Starring Patrick Warburton, James Urbaniak, Michael Sinterniklaas, Christopher McCulloch, Doc Hammer
Written By: Christopher McCulloch
Directed By:
Studio: Warner Brothers
Buy on Amazon.com link

I like various Adult Swim cartoons like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Sealab 2021 and of course other cartoons shown during Adult Swim like Family Guy and Futurama. I never really saw this cartoon before because I can’t stay up late anymore. Yes I’m a wimp, but a working class wimp at that! Anyway, From never seeing the Venture Bros before, this cartoon is a great spoof on Johnny Quest & 60’s adventure cartoons and it’s pretty damn funny as well!

Venture Bros is about Dr Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture (James Urbaniak), his twin sons Dean (Michael Sinterniklaas) & Hank (Christopher McCulloch) and their bodyguard Brock Sampson (Patrick Warburton). Dr. Venture is the son of Jonas Venture, an important scientist, inventor and adventurer. Dr Venture is pretty much the exact opposite. He never graduated high school and his inventions never work. He’s pretty much a failure and he also can’t stand his sons. Even though Dr Venture isn’t as smart as his Father, he’s at least a lot smarter than his two dimwitted & naive sons. Brock Sampson is a raging violent killing machine, was a former secret agent and can’t be stopped and it’s fun to see him stomp & kill everything that moves. Brock is assigned to the Venture family and protects them & gets them out of trouble. Each episode follows the group in various places and facing off against Venture’s arch nemesis The Monarch or other random villains. The Monarch is an evil genius who was raised by monarch butterflies and tries to go after Dr Venture. Though Dr Venture doesn’t really seem to care or realize he’s after him because he’s too busy popping pills. Brock usually comes in and saves the day, or sometimes things just end randomly.

From never seeing this show before, I’ve become an instant fan of the Venture Bros. The first thing I realized was how this show is only for adults. Some of the things the characters say or do is hilarious and very adult so don’t expect this cartoon to be family friendly. They don’t call it Adult Swim for nothing! One scene that had me cracking up was when Brock was making out with a female secret agent and then having to stop all of a sudden. Well he needed to take care of business so to speak, so he went into the bathroom to finish. As he was walking he had a huge boner. It’s usually things like that that make me laugh my ass off. Another adult scene would be when the Monarch was pleasuring himself, and then got caught by one of his henchman getting a glass of juice. The Venture Bros is very clever with the jokes and isn’t outrageous just for the sake of it. You can tell that the creators have watched a lot of 60’s & 70’s cartoons because there are a lot of references to that in the show. Well I mean besides the whole show being a spoof of it. I mean the little references and characters that show up. They don’t just spoof or reference old cartoons but they also reference actors like Sean Connery, comic books like the Fantastic Four and movies like Easy Rider. Not to mention they kill off one of the characters from Johnny Quest and have all the neighborhood kids playing with the dead body. IT’S GENIUS I TELL YA!

The main characters are hysterical to watch and that will be what brings in people to watch this show. Dr Venture is funny because he’s such a sucky doctor and scientist. He even admits and takes a lot of drugs as well. I love the fact that he hates his sons. Which brings me to the twins Dean and Hank. At first I was kind of wondering why the show was named after them since it doesn’t seem to be about them. It seems to be more about Dr Venture. But after watching all the episodes, they do take part in a lot of the hijacks. I find it funny how dumb they are sometimes and they really do feel like they are stuck out of the olden days. Brock is your typical action hero. The ladies love him, he’s unstoppable and he’s a big macho dude who’s filled with testosterone. I can’t think of anyone better to voice his character than Patrick Warburton. He just has been a voice-over actor machine lately. I guess with a voice like his, I’d be doing a lot of voice over acting as well. All the other characters on the show are just as funny as the main characters. Though I don’t like them as much as Team Venture and the Monarch. But you gotta love the Monarch’s henchman! Is it just me or one of them voiced by Ray Ramono haha?

Besides having funny characters and great storylines, the animation is awesome! I really like the hard outline animation like that, and it’s a similar animated style to the Oblongs and for some reason, I think of Ren & Stimpy sometimes too. I actually thought of John Kricfalusi the first time I saw the face of Brock Sampson. It just reminded me of something i’ve seen on Ren & Stimpy. Maybe Powdered Toast Man perhaps? Anyway, I think even if the animation wasn’t as good as it is, it still would be good just because everything is above par.

Now onto the bonus material, which is surprisingly entertaining. There’s a featurette on the animation that’s pretty much a spoof on CGI animation, and you think they actually animate in CGI. That’s until you see them say that the animation of the CGI is erased and then reanimated using traditional standards. I Got a kick out of that and found it funny to see the actors acting out the Venture Bros with the golf ball suits. Then there’s 2 extra episodes: The pilot episode and the Xmas episode. There’s audio commentary on selected episodes, deleted scenes and weird but funny mockumentary featurette about the making of the Venture Bros’ live action movie. Definitely check out the extras after you watch all the episodes!

This is an awesomely funny action & adventure cartoon geared for adults and it spoofs Johnny Quest and other 60’s things like the Hardy Boys very well! If you are a fan of any Adult Swim shows, the Venture Bros is a must see cartoon that will have you needing to change your pants from peeing in them so much! Okay that’s a bit exaggerated but it’s a funny show! Go out and buy this DVD before Season Two starts up on Adult Swim (Cartoon Network) in June.

Features:
Show Pilot: The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay
A Very Venture Christmas Bonus Episode
Deleted Scenes
Behind the Scenes of The Venture Bros. Live Action Movie
Cast and Crew Commentaries

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo

Video:
Standard

Subtitles:
English, Spanish, French

Favorite Scenes: Home Insecurity , The Incredible Mr. Brisby , Ice Station – Impossible! , Tag Sale – You’re IT! , Past Tense
Rating: NR
Running Time: 291 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: