Genndy Tartakovsky was responsible for Dexter's Laboratory which first premiered as a short-film on the What A Cartoon! Show on February 26, 1995 - The show was featured in a world-wide vote on which cartoon short would receive a spot as it's full television series, the first to win? Dexter's Laboratory.
It's here I'd like to note I'm kind of at odds with Genndy Tartakovsky, I like him.. As an artist I really respect him and I enjoy his shows, the problem is.. I enjoy his shows and he has the terrible habit of always ending them in a fashion that feels ultimately premature or is ultimately premature when they've still got plenty of fuel left to burn.. In fact it seems anything that Genndy touches is doomed to end before it's time.. At least that's how it feels.. Powerpuff Girls? Samurai Jack? All of them were premature, Samurai Jack worst of all because the damned series never even received a proper ending.
In the interest of the subject let's get back to Dexter's Laboratory though.. Anyone that watched it remembers it, I bet pretty much all if not all my readers also loved it, Dexter's Laboratory was an awesome and special cartoon which was filled with good humour, great characters and interesting design and story.. Given that it wasn't 'deep' into story but still, there was some vague continuity and it was a cartoon, you tended not to expect some deep and intricate story when it came to a simple cartoon like this and the fact of the matter is you didn't need one.
Dexter was fucking awesome.. And slightly unstable and dangerous to himself and those around him.. I mean for fucks sake in one episode his response to being beaten in dodgeball is not to simply get better at the sport or even to do what your regular nerd would and avoid it but rather to build a giant weaponized goddamned dodgeball cannon robot which he used to thoroughly and aggressively assault his peers in a serious display of mad-scientist level sports violence.
That'll teach you dirty motherfuckers! Throw a ball at me?! I'll fire one back at you with my pneumatic dodgeball cannon at speeds rivaling a bullet with my giant death-bot! Clearly the logical and level headed response.. I'm not saying it wasn't awesome, just that Dexter was an unstable son of a bitch that probably would have blown your head off with some sort of alien potato gun.
No you don't even get the dignity of an actual gun being used on you, you get murdered by spuds or some other such ridiculous bullshit because that's how Dexter rolls.
Let me also mention this series was awesome for having the late Macho Man Randy Savage voicing the character Rasslor in an episode featuring Monkey;
R.I.P Macho Man Randy Savage, you were awesome.
It wasn't just Dexter either, Dexter's Laboratory also had awesome segments like "Justice Friends" and "Dial M for Monkey" and sub segments within segments like the TV Puppet Pals who were truly hilarious at times.
Above is a video I was forced to make myself because I can't find the damn clip online. This is probably the funniest episode stinger of TV Puppet Pals and perhaps even Dexter's Laboratory as a whole. Fucking epic.
It's also particularly awesome if a bit cheesy or awesome for being cheesy that they devote an entire segment/episode to something as ridiculous as a single punch-line, I miss shit like that in cartoons now-a-days, it seems to have become increasingly rare. In one specific episode Dexter explains to Dee Dee his day spent saving the day in his giant robot and is challenged by her to 'build a robot for her', something she claims he 'can't do'.
Of course Dexter doesn't stand for this, builds the robot, Dee Dee hi-jacks it later and the episode ends with them fighting and their robots plugging a volcano with the joke 'Big Bots' (big butts) - It's stupid but it made me snort a bit.
Also I'd like to point out that with his predisposition for evil and his evidently slipping grasp on sanity Mandark what with time-travel, spacial disturbances and all seems to have popped up later on that I've developed a theory. Mandark is actually in some future alternate universe or rather becomes in a future alternative universe, Denzel Crocker!!
Either that or Mandark is Denzel Crockers Father some how.. Mandark did come before Crocker so yeah.. I mean they are both batshit crazy bastards who frequently utilize super technology that borders on magic.. Did I mention they're also both batshit crazy? ...Yeah..
This is one of the few series that Tartakovsky worked on or was responsible for that actually had a very good run and was intended to end with a movie called "Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip" released in 1999
And Ego Trip was pretty damned awesome. It featured different versions of Dexter based off alternate realities.. Young Present Dexter, Old Dexter (Billy?!), Whipped Pansy Dexter and Badass Post-Apocalypse Dexter;
Frankly I'm partial to Old Dexter, I think he was deadlier than they let on and motherfucking senile to boot. What's more dangerous than some batshit old man? Not many things.. Trust me.. (Billy?!)
Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip ultimately spawned more episodes in 2001, specifically two more seasons running until 2003 and honestly I don't mind.. I wish Dexter's Laboratory would come back again because it's a series I have no bad memories of and really enjoyed..
Dexter's Laboratory gets 9.4/10 Big Cat Paws - Awesome series that's totally worth watching and is genuinely funny and entertaining.
Dinner:
James quite enjoyed this and verified it was indeed spicy which is nice because normally when I make something spicy he doesn't think it is spicy.
Success on all sides.
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