LABretto

General

Script

Gallery

"Dyno-Might"

Premiere Order
"LABretto"

"Last But Not Beast"

"Dyno-Might"

Production Order
"LABretto"

"Last But Not Beast"

Episode name reference to/pun on: The words "laboratory" and "libretto"
LABretto
Season 2, Episode 38b

Air date	May 6, 1998
Production number	238b 51b^[1]
Written by	Dave Smith
Directed by	Genndy Tartakovsky

LABretto is the second segment of the thirty-eighth episode in season 2 of Dexter's Laboratory. It first aired on May 6, 1998.

In this episode, Dexter's life, from his birth to the creation of his laboratory, is retold in the form of an opera.

Plot[]

While Dexter is looking at a floating green orb, Dee Dee reaches over and touches it, causing the orb to explode. It then breaks into an opera-styled opening.

At a maternity ward, Dad is anxious about what his newborn baby will be like as he paces back and forth. Inside the maternity ward, Mom asks Mother Nature to bless her newborn until she starts having cramps. Despite being advised by the surgeons to breathe, which she does until she starts screaming. Back outside the maternity ward, the head surgeon tells Dad that he has a son, leaving Dad overjoyed until he sees Dexter's skull being abnormally large. The doctor classifies Dexter as "clinically genius" and goes to get him a pair of glasses.

Mom and Dad then take Dexter home to introduce him to Dee Dee. Excited at getting a little brother, Dee Dee pokes Dexter in his stomach and makes him cry. It then transitions to Dexter creating his very first invention: A claw machine that grabs a pear. Dee Dee appears, then she takes the invention and throws it on the floor, causing it to break into pieces. Dexter then crawled to his crib where he created another invention, a pig that flies using his mobile. Dee Dee appears once more and Dexter hides his invention in his diaper. As it lifts up, Dee Dee throws Dexter on the floor, causing the stuffed pig to rip apart.

Dexter then moves to the closet where he crafts a space helmet that gets destroyed by Dee Dee. Soon after, Dexter gets the idea of creating his secret laboratory hidden behind a bookcase that gets discovered by Dee Dee. She enters the lab to see Dexter's greatest invention, and after pressing a button the leg, it explodes. Dexter is then left with a lightbulb sitting on a socket. The opera then ends with Dexter delivering a eulogy about how he'll be stuck with Dee Dee.

Characters[]

Songs[]

Trivia[]

Notes[]

This is the only episode in the series to not have a "The End" card.
- Interestingly, the last 10 seconds of the episode have the background music winding down over a completely black screen after Dexter stops singing, implying that the usual "The End" screen was originally intended to be shown here, but for whatever reason (possibly a production error) was not implemented.
This episode shows Dexter getting his first pair of glasses from a doctor shortly after his birth.
The majority of the characters' lines are sung rather than spoken.
This is the sixth episode where Dexter is in his underwear, albeit a diaper. The other episodes where Dexter is in his big-boy underwear are Dimwit Dexter, The Big Sister, Way of the Dee Dee, Tribe Called Girl, Chicken Scratch, Streaky Clean, Smells Like Victory, and Average Joe.
This is pretty much the only episode where Dexter put his clothes on.
This episode is also a track in Dexter's Laboratory: The Musical Time Machine.
In the Cartoon Network Prime Cuts version of the first act some scenes are slightly altered these include Dad not sliding away with the background to Mom on the bed and a different shot of Mom when she's screaming in labor.

Goofs/Errors[]

When Mom is at the hospital, she has different hairstyle, however, when she and Dad come home, her hair is same as in the present.
- One possible explanation for this is that she simply didn't have chance to fix her hair while in the hospital.
Dexter's First Invention as seen in this episode is notably different when compared to how it did in "Lab of the Lost". The outer wooden shape with a metal surface remains the same, but in this episode, it is a pear grabber and in "Lab of the Lost" it is an alarm.
- One possible explanation for this is that the writers forgot about the device from "Lab of the Lost" or that the device seen here was not intended to be his first invention.

Cultural References[]

Dad starts to sing "I Finally Have a Son" to the tune of "Fight On," the fight song of the USC Trojans.
When Dexter Said "I Had No Time For Snacks And Cheez-It" well Cheez-It was also a real snack box.