I've wanted to cover this episode for so long... it even served as the first episode of this day's show on Tumblr! It's time once again to shame an animator who went out of their way to say No Girls Allowed!
Back to Dexter's Laboratory. If I feature this one a lot, it's only because I find Dee Dee to be really cute. There was an ample opportunity to give her a matching set with her brother, too! In the first two seasons (season 3 was handled by a newcomer and broke many of the established rules), whenever Dexter got nude, which happened a lot, he would always have his privates hidden by a leaf of some kind. This, I found, was really clever, giving it a sort of Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve sort of thing that showed off the creativity of the production staff. It also gave them a lot of freedom to position Dexter now that they didn't need to use outside censorship; all they needed was the leaf and they were set.
Of course, if there's going to be an Adam, there must also be an Eve, and the episode "Game For a Game" proved an ample opportunity to showcase this, with Dee Dee, as part of her morning song, accidentally forgetting to dress herself and jumping out of her screen nude. Except... it didn't happen. Instead, her entire torso was blocked off by a large plant, obscuring the parts that could've been censored just like Dexter's. Need I remind you that the animators here are not just perverts, but cowards, too.
I've tried for years to get the edit to this one just right, and eventually I gave up and just set my man Krizeii to the task. Even on the original I've always felt Dee Dee should have some daisies for her chest, just to be cute, so I'm glad Krizeii got that just right.
There is, however, a brief silver lining to this scene. For one frame of animation, Dee Dee doesn't completely go behind the curtain, meaning we get to see her (featureless) chest. I'm sure if any kid used the pause button on it, they'd get the answer to a question that bugged them for so long. Seriously, even as a kid, this scene bugged me. I found it odd she wasn't censored like Dexter was, and found it hard to tell she was even naked like the song said. If it bugged me, it surely must've bugged other kids.
It's funny how we can only get stuff that should've been given to us by default on accident. That's gotta say something for the state we're in.