Hey guys Justin aka Nitsuj here, hope everybody is getting ready to enjoy the holidays. When I was a kid Toonami was the place to go for watching anime and that show was on one of the greatest channels for kids Cartoon Network. Yeah, I know it’s an empty shell of what it used to be but back in the 90s and early 2000s Cartoon Network was your place to go for watching some of the best cartoons ever made. The shows Cartoon Network gave us were funny, clever, and great to watch and since it’s the season of giving I’m going to give you guys a special treat. Borrowing a page from Doug Walker’s book I’m going to dedicate the month of December to reviewing the many cartoons of Cartoon Network both good and bad throughout the month. Welcome my friends to a little something I like to call Cartoon Cartoon-cember.
Let’s start by looking at one of Cartoon Network’s first cartoons Dexter’s Laboratory. Getting started back in 1996 Dexter’s Laboratory was a showed that helped Cartoon Network get its name out. The showed revolved around a boy-genius named Dexter who secretly has a lab full of advanced and wondrous objects that he keeps hidden from his loving parents. He also had a big sister named Dee-Dee who was the complete opposite of Dexter and would always sneak into his lab to annoy him and destroy his stuff. Dexter was cold, logical, and a man of science while Dee-Dee was playful, girly, and kind of an airhead but she knew how to be a kid. He also had a rival named Mandark who was a genius just him but was evil. He also had a hidden crush on Dee-Dee. Throughout the series Dexter would usually have a problem and he would rely on the help of his lab to get him out of trouble or in some cases get him into trouble. While the show was geared towards children many adults liked the show just as much as them because they could relate to Dexter. Even though Dexter was a man of science he still acted like a boy. He loves superheroes, tried to be cool, had crushes and often had problems fitting in at school like a normal kid. Plus the way he handled his problems were funny, clever and sometimes relatable. One of my favorite episodes is the dodgeball episode where these bullies keep pummeling Dexter in gym class. In order to beat them Dexter uses his lab to create an exoskeleton robot suit to defeat the bullies and become a dodgeball killing machine. That is funny and something I think anybody who got picked on in gym class always wished they had. Speaking of episodes there was one episode that was banned called Rude Removal. In the episode Dexter creates this machine to remove Dee-Dee’s rudeness but Dee-Dee thinks Dexter is just as equally rude as her and should use the machine on himself. They accidently break the machine and split themselves into two, one being their good side and the other being their rude side. The reason why this episode got banned was that the characters said 2 cuss words and even though they were censored Cartoon Network wouldn’t air it. Adult Swim uploaded the episode in January this year and it got removed like after 24 hours but during the time it was up on Youtube it received over 500,000 views that’s pretty impressive.
Despite Dexter’s cold heartedness he was also a nice guy, he loved his parents, respected them greatly, and even though Dee-Dee annoyed him to no end he still had a soft spot for her and would always come to her rescue whenever she was in trouble. I think what made this show such a hit was that it showed that even the smartest people go through hard times and just like us they have problems of their own they face everyday. The show also had 2 spin-offs. One was the Justice Friends which was basically a satire cross between The Avengers and The Tick. There was also the superhero Monkey a super powered monkey that was actually Dexter’s pet he kept in the lab. I’m not sure what he was satirizing but in one episode they did have “The Macho Man” Randy Savage guest star as an intergalactic wrestler that was pretty cool. In the end the show was great. It was funny, had fun characters, and the stories they came up with were a joy to watch. I think my only complaint about the show was why exactly is Dexter keeping his lab a secret from his parents and what’s stopping Dee-Dee from telling them? Also I wasn’t a big fan of the animation style used in seasons 3 and 4 but other than that Dexter’s Laboratory was a great show, one of Cartoon Network’s best shows, and was the first of many great shows to come.