s Laboratory” comes in a slick package with the entire series run in tact. If you’re coming in to this set expecting massive special features and bells and whistles, you’ll be very sadly disappointed. Not even the infamous banned episodes are included in the collection, which might infuriate hardcore animation buffs and the like. For folks that want to solidify their love for the show with the massive retreat back to physical media that pop culture fanatics are taking, though, this new release fulfills a great purpose.
It allows for the show to live on so much longer for folks that grew up with the line of “Cartoon Cartoons.”