Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip
| Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip | |
|---|---|
VHS cover
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| Created by | Genndy Tartakovsky |
| Story by |
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| Directed by | Genndy Tartakovsky |
| Voices of | |
| Composer(s) | Thomas Chase Steve Rucker |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Genndy Tartakovsky (supervising) |
| Running time | 48 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Hanna-Barbera Cartoons |
| Release | |
| Original network | Cartoon Network |
| Original release | December 10, 1999 |
Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip is an animated film based on the Cartoon Network animated television series Dexter's Laboratory. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons (now Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network and originally aired on December 10, 1999. The special follows Dexter, the series' protagonist, as he travels forward through time and meets futuristic versions of himself and his rival Mandark.
Originally intended to conclude the series, the film maintained successful ratings for the channel, despite mixed reviews from critics; it led to Cartoon Network reviving the show for two more seasons in 2001, which began that year and concluded in November 2003.
This is the final installment of Dexter's Laboratory to be animated using traditional cel animation, before switching to digital ink-and-paint beginning with the first episode of season 3, entitled "Streaky Clean", which aired on November 16, 2001.
After routinely chasing the evil Mandark (Eddie Deezen) out of his lab when he tries to steal the "Neurotomic Protocore", Dexter (Christine Cavanaugh) asks Dee Dee to leave the lab. She enters the time machine. Suddenly, Dexter is confronted with a group of robots that have appeared from his time machine. They declare that they are here to destroy the one who saved the future and make ready to attack Dexter. Dexter easily destroys them with the use of various tools and gadgets from his lab, as the robots do nothing except stand there while Dexter was fighting them. However, news that he is "The One Who Saved the Future" intrigues him, and he decides to travel through time to discover how cool he is.
In the first time period he visits, Dexter finds a tall, skinny, weak version of himself working in an office designing cubicles, with Mandark as his rich, successful and abusive boss. The child Dexter berates his older self for allowing Mandark to bully him around, before unwittingly revealing the existence of blueprints regarding the Neurotomic Protocore from the beginning of the movie, and Mandark steals the core after the two Dexters move forward in time. In the second time period, the two Dexters meet their much older self, a wizened senior citizen Dexter about the same height as the child Dexter (and Mandark's brain in a vat who cannot do anything other than complain about his situation). All the technology from the blueprints has been implemented, creating a utopian society where anything can be materialized with the power of the mind. The old Dexter can't remember how he saved the world, so they travel back in time to find out.
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