“Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip” is a tv movie based on the hit “Dexter’s Laboratory” cartoon series. I have some reasonably fond memories of the show but I now wonder if maybe that’s just me getting all nostalgic as this film is not very entertaining.

Boy genius Dexter battles robots from the future that have to come destroy him for being humanity’s hero. He decides to travel through time to find out how he becomes so important. However, he finds that the future world has been taken over by his adversary, Mandark. Now, Dexter will have to unite with other versions of himself from different periods of his life if he is to end Mandark’s reign of terror.

One of the main problems is that the characters just are not very funny. The different versions of Dexter are so wildly different from one another that it would make more sense if they were versions him from different universes, not the same timeline. Dexter’s ditsy sister, Dee Dee, barely makes an appearance. She was a major part of the series but she has probably only a minute onscreen here. Mandark has a somewhat amusing voice but in terms of what he does, he generates no laughs. The animation on the characters is of the same quality as in the earlier seasons of the show.

“Ego Trip” just isn’t all that enjoyable to watch. There’s nothing particularly visually captivating, the story is barebones and the humour is lacking. Maybe big fans of the series will like it but I think it’s a real disappointment. Also, some of the imagery in the film is surprising dark and disturbing. One sequence depicts a future version of Dexter being repeatedly hit by a laser whip and it looks painful. This film is one trip that’s not worth taking.