Edgy satirical animation is the bane of Adult Swim’s obscure yet faithfully followed catalog of shows. Its fans are ravenous when it comes to new adventures while outsiders are content sticking with more mainstream entertainment like South Park and The Family Guy. Sensing an opportunity to lure fresh meat, Cartoon Network is tapping Adult Swim’s most successful show, The Venture Bros., to kick off a new foray into Blu-ray Disc where potential new victims, err fans await.
Venture Bros. is a delightful tapestry of originality and spoofs riffed mostly from Johnny Quest but also decades’ worth of Saturday Morning cartoons and anything pop culture the shows creators, Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick, feel like plugging in. Whether it is GI Joe or Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman, no property is safe from being the butt of a Venture Bros. joke. Look no further than the faux-creased retro Atari videogame box art and menus for proof.
In Venture Bros. Patrick Warburton lends his signature nonchalant voice to hero Brock Samson, a built like a tank ladies man globetrotter who fights against the Guild of Calamitous Intent along with the aloof and useless Venture brothers’ duo whose outfits look strikingly similar to Aqua Man and Spider-Man. Brock has an explosive personality that builds as the season progresses until it is let loose in the two-part finale “The Family that Slays Together, Stays Together.” Meanwhile the brothers time and time again excel at getting in Brock’s way thanks to their complete lack of common sense.
The unlikely villainous couple The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend, a hot woman who talks like a gruff chain smoking man, along with their top minions Number 21 and Number 24 are absolute scene stealers much like Dr. Evil and Mini Me continuously stole laughs from Austin Powers. Two other more diminutive schleps, Kevin and Tim-Tom, are the opposite: pointless and irrelevant morons that couldn’t buy a laugh to save their lives. Number 21 and 24, on the other hand, will make you laugh without muttering a single word.
Some shows need to be seen from the beginning and Venture Bros. is a prime example. Season three starts by continuing a cliffhanger from season two and ends by offering another. Flashbacks to a previous generation of Ventures starring a youthful Dr. Venture are heavily used referencing characters that may or may not have been introduced previously. Blu-ray faithful unwilling to go “backwards” and begin with season one on DVD will be doing themselves a great disservice by jumping into season three with cold feet.
There is a legitimate reason season three leads the Blu-ray charge: it was the first season produced entirely in high definition. Flat 2-D animation does not lend itself to creating depth but the bright color palette and sharp edges look wonderful in VC-1 encoded 1080p. No doubt season one and two would not approach this type of quality if ported to Blu-ray which is why my recommendation to rent those on DVD first before touching this release is vital to follow the show. You won’t gain much waiting for Comedy Central to work backwards and want to be ready for the awaited arrival of season four on Blu-ray.
Venturing into the setup menu reveals 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio awaits as a secondary option. Selecting it is worthwhile with the catchy tunes and sound effects jumping around the room via the two rear surrounds. Bass and depth are not quite up to motion picture standards which is not a surprise given Venture Bros. is made for television.
Aside from a substantial leap in video quality on Blu-ray, the other reason to fork out a few extra dollars for this version of Venture Bros. Season Three is the entire J.G. Thirwell Score presented on a second disc. The other bonus features are shared with DVD though the deleted scenes do benefit from being presented in high definition. Sorely missing is some sort of old school Atari-inspired BD-J videogame to match the artwork and menus.
Deleted Scenes (19:38, HD) – Every deleted scene is in either the sketch or storyboard stage with accompanying voiceover work. You will have to be a pretty big fan of the show to get through and into these rough works.
Commentaries – Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick get behind the microphone and offer up commentaries for every episode from season three. These are uncensored so the “F” word will fly quite a few times. Much like the humor they’ve written into the show, Doc and Jackson are able to pile on even more laughs while reminiscing about their work.
If you have chuckled at either The Family Guy or South Park then Venture Bros. is right up your alley. However, this cannot be said enough so I am going to say it again. Do not purchase or rent Venture Bros. Season Three on Blu-ray unless you’ve already seen the first two seasons. I had to for the sake of this review and feel like one side of my brain is in the dark. Once caught up, season three on Blu-ray is enough of a jump in high definition video, and to a lesser extent audio, to warrant dipping a little deeper in the wallet for.
– Dan Bradley
