Maternal Combat

"Maternal Combat" is the third of three shorts of the first episode of the animated television series Dexter's Laboratory. The short was directed by series creator Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti who also wrote the short.
In "Maternal Combat", Mom (voiced by Kath Soucie) falls sick with the flu and when Dexter (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh) builds a replacement robot everything seems fine. However, Dee Dee (voiced by Allison Moore) gets a hold of the robot's controller, Dexter builds another robot to which chaos ensues.
Story
The short starts with as she wakes up to find Dexter on her bed pointing out that it's past breakfest time and that he's hungry, but she then closes her eyes again with a sick groan. Dexter begins to investigate and notes that her "Eyes all red and puffy, tongue coated, pulse has quickened ...", he is then interrupted when Dee Dee sneaks into the room and tells Dexter that Mom is sick. Dexter then tells Dee Dee that "Mother don't get sick. They take care of the sickly.", to which Mom affirms that she is sick and that Dexter and Dee Dee will have to feed themselves and keep the house clean. Dexter is then dragged off by his sister to take care of the house while Dexter explains that he can't do all of those things Mom told him to do.
Dee Dee gives Dexter a feather duster and heads off to the kitchen to cook a meal. Dexter tries to reassure himself that there's nothing to be afraid of, so he cleans the bottom of a table and is greeted to a handful of dust to which Dexter inhales and gets asthma. Dexter pulls out an inhaler and manages to get his airway free, and after that horrendous event he claims that his sister tried to poison him, so he stomps off into the kitchen. Dexter stumbles upon Dee Dee making a pie and assumes it a "poison pie", to which he then affirms it by saying that Dee Dee was putting flower into the pie and that they were not meant for eating. Dee Dee then tells Dexter that it was flour and not flower, so she tells him to go away and let her finish. Dee Dee's ingredients seem fine until at the bottom of the page it reads "HANDFUL OF MUD", so Dee Dee grabs some mud and puts it into the pie.
Dee Dee takes the pie out of the oven and Dexter's face lights up with joy when he takes the first bite. He starts noting the crust, flavor, but then he can't get to the flavor, so he goes through a list to ask Dee Dee. Dee Dee finally tells Dexter that it's mud to which Dexter sticks out his tongue to reveal worms in his mud pie. Dexter spits out the mud and stomps off to his lab while he explains that "...all of these things are for a mother to do, a mother I will have.". Dexter enters his lab and builds a robot to replace his mother and calls it "Mom-Droid". Dexter walks into the kitchen to test it, and with a few fixes finalizes Mom-Droid to begin working around the house. Dexter sits on the chair watching TV as his robot does all the chores, but as he's watching, he fails to realize Dee Dee's arm grabbing the remote control. Dee Dee then uses the controller to pour laundry on Dexter and dress him up.
Dexter tells his sister to give him the controller, but she wouldn't oblige, so Dexter leaped on her and they fought for it leading Mom-Droid to destroy most of the stuff in the house including the wall. Dexter is kicked onto a piano, so he tells Dee Dee that she had struck "...death on all cord..", but Dee Dee just taunts him. Dexter comes back with another mom robot named "Mom-Droid 1000", and soon the two fight each other with the robots until the two robots throw Dee Dee, Dexter, and the couch out of the house. Dee Dee spots Dad (voiced by Jeff Bennett) and the two run inside with Dexter desperately trying to clean the destroyed house, but he looks over to see Dee Dee still playing with the robot, but it's too late so the two quickly line up with the robots and hope for Dad to not notice. Dad notices the couch but thinks nothing of it, so then he walks into the house and greets Dexter, Dee Dee, and the to robots as "honey", but he doesn't look directly at them. Dad then opens the bedroom door to greet the real Mom. Dee Dee then punched Dexter as a nod to the robots fighting..
Reception
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See Also

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