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DVD Review: DEXTER’S LABORATORY: THE COMPLETE SERIES

Home » DVD Review: DEXTER’S LABORATORY: THE COMPLETE SERIES

Jun 24 Posted by in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

Disclaimer: “Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.”

The animated series Dexter’s Laboratory was created by Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Primal), and aired for six seasons and a movie on the Cartoon Network from 1996–2003. The series follows the adventures of 8-year-old boy genius Dexter (Christine Cavanaugh, Candi Milo) who is constantly doing experiments in the massive, highly-advanced secret laboratory in his bedroom. He speaks with a indeterminant European accent, even though the rest of his family does not. Dexter’s older sister Dee Dee (Allison Moore , Kat Cressida) is the only one who knows Dexter’s secret. While Dee Dee certainly didn’t get the same intelligence as her brother, she is a very skilled ballerina, and is generally kind to her brother, but a bit competitive at times. Dexter’s parents, Mom and Dad, remain blissfully unaware of what their son gets up to in his room.

The series ran for 78 episodes and a 1-hour TV movie. The episodes are generally split into 2-3 7-12 minute shorts. The majority of these segments feature Dexter and his family, usually with Dexter coming up with some new invention to improve his life, only to have things not go quite as he planned. There’s also the recurring character of Dexter’s nemesis classmate Mandark Astronomonov (Eddie Deezen). He’s a rival boy genius with his own laboratory, who is constantly trying to prove himself better than Dexter. In the movie, we find him trying to steal Dexter’s Neurotomic Protocore in order to rule the world. Mandark also has a crush on Dee Dee.

The series was initially supposed to end in 1999 with the 1-hour TV movie, Ego Trip, but was later picked up for an additional 2 seasons/26 episodes. Series creator Genndy Tartakovsky had already moved on to work on Samurai Jack, but the series continued on under new showrunner Chris Savino, with some slight visual changes. I actually really enjoyed these later episodes.

In addition to Dexter’s adventures, the first couple of seasons also feature installments of The Justice Friends and Dial M for Monkey. The Justice Friends is set up like a sitcom (complete with laugh track) following the misadventures of three superheroes trying to live together in an apartment at Muscular Arms. There’s the Captain America-like Major Glory (Rob Paulsen), the Thor-like Viking rock god Valhallen (Tom Kenny), and the Hulk-like Infraggable Krunk (Frank Welker). These segments may be my favorite of this whole release. Dial M for Monkey follows the adventures of a laboratory monkey-turned superhero. While Dexter believes that the monkey is just another failed experiment, he actually moonlights as a superhero named Monkey (Frank Welker), who uses his super powers to assist partner Agent Honeydew (Kath Soucie) on missions for Global Security. Heading up the organization is Commander General (Robert Ridgely, Earl Boen).

While this DVD release is labeled as The Complete Series, it is still missing two segments from the series. First is the controversial season 1 “Dial M for Monkey” segment “Barbequor”, which had been left off the previous season 1 DVD release and had been pulled from TV airings, apparently for a stereotypical depiction of gay men. Also missing from this set is the second season segment “Rude Removal”, which never aired on television, but had been released online.

I had never seen the series before checking out this set, but I was pleasantly surprised. I quite enjoyed the show, especially how it is broken up into shorter segments, and not just long 22-minute stories. Though I think I preferred the later seasons where the segments were slightly longer (switching from three 7-minute shorts to two 9-minute shorts with a 3-minute short in-between). The show has a very appealing and colorful visual style. The first four seasons have an almost film-like ascetic to them, with a slight film grain. For the final two seasons, the series switched to digital ink and paint, removing this film grain, but generally looking the same, just a bit crisper and cleaner.

Warmer Bros.’ new DVD release is the first time the complete series (minus the aforementioned segments) has made its way onto DVD. Only the first season and some random episodes had been previously released on disc in the past, though all episodes available on this complete series set are also available digitally. The presentation is excellent. Despite being SD, the picture quality looks great. The earlier episodes contain some film grain and minor dirt here and there, but still look nearly perfect, and if anything this adds a bit of nostalgia and charm to the presentation. The later episodes also look crisp and clean. The stereo audio track is more than sufficient, providing clear dialogue throughout.

The series is split across 12 discs, with 2 discs per season. Oddly the TV movie is placed as the very last episode on season 6, rather than at the end of the season 4 disc, where it would have aired. Each of the discs is a difference color. These are all placed overlapping on trays in a thick plastic case (much like the Welcome Back, Kotter set I recently reviewed. However, this set also includes a carboard slipcover, with cutouts to see through Dexter’s glasses. And inside the case is a small episode guide booklet detailing the contents of each disc.





What’s Included:

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