Dexter's laboratory ego trip Continue Comments Share Paul Douglas (overseeing the film editor) Gennady Tartakovsky (supervisor producer) 64 minutes, 48 minutes ad-free by Hannah-Barbera/Warner Bros. Dexter Lab: Annie's Ego Trip award-winning one-hour animated television special spawned from the Cartoon Network animated series Dexter Lab, produced by Hannah-Barbera (now Cartoon Network Studios) The film's protagonist Dexter is going into the future to see his futuristic version of himself and his eternal rival Mandark to stop the latter from taking over the world. Ego Trip was originally intended to be the series finale for Dexter's lab, but due to mixed reception from critics and high-ratings viewers, the series was picked up for two more seasons with the first episode, Streaky Clean, airing November 16, 2001. Summary Robots from the Future come to destroy Dexter because he saved the future. Dexter defeats them and, upon hearing that he has saved the future, he goes into the future to find out what he has done. Plot After chasing his rival Mandark from his lab as he tries to steal his latest invention, Dexter asks his sister Dee Dee to leave the lab where she inadvertently enters a time machine stored at the entrance. Suddenly, Dexter encounters a group of red robots that have emerged from this time machine. They claim that they are here to destroy the one who saved the future and seem to be preparing to attack Dexter. Dexter easily destroys them with various tools and gadgets from his lab, as robots mysteriously do not attack at all. Believing that he is the who saved the future that the robots were talking about, Dexter decides to travel through time to find out how cool he becomes. However, in the first period of time he visits, Dexter finds a tall, skinny, weak version of himself (known only as Room Twelve) working in office design booths - and Mandark is his rich, successful - and sadistically abusive - boss. Little Dexter scolds him older than himself for having Mandark bully him around and manages to convince him to come along to see how cool they are, but unwittingly leaves the neurotomical Protocore and related drawings in his cabin, which Mandark steals as the two Dexters move forward in time. In the second period of time, the two Dexters meet their much older self, wizened by an elderly man Dexter about the same height as a baby Dexter (and Mandark's brain in a vat who can do nothing but complain about his position). All the technology from the drawings has been implemented, creating a utopian society of science and knowledge where everything can be materialized through the power of the Core. Because of his advanced age, however, Old Dexter could not remember anything about how he world, so they travel through time to find out. In this last period of time, which occurs between the first and second periods of time, they find a dystopian world where all stupid and fire and technology are banned, controlled by Overlord Mandark thanks to the Neurotomical Protocor. They meet action hero Dexter, who is tall, muscular and bald, battling the evil Robot Mandark. Action Hero Dexter explains that he and Mandark were used as corporate research scientists many years ago, where jealous Mandark, unable to come up with ideas Dexter can, stole them and passed them on as their own, using them to climb the ranks and eventually take over the company in a coup - turning Dexter into a weak, cowardly, cabin designing twelve. In the end, Mandark took possession of the neurotomistic protocor (due to a Twelve error, leaving him in his cockpit) and tried to use his power, but set the nucleus positive flow into the negative because of his incompetence with him, twisting his already evil mind. As the core's negative energies slowly swept the world, they gradually numbed the minds of the population and allowed it to take over the world, covering all the science and knowledge for themselves. Dexter, no longer able to stand in slavery and determined to stop Mandark, spent years digging underground to escape the Mandark Tower, growing in his action hero persona in the process. By the time he appeared, the world was in its current state. Four Dexters, determined to end Mandark's repressive rule once and for all, return to their destroyed laboratory and use its resources to build a giant robot to invade his fortress. They manage to fight their way in (although the robot collapses in the process) and confront Overlord Mandark, now morbidly obese with brain matter, with its only form of movement carried around his lair by hook and vincha. In the minority, Mandark even had a playing field, causing his three himself out of other periods of time to help him defeat the Dexters. The battle of the royal ensues, with each Dexter fighting Mandark their respective period of time. Twelve eventually stands up at his Mandark, which he wins before rallying the other Dexters to reach the control of the core and save the world. The fight ends in a dead end, both groups restrain each other from pressing the main button of the Core; however, Dee Dee gets out of a time machine welded into Dexter's now-destroyed robot. Her sudden presence confuses the Dexters and distracts the Mandarks, no one is able to stop her as she - driven by her habit of seeing what the buttons do - presses him herself. With the positive flow of neurotomic protocore restored, the intelligence in the world returns to normal life and Mandark three times displaced himself to be sent back to his periods of time, his head to have swung open only with his his untouched, and his fortress to collapse. The Dexters, realizing in anger that Dee Dee was the one who saved the future, set up a group of five robots from under the rubble to avenge her. Baby Dexter orders them to destroy the one who saved the future before sending them back to the past - unwittingly setting a whole series of events in motion himself. The Dexters are returning to their original periods of time. Toddler Dexter returns shortly before he's originally gone, and sees himself fighting the robots he's just built with his other self. Realizing the cycle of time he has created (or rather that he has gone back too far before he ever left), Dexter becomes confused when he tries to wrap his head around it all but eventually decides to ignore him and goes to eat a sandwich. When Dee Dee - who has already used a time machine to return home after saving the future - appears, Dexter collects his food and walks away, still angry. Not knowing what she did, Dee Dee remains confused. Trivia Notes The Time Machine characters are the same - if not similar - to those used in DeeDeemensional. For the first time, traveling to the future, Dexter realized that his original interior of the house had been changed and his family moved. This may explain - through cartoon logic - the re-design of Dexter's home in the new seasons. For her role as Dexter in Ego Trip, Kristin Cavanaugh won the Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Television Production. This film was supposed to be the final episode of Dexter's Lab as Gennady Tartakovsky left after producing the film (although he directed two more episodes; one that aired during the theatrical release of the Powerpuff Girls film, The Chicken Scratch, and another for the final episode of 2Geniuses 2Gether 4Ever). Due to the huge popularity of the show, however, Cartoon Network wanted to give Dexter's lab two more seasons. Gennady Tartakovsky worked with Chris Savino on the first two seasons of Dexter's Lab, so Tartakovsky decided to hand over his leadership to Chris Savino (storyboard 1 and 2 seasons) during the revival of the series, which premiered in 2001, and was met with mixed reviews. Dexter's lab wasn't the last Cartoon Network show Chris Savino will run for the past two seasons, he's also run the last two seasons of Powerpuff Girls. Chris Savino was also recognizable for creating The Loud House for Nickelodeon until he was fired for sexual harassment in 2017. Much of the show's new team included Chris Reccardi (director and writer Ren y Stimpy and co-creator of the rejected Nickelodeon pilot Models) and Aaron Springer (writer and storyboard artist for the long-running Nickelodeon show, SpongeBob SquarePants and pilot Korgoth Barbaria). Some of the show shows Crews did stay on the revival run, such as Cindy and Clayton Morrow (who also worked for Powerpuff Girls and Chowder) and John McIntyre. This is the only episode that attendees animations with season 3-4 design dad and seasons 3-4 art style lab Mandark. Rude Removal was the only episode after that to use attendee animation, but neither Dad nor Mandark Lab were seen in this episode, so it's hard to tell if they still had new projects. Most likely, they did not, since the episode was produced in 1998. The character redesign for seasons 3 and 4 was actually done by Chris Battle, who also developed the characters for Powerpuff Girls, AAAHH!!! Real Monsters, Mighty B!, Dark Advetures Billy and Mandy, Dan VS, Teen Titans GO!, and Ultra Violets. This is the latest project related to Dexter's laboratory, which will be prepared by Hannah Barbera before its closure in March 2001 following the death of co-founder William Hannah, And the last one who used traditional animation attendees.