The Venture Bros.: Season One

Introduction

[adult swim] is the home of leftfield animated comedy, primarily known for the Robot Chicken series, but also Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law and The Venture Bros.

The show follows the adventures of two dim-witted yet well-meaning teenage boys, Hank and Dean Venture, their super-scientist father Dr. Thaddeus Venture and the family bodyguard and government agent extraordinaire Brock Samson.

Despite being a brilliant scientist, Dr. Venture is always trying to step out of the shadow of his father, an exceptional scientist, philanthropist and businessman. Unfortunately for Dr. Venture, he is abrasive, selfish, ethically challenged, and more interested in making money out of his inventions than taking care of his kids.

The Venture family has developed a rather large collection of nemeses and if they aren't fighting the Monarch or Baron Underbheit they are searching the sea, going to Arctic bases and having the occasional yard sale where even the arch enemies are welcome.

In the midst of this conflict is Brock Samson, a man with a licence to kill and a love of using it. Preferring to resort to his brawn instead of his brain, Brock is simple but effective, and does a better job at taking care of the kids than Dr. Venture.

Video

This is a very well animated show with a clear picture; if it is an NTSC-PAL transfer, it's a very good one as the edges are sharps and the colours very good. The character designs are excellent, particularly The Monarch and Dr. Orpheus.

Audio

A clear soundtrack with excellent voice acting. The entire voice cast is excellent though only Patrick Warburton (Brock Samson) will be known to many as he voices Joe Swanson in Family Guy.

Extra Features

Pilot: The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay - Although the voices are a little inconsistent and the animation not up to the standards of the later episodes, this is still funny and there's an optional commentary.

Bonus Episode: A Very Venture Christmas - Half the length of a regular episode, but still a good watch.

The six Deleted Scenes are mostly extended scenes presented in storyboard form.

Behind the Scenes of The Venture Bros. Live Action Movie - There is no live action movie, so this is a bit of an in joke, with the voice cast in costume talking about the non-existent project. Animating Hank and Dean is again another reasonable amusing but completely (and intentionally) inaccurate behind the scenes featurette.

Trailers (Sealab 2021, Robot Chicken, The Brak Show, Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law and Aqua Teen Hunger Force) - not so much trailers as the opening credits to all but RC.

There are Audio Commentaries on four episodes involving various members of the production crew; these are of varying quality and, to be honest, don't add much to the show.

Conclusion

A p***-take on the Johnny Quest cartoon and Hardy Boys books, The Venture Bros. is brilliantly conceived. The Venture family, with its paranoid and narcissistic patriarch, naïve children and Übermensch bodyguard, live in the Venture Compound, subletting part of it to necromancer and fellow divorcee, Dr. Orpheus. The Monarch, as the main 'villain' in season one, is incredibly inept and lives in a giant floating cocoon with his lover Dr. Girlfriend. A great parody of a superhero and fantastically designed, The Monarch wears a bright yellow costume with useless wings, doesn't seem to truly grasp villainy and has so many henchmen he refers to them by number, never expressing emotion when they die (which they do with incredible frequency, usually at the hands of Brock Samson).

The situations that the show also presents to the characters are funny; one episode has the Venture family throwing a yard sale, policed by Brock and a slew of government agents because all the world's super villains are turning up to see if they can get a bargain on a death ray. Another episode introduces the 'Impossible' family, a brilliant take on The Fantastic Four and in another Brock goes camping and meets Steve Summers (a $6 million man) and Sasquatch.

The shows are also well scripted with many in jokes, comic book, TV and film jokes that even when some fall flat there are plenty to laugh at. Little details like the villains all being part of The Guild of Calamitous Intent where they would have to submit a form for two villains join forces and are forbidden to torture an injured child to death (healthy children are fair game!) are littered throughout the show and make repeat viewing essential.

Unlike most of the [adult swim] shows, The Venture Bros. is a full length show running at 22 minutes per episode rather than the usual 11. As such it is able to set up, play out and conclude proper stories in each irreverent and insane episode. Thus, you don't need to watch them in any particular order as events in one episode are rarely mentioned in latter episodes and there is no underlying story to bog down the fun. The Venture Bros. is a show that you should be able to stick on at any time and watch any episode but that's a hard thing to do as, when the credits roll you think to yourself 'maybe one more' and before you know it an hour and a half has flown by.

If you like anything from the [adult swim] stable, there's no reason why you won't like this - if you want to try before you buy there are clips on the [adult swim] website and YouTube. Personally, I really enjoyed it and is possibly my favourite of the [adult swim] shows and now I can't wait for season 2 to come to the UK on DVD.