Dexter’s Laboratory
The Musical Time Machine
Kid Rhino
If you’ve never seen Dexter’s Laboratory on Cartoon Network, you’ve been missing one of the most inventive, witty, and fun shows on the air. Dexter is a boy genius obsessed with science. He’s built a massive hidden laboratory in his suburban home. He’s smart enough to rule the world, but for the intrusions of his carefree (and more-than-slightly dense) older sister, Dee Dee. Dee Dee blithely skips through life, destroying all of Dexter’s creations in her wake. Meanwhile, their parents remain blissfully ignorant of all their children’s shenanigans, trapped in a Ward & June Cleaver time warp all their own.
Dexter’s Laboratory: The Musical Time Machine brings much of the fun of the series to your CD player. The centerpiece is an audio episode of the show called “The Musical Time Machine,” in which Dee Dee absconds with Dexter’s newly-invented time machine and wreaks havoc with musical history. She influences musicians throughout history with a melody she made up, which you end up hearing in just about every musical style imaginable. Dexter gives chase, of course, to hilarious effect.
Also noteworthy is “Lab-retto,” which, as the name suggests, is an opera featuring telling the story of Dexter’s birth. The CD also includes the show’s distinctive main and end title themes and two songs from memorable episodes, “Golden Diskette” (from the episode of the same name, which answered the musical question “What if Bill Gates were Willy Wonka?”) and “Breathe in the Good Sunshine.” All in all, it’s a worthwhile purchase for fans of the show. If you are not a fan (yet), what’s wrong with you? Catch an episode or two, and I’m sure you’ll be running out to pick up a copy of Musical Time Machine, too. Kid Rhino, 10635 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025-4900, 1-800-432-0020; http://www.rhino.com, http://www.cartoonnetwork.com
