Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip

Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip is an animated television special based on the Cartoon Network animated television series Dexter's Laboratory. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons 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.

Synopsis
Robots from the future come to destroy Dexter because he saved the future. Dexter defeats them and because of hearing that he saved the future, he travels into the future to find out what it is that he did.

Why It's A Good Trip

 * 1) This is the first ever movie from Cartoon Network, and it's a great one.
 * 2) It was a great original series finale to the first two seasons of Dexter’s Laboratory.
 * 3) The voice acting is still great.
 * 4) The animation is wonderfully colorful and detailed, and is a step-up from the TV show.
 * 5) Dexter is still his lovable, genius self, especially when he teams up with his future selves to stop the Mandarks.
 * 6) Mandark is still his charming, villainous self, as he teams up with his future selves to take over the world and defeat the Dexters, and this is the only time it works in the story (as Seasons 3-4 handled this poorly).
 * 7) Dee Dee is decent in the story, as she only had a short appearance, and was surprisingly, the one to defeat the Mandarks in the end.
 * 8) * It was pretty simple, Dee Dee went to Dexter’s lab, but Dexter quickly told her to leave before she could do anything. While annoyed by this, she does leave, but accidentally goes into the time machine, which sent her to the moment the Dexters were fighting the Mandarks to push the button. She then walks over to the buttons, and pushes the green one, which was the one to foil the Mandarks, and she went back into the time machine to the present time.
 * 9) The story is well-written, as Dexter goes to various times in the future to help and team up with his future selves, and fight against the Mandarks to save the future.
 * 10) Lots of great action, like many of the fight scenes involving the Dexters, the Mandarks, and the robots and inventions used.
 * 11) Many hilarious moments in the film, like the moment when Dee Dee was the one who saved the future.
 * 12) Good ending where the Mandarks were defeated and the world is saved.
 * 13) While the Dexters were mad and made robots to go after Dee Dee, feeling they should have been the ones to save the future, the moment Dexter goes back and sees himself destroying the robots, this ironically evens it out, and shows why the robots didn’t attack Dexter. Dexter himself who got back, decided it was not worth the trouble thinking about the time loop, and called it a day.
 * 14) Dexter does enjoy his lunch, and when Dee Dee comes into the kitchen, he simply walks away with his lunch, still mad at her. Dee Dee stands there confused and shrugs, not knowing that she saved the world and took Dexter’s glory. It was a decent final scene to the movie.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The fact Dexter sent robots to go after Dee Dee was pretty mean-spirited, and also, that his robots were the reason the movie’s events happened in the first place. But thankfully, he ended up destroying the robots before they had a chance of finding Dee Dee, and decided to ignore the time loop to continue the normal side of his day.
 * 2) False Advertising/Sequel-baiting: The poster said this movie was The First Dexter Movie Ever!, but this is the only Dexter's Laboratory film to be ever produced. Even when Cartoon Network wanted the show to have 2 more seasons, they didn’t say anything about wanting another movie.

Reception
Marc Bernardin of Entertainment Weekly called Ego Trip "drawn-out", saying that Dexter's Laboratory does not do as well in an hour-long format as it does in normal television episodes. Christine Cavanaugh, the voice actor for Dexter, received an Annie Award in 2000 for the category "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Television Production" for her role in the movie.

Trivia

 * This movie is the last time Cavanaugh voices Dexter, before her retirement and death in 2001 and 2014 respectively.
 * The movie has so far only existed in VHS and (an ultra rare) Video-CD formats. No release dates for future DVD or Blu-Ray has been announced.

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