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Geek Girl Authority
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
Millennial Misremembers: DEXTER'S LABORATORY
Welcome to another edition of Millennial Misremembers , the column in which I take part in the millennial nostalgia trend. I consumed a lot of media as a kid (TV, movies, books — you name it, I consumed it), so I'm pretty much an endless nostalgia mine. You're welcome? This month, the misrememory train is stopping at the Dexter's Laboratory station. Though Dexter's Laboratory ( /ləˈbɒr.ə.tər.i/ ) only ran for four seasons, there was quite a break between them. Seasons 1 and 2 ran from April 27, 1996, to June 15, 1998; seasons 3 and 4 ran from November 18, 2001, to November 20, 2003. That's pretty epic. The episode I watched, which was listed as S01E01 on HBO Max, is actually its seventh (S01E07) and called — it's a mouthful — 'Star Spangled Sidekicks/TV Super Pals/Game Over.' RELATED: Millennial Misremembers: An American Tail What I (mis)remember My memory is fuzzy here because I cannot recall when I watched this show. Was it in the original run? Reruns? The revival? I do remember this being my brother's show of choice more than mine. We did, however, watch it together. It likely left an impression due to the sibling relationship being a key element of the show. RELATED: Movie Review: 80 for Brady Also — Dexter's vaguely Eastern European accent has stuck with me. Having researched, I see that the show's creator, Genndy Tartakovsky , was born in Russia. However, both actors who voiced Dexter, Christine Cavanaugh and later, Candi Milo , were born in the United States. I can't wait to see how I feel about the accent now! I'm going in with an open mind. Let's rewatch! The episode begins with the theme song, no cold open: The first segment, 'Star Spangled Sidekicks,' opens with Dee Dee (Allison Moore) and Dexter (Cavanaugh) watching a superhero show called Major Glory . And Major Glory ( Rob Paulsen ) himself is hiring a sidekick. So, the siblings will be headed to the Independence Mall for the competition. Dee Dee finds Dexter's chances literally laughable. Dexter huffs off to his lab to science himself up a suit while Dee Dee uses some good ole fashion sewing. Cut to: Independence Mall, where one million kids have shown up to audition for the role of patriotic sidekick. We're introduced to Fat Boy (Paulsen), who takes bites out of crime (and burgers). Major Glory fat shames him by insisting America's heroes are on diets. To save us from that , 'Dext-star' cuts in line and introduces himself to all. RELATED: Read more Millennial Misremembers! Major Glory is impressed — Dext-star is 'a bit better' than the other 999,999 kids. That is until Dee Dee as 'Diva Dynamite POW!' upstages him. Major Glory chooses her. Next, Doctor Diablos (Jorge Galvan), Major Glory's nemesis, shows up with his minions. Dee Dee isn't great at sidekicking, but Dexter's not gonna let her falter. After all, he's the only one allowed to dunk on his sister. Instead of telling Major Glory that Dexter is responsible for her awesomeness, she quits, leaving Fat Boy to take her place. So all's well that ends well? On to segment dos: 'TV Super Pals.' The segment once again opens with a Major Glory show, but this one's called TV Super Pals and features a bunch of, well, Super Pals. The baddie looks suspiciously like the Joker. And here we have the best joke of the episode. The baddie throws something in Major Glory's face to thwart him. Major Glory then goes, 'Ah! Bills!' Love a good gag thrown in for the adults watching. Major Glory prevails but then has to skedaddle because he wants to watch his news segment at 5:30. RELATED: Read our Batwoman recaps here! Across the city, the Minotaur ( Frank Welker ), a record exec, holds some Sirens captive, forcing them to record their songs so he can make big bucks. Valhallen ( Tom Kenny ) comes to rescue them but lets the situation go when he realizes it's 5:30. The monster truck pull is on. And apparently, that's more important than saving lives. Elsewhere, Krunk (Welker) 'saves' a cat from a tree. But, at 5:30, scrams to watch TV Puppet Pals . Uh-oh. There's one TV, but three shows to watch. But these guys don't know how to share. What they end up with is no TV. And a very angry Krunk. He is only satisfied when Valhallen and Major Glory roleplay TV Puppet Pals. Interstitial! We're back to Dexter and Dee Dee. Bahahaha! She shows him her new dance, the Fanciful Unicorn. His retort? 'Girl, I have seen better steps on a ladder'! Now it's time for the third and final segment: 'Game over!' Dee Dee and Dexter are playing video games, and Dexter is as much a sore loser as Dee Dee is a sore winner. They begin physically fighting, but then their dad (Jeff Bennet) enters to give them a gift — surprise! It's another video game. An old video game he 'got for a nickel from a [slur for a Romani person].' (!?) Dexter doesn't want to play the game with Dee Dee because it's outdated (he lists a bunch of specs I barely understand). Dee Dee thinks he doesn't want to play because he's afraid to lose. Of course, she does win. He kicks her out of his /ləˈbɒr.ə.tər.i/. RELATED: Top 11 Peter Bogdanovich Films When he's alone with the game, it anthropomorphizes and begins to take over his /ləˈbɒr.ə.tər.i/. Dexter ends up in some sort of Tetris meets Pac-Man environment. He soon realizes he needs Dee Dee's help to save his life and lab. Dee Dee quickly wins against the game but takes the opportunity to get back at Dexter's sore loserness by keeping him trapped in the game for a bit and beating him up with the characters. Does it live up to the nostalgia? I absolutely adored segments one and three. Dexter and Dee Dee's relationship is realistic, humorous and even warm. I wasn't even that bothered by the accent! I also just like that there are segments. My millennial, zero-attention span brain found it very manageable. That said, the second segment, which didn't include the main duo, was absolutely grating. I do not care about that show-within-the-show. I will undoubtedly skip these segments in any further episodes I might rewatch. Regardless, Dexter's Laboratory is certainly worth a look back at! 🧫🔬🧪
