What happened to Ego Trip, the lost Dexter’s Laboratory TV special?

Two decades later, the final of Dexter’s LaboratoryGenndy Taktakovsky created the iconic sci-fi comedy “The Greatest Sci-Fi Comedy Ever” (Samurai Jack, PrimalThe series is still loved by many and remains a strong pillar for Cartoon Network. On the brand’s HBO Max hub page, Dexter’s LaboratoryThey are prominently positioned alongside Powerpuff Girls, Ed, Edd ‘n Eddy Adventure Time.

The 1999 special on television is however, a particularly intriguing installment in the series. Ego TripThe streamer is missing a lot of information. It has been almost 23 years since the first broadcast.

Dexter’s Laboratory aired for two seasons between 1996 and 1998, and an additional two seasons from 2001 to 2003, gradually becoming one of the network’s high-rated original series and garnering three Annie Awards and four Primetime Emmy nominations. Dexter was a boy genius who is precocious, self-important, and had an elaborate laboratory in his bedroom. He also encountered misadventures and clashes against Mandark. Tartakovsky oversaw the production of over 52 episodes before departing the series to work as a supervising producer on his colleague Craig McCraken’s series Powerpuff Girls and eventually his next original series, 2002’s Samurai Jack.

Hanna-Barbera Productions/Cartoon Network

Following the conclusion the half-hour series finale “Last But Not Beast,” Ego Trip was Genndy Tartakovsky’s final Dexter’s Laboratory’sProduction and the very first Cartoon Network TV movie. The hour-long film follows Dexter who, after foiling his rival Mandark’s plot to steal an immensely powerful device known as the “Neurotomic Protocore,” is attacked by a group of red robots declaring their mission to “destroy the one who saved the future.” After defeating them, Dexter is overcome with excitement at the thought of growing up to become such an important figure à la The Terminator’s John Connor that someone would go so far as to travel back in time to get rid of him. Dexter is eager to live his future glory and uses his time machine to go back in time to reach the point when he will be a legend.

Although produced for television, Dexter’s Laboratory: Ego TripIt is impressive hand-painted cel animation. The opening title sequence in which Mandark, adorning a cape, flamboyantly moves throughout his own Burton-esque laboratory before infiltrating Dexter’s own feels inspired by the silhouette animations of German filmmaker Lotte Reiniger. Ego Trip’s premise, that of Dexter travelling through time to meet various versions of his future self and in doing so inadvertently setting in motion a series of events culminating in him having to save the world, seems almost prescient in light of recent timeline-hopping fare like 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, and 2021’s Spider-Man has no way home. It is sufficient on its own. Dexter’s Laboratory: Ego TripThis is an entertaining and hilarious self-contained adventure which easily ranks alongside the best episodes in the series. It is this fact that makes the absence of specials not only on streaming but also in any video format home since the original VHS release back 2000 all the more bizarre. (Polygon reached HBO Max and Cartoon Network to find out if there is any plan to bring the special to streaming. Dexter’s Laboratory: Ego Tripto the platform but they were not able comment at the time.

Hanna-Barbera Productions/Cartoon Network

Genndy Tartakovsky claims that it is not animated, despite being called so in animation circles. Ego TripThis was not meant to end the series. It is a standalone television special. “[Cartoon Network] had a desire to do a Dexter’s Laboratory movie,” Tartakovsky told Polygon in an interview last year. “I had never done long-form back then, and so I was like sure; I’ll do it.” Rather than films like The TerminatorOr Back to The Future Part II, Dexter’s Laboratory: Ego TripInspired instead by a Calvin & Hobbes strip of Calvin meeting his past and future selves, and was produced while working on the show’s second season.

As for why the special hasn’t been re-released since 1999, Tartakovsky offered one possible reason. “I don’t think people know about it, honestly. Like, as far as the people who run HBO Max and Cartoon Network, I don’t think it’s been on their radar since we released it. The executives who run the network have been replaced twice or three times over or whatever at this point, so it’s been lost in the shuffle of time. But I would love for it to be released, I don’t have any issues with it.”