DEXTER'S LABORATORY: EGO TRIP (TV)
Summary
A television movie for "Dexter's Laboratory," an animated series about Dexter, a boy scientist with an extremely high I.Q. and a low level of patience for his ballet dancing older sister, Dee Dee. Mandark attempts to steal Dexter's latest creation, the "Neurotomic Protocore," a device which could give him the power to dominate the world. Dexter stops him and ejects him from the laboratory. When Dexter shoos Dee Dee away as well, she wanders into Dexter's time machine and disappears. Immediately afterwards, several robots emerge from the time machine, proclaiming they were sent to destroy "the one who saved the future." Dexter easily destroys them and speculates on how he saved the future. He decides to use his time machine to witness his exploits firsthand. He travels into the future to find that his laboratory has been converted into a recreation room and all people are assigned numbers. The police chase him when they discover he has no number and he barely escapes. He finds that his neighborhood is now in the midst of a technologically advanced city, complete with flying cars. Dexter soon meets his future counterpart and is disappointed: the adult Dexter is a spineless, ineffectual coward working in a massive office complex designing cubicles, with Mandark as his cruel, domineering boss. The young adult Dexter, or "Number 12" as he is called, is publicly flogged over the office intercom for being "almost late." When the two Dexters meet, Dexter berates his older self for being a "wimp" and not living up to his potential. He discovers that the young adult Dexter still possesses the Neurotomic Protocore in a hidden compartment, and has designed devices meant to utilize its potential as an unlimited energy source. Dexter realizes that the young adult Dexter still possesses his genius and manages to restore some of his confidence in himself. The two Dexters decide to travel further into the future to the period where the saved the world. However, in their haste to leave they neglect to put away the Protocore, which is discovered by Mandark. The Dexters emerge in the future to find that the laboratory has been turned into a museum dedicated to Dexter and his inventions. They find Mandark's brain preserved in a jar amongst the exhibits and take the opportunity to taunt him. The museum curator instantly recognizes them and explains that Dexter used the Protocore to create a utopia, sharing his scientific knowledge with the world and creating amazing advances such as devices that can construct matter via thought waves. The two Dexters call upon the Dexter of this time period, only to find that he is a shrunken old man who cannot remember how he saved the world. They decide to travel back in time, between the time periods of young adult Dexter and old Dexter, in order to witness the moment they saved the world. They emerge from the time machine to find the laboratory in ruins and the world a desolate wasteland. While stopping at a nearby village, they discover that the nearby villagers are all buffoonish and unable to employ even the most basic of technology, such as wheels and fire. Dexter starts a fire for them, but it is instantly detected by a cadre of robots working for an "overlord" who has outlawed all science. As they destroy the village, a figure swoops in and destroys them, saving the villagers. The figure is the Dexter of this time period, a muscular, rugged freedom fighter opposing the minions of the overlord. He explains to the other Dexters that he and Mandark started working for the same corporation as research scientists, but Mandark stole Dexter's ideas and passed them off as his own. He managed to work his way to the top of the company and eventually install himself as its president. Afterwards, Mandark obtained the Neurotomic Protocore due to Dexter and young adult Dexter's carelessness. Mandark set the Protocore to reverse, further enhancing his greed and insanity while draining intelligence from all of humanity so that Mandark could hoard all knowledge for himself. Adult Dexter managed to escape Mandark's clutches and has been opposing him ever since. The four Dexters decide to use parts from their ruined laboratory to construct a robot with which to storm Mandark's castle. They fight past Mandark's defenses and the robot slowly breaks apart, until none of it remains and the four Dexters must face Mandark by themselves. Mandark, corpulent and virtually immobile in this time period, uses his own time machine to summon his counterparts from the Dexters' various time periods. A fight between the eight of them ensues. Young adult Dexter realizes that the Dexters need only to switch the Neurotomic Protocore to positive in order to break Mandark's hold on the planet. The Dexters scramble to press the button on the Protocore controls to do so, while the Mandarks attempt to hold them back, culminating in a stalemate. Suddenly Dee Dee emerges from Dexter's time machine, which was used as a component in his robot. She innocently presses the button on the Protocore controls and leaves. This returns intelligence and knowledge to humanity and makes the time-displaced Mandarks disappear. The "overlord" Mandark is reduced to nothing but his brain; the foundation is thus laid for the utopian future which the old Dexter inhabits. The Dexters are furious that Dee Dee was the one who saved the future and not them. In their jealousy, they hastily construct the robots that Dexter fought at the beginning and give them instructions to "destroy the one who saved the future" before sending them back in time. The Dexters bid farewell to each other before returning to their proper time periods. Dexter emerges in his laboratory and witnesses himself destroying the robots he just sent back in time, as shown at the beginning. Confused by the temporal ramifications of his journey, Dexter decides simply to not think about it and gets a snack. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: Cartoon Network
- DATE: December 10, 1999
- RUNNING TIME: 0:51:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:70351
- GENRE: Animation
- SUBJECT HEADING: Animation
- SERIES RUN: Cartoon Network - TV series, 1995-2003
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Genndy Tartakovsky … Supervising Producer, Director, Animation Director, "Dexter's Laboratory" created by, Writer
- Randy Myers … Animation Director
- Chris Savino … Writer
- Amy Keating Rogers … Writer
- John McIntyre … Writer
- Craig McCracken … Writer
- Paul Rudish … Writer
- Steve Rucker … Music by
- Thomas Chase … Music by
- Christine Cavanaugh … Voice, Dexter, D22, Old Dexter
- Eddie Deezen … Voice, Mandark, Executive Mandark, Overlord Mandark, Braindark
- Jeff Glen Bennett (See also: Jeff Bennett) … Voice, Action Dexter, Mandark Robot, Dad, Robot #1, Officer 9412
- Kath Soucie … Voice, Mom, Head Security
- Kat Cressida … Voice, Dee Dee
- Tom Kenny … Voice, Curator, Village Man, Robot #2, Computer Man