Gizmodo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith' Stands on the Shoulders of Animation
One way or another, Star Wars is a franchise constantly in conversation with itself. Whenever it's not interrogating its originally held beliefs or systems, it's providing a window into how those mechanics came to be. Sometimes it's good, a lot of times it can be weird, but it all adds up to something compelling despite the often botched execution. Look no further than Revenge of the Sith. The final chapter of the prequel trilogy recently came back to theaters ahead of its 20th anniversary, and picks up years into the Clone Wars which first begun at the end of its direct predecessor, Attack of the Clones. But real ones know there's a bit more to it than that: Revenge was preceded and followed by two different versions of Cartoon Network's Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an animated series that covered the gap between the two films. The original Clone Wars was made by Genndy Tartakovsky—a man heavily involved with Powerpuff Girls and creator of Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack, all on the same network—and initially existed as a series of five-minute shorts that could play in between shows, with the last season having a more substantial 12-15 minute episode runtime. Like Samurai Jack (or his more recent adult animated series Primal), Tartakovsky's Clone Wars is a genre exercise featuring ultra-competent heroes and villains doing what they do best, often without dialogue and with gorgeous imagery. The prequels were dinged for making the Jedi into overly choreographed martial artists, and what was interesting about this version of Clone Wars was how much it leaned into that idea. Seeing 2D versions of the cast jump around and clash swords made for some thrilling fights, and it's easy to understand how some characters like General Grievious got the reputation they did back then. (It also makes you wish he got his due in the movie proper as he did where he first originated.) Five years later, the CG Clone Wars series came rolling in with 22-minute episodes, and George Lucas' direct involvement alongside then-supervising director and current franchise steward Dave Filoni. The 2008 Clone Wars had a lot more run time to work with leading up to Revenge of the Sith, so it spent its time exploring different corners of the Star Wars universe and playing around with what its cast could know or be leading up to their grim fates. With 100 episodes already greenlit, the show could pit the clones up against an abusive Jedi who just wanted them all dead in one arc, and have Obi-Wan rekindle his situationship with Satine in the next. The new shades given to him and Anakin and other pre-established characters, plus the evolution of Anakin's newly introduced Padawan Ahsoka Tano, made for some great TV back then. At the time, it was the only Star Wars we were consistently getting, so it's only natural it continues to be held in such high esteem that it got to end its story three times. The shadow of Revenge of the Sith looms over both Clone Wars shows, but the 2008 series actually got to be in the thick of it. While much of what goes down in its final season establishes or sets up future animated adventures for its characters—it introduces the Bad Batch, who headlined the next CG series, and explained how Ahsoka and Darth Maul got to where we first see them in the already ended Star Wars Rebels—the moments where it exists concurrently with Revenge deliver on the series' original promise. Unlike the film's montage of Jedi getting gunned down by their Clones, it really does feel like a tragedy when Palpatine's directive hits Rex and Ahsoka's ears. A lot of what Star Wars is has been built off the ground work laid by Revenge and its two spinoffs. Since the true, proper end of the second Clone Wars, the franchise has tried for a similar interconnected importance across the original and sequel trilogies via projects like Andor and Filoni's own Mandalorian saga. Whether those succeed is in the eye of the beholder: Andor likely enrichens Rogue One for many, or at the very least, makes you wish that film got the proper time to cook. Meanwhile, the time spent explaining elements of the sequel trilogy isn't really Filoni's primary objective with his shows, which can make the moments where they are interested in that feel out of place. For better or worse, there is no current Star Wars without Revenge of the Sith, and that itself doesn't exist without either iteration of The Clone Wars. On its own merits, it's the best Star Wars prequel movie—and take that as you will—and made better by the two animated series that exist to beef up its weaker elements and deliver some fun military sci-fi action. But what's made the film and its particular time period feel so poignant is that Tartakovsky, Lucas, and Filoni knew it had to be an end for its key players. That inevitability is gone from Star Wars now, but at least we got a taste of it while we could.
