Dexter the Great!
Written: Sep 06 '00 (Updated Sep 07 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: great concept, design and graphic style
Cons: doesn't come on enough
|
|
|
| samadust's Full Review: Dexter's Laboratory |
With Dexters Laboratory Genndy Tartakovsky, also the creator of the Power Puff Girls, has created a cartoon that synthesizes the puerile, slapstick humor that is characteristic of cartoons with the witty, mature humor that can attract and entertain even adults. Taking a mildly original idea, a boy genius, and running wild with it, this cartoon seems to fulfill the wild imagination of the viewer. The stories presented seem to branch into the directions that you were not expecting but were only hoping for. Instead of sticking to the unbreakable mold of the cartoon world, Dexters Laboratory liberates itself to play out scenes from the deepest senses of the imagination.
Dexters parents, his abstract, sugar coated, beautiful mother who explodes with unwarranted despotism at times and his floaty, absent-minded father who takes the greatest joy in playing games with his imagination and chasing after icecream trucks, are oblivious to the fact that their 10 year old son has created a state of the art, fully functioning, multi-leveled dream laboratory beneath their house (whooo!). He builds 5 story robots, time machines, space crafts, reconstructed bionic turtles, warp zones to alternate dimensions and various other technological monstrosities right beneath their noses and they somehow miss it all continuing to believe that he is a normal child.
They're unmindful of his loud apocalyptic battles with his many creations and his brazen and extremely obvious enhancements to his daily life like:
Laminating himself in order to avoid having to take baths anymore.
Walking around the house in a laboratory coat and gloves.
His mysterious Polish accent.
Mistakenly turning his sister into a pink car, riding around the city inside of her and returning home Sunday morning followed by an entourage of cops.
Opening the entire street in front of the house in an attempt to stop the ice cream truck using a laser sensor to trigger the trap.
Flipping the house on its side in order to launch his rocket jet powered 5 story tall robot.
They remain oblivious even with his annoying and bouncy sister Dee Dee constantly thwarting his scientifically revolutionary plans and threatening to reveal his laboratory to his parents. She jaunts around the house and into his lab, recklessly floating along, pushing buttons, knocking over flasks of bubbling liquids, destroying his machines and creating the antagonistic element for the cartoon.....
The common scene is Dexter working on a new project and Dee Dee coming and blaring into his ear "WHAT'CHA DOIN'!!.
(With accent) "I am wooorking on my new robot! I tooold you to stay out of my Laboratory!"
"BET'CHA I KNOW MORE ABOUT NATURE THAN YOU DO! WHY DOES A PENGUIN LIVE IN THE NORTH POLE......TO LIVE WITH HIS FAMILY! HAHAHAHAHA!....DID YOU KNOW THAT DEER DON'T HAVE UNCLES..........THEY JUST HAVE ANTLERS! HAHAHAHAH!"
.......she constantly annoys Dexter, ruins his productivity and provides that annoying, "WHY DOESN'T SHE STOP DOIN' THAT!" element to the experience for the viewer. Ocassionally she saves Dexter though and can add some needed comedy but she is mostly annoying.
Yet Dee Dee is more down to Earth and connected to the world than her cold, undersized, technologically consumed brother. She prefers to dance, play, eat cookies and interact with nature and her constant desire for Dexters attention leads her to wreak havoc on his many experiments.
Dexter is the coolest cartoon character ever. There is no problem that he can't find some sort of solution for. When having trouble with his video game he suited up and digitized himself to combat it head on. When he wanted to win the contest to become Major Glory's side kick, he created himself a suit with matching peripherals that made him as indestructible as Batman.
He is exceedingly short with red hair and oversized glasses that seem to change shape according to his mood and facial expression. He has a deep vocabulary and rambles on when he is wrapped up into profoundly introspective conversations with himself while figuring out his experiments. He is egotistic, stuck up and self centered about his knowledge and abilities yet altruistic and a child at heart. It is hard not to like Dexter as you see him try to tackle life using his brains instead of strength all the while being held back by his over zealous sister, abstract mother and baboon of a father.
His father is more commonly scene flipping brainlessly through t.v channels or pretending that his car is a fleeing bandit while he shoots it with the water hose, then laughing like a three year old playing cops and robbers. His mother is always standing in front of the sink in an apron washing a seemingly endless supply of dirty dishes. When confronted by her socially deprived son, she hardly lifts her eyes from her kitchen duties to bond with him or placate his various problems.
He escapes to his laboratory where he is perpetually working on his next anti-social experiment. He works madly and is really entertaining. The conversations he has with himself and his sister are witty and clever. The subjects the show explores are definitely original, fresh and interesting. The quiet sub urban neighborhood they live in is a great format for such unusual happenings making it that much more intense and noticeable.
I think this is one of the best cartoons on Cartoon Network along with others like the Power Puff Girls and Johnny Bravo. This is not as much of a "for adults" cartoon as the Simpsons but it is definitely colorful, artistic and conceptually rich enough for most people to enjoy.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
samadust
|
|
Member: Douglas Flowe
Location: USA
Reviews written: 182
Trusted by: 94 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.