The Show
An absurd frappe of Sixties cool (think James Bond), Seventies obsolescence (what the hell happened to NASA?) and more obscure Eighties and Nineties pop culture references than a week of VH1 (Republica! The Art of Noise!), The Venture Bros. is perhaps the summit of made-for-Cartoon-Network animated fare. Part of the late-night "Adult Swim" programming block, Venture riffs most directly on Jonny Quest of course, an action-comedy that never tires of pointing out how ridiculous the notion of full-time globetrotting adventurers would be in the real world, especially when dragging along two clueless teenage sons and squaring off against costumed villains and their luckless armies. (I can practically guarantee that you've never heard the word "minions" used so many times per half-hour.)
In Season Three we learned more about the bad guys' governing body, The Guild of Calamitous Intent, as well as the previous generation of Team Venture and their wild parties with Jack Kennedy: Plumbing the deepest reaches of the elaborate Venture mythology yields vast comic riches, which is why this one of the few series that manages to improve each season. And through it all, there's the man-god Brock Samson (voiced beyond perfection by Patrick Warburton), the family bodyguard and OSI operative, a chain-smoking homicidal maniac with quite an appetite for the ladies. He and the rest of the gang are uncensored on this disc, so look for the occasional nipple and hang on for some hysterical cartoon venom.
The Picture
Maintaining the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 (it airs letterboxed for 4:3 TVs, and the box mistakenly lists it as 2.4:1), the Blu-ray presentation of Venture Bros. is enjoyable for its crisp lines and wildly vibrant palette, showing off the extent of color design that is sadly lost in its weekly broadcast. I was concerned that the opening scenes of the episode "Now Museum, Now You Don't" and elsewhere showed some fluke artifacting, but it turns out that flashbacks have been given a faint grain to set them apart. There is however severe ringing in light effects, the glow of this or that, and subtly gradated skies break down into hard horizontal sections. Fine details such as faux textures have been put into the backgrounds, sometimes they reproduce well but at other times video compression takes its toll with evident video noise.
Audio option #2 is Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (not mentioned on the box, hmm...), shining brightest on the musical score which receives a discrete 5.1-channel mix! The play of the instruments behind me was amazing, to brilliantly engage the audience and further build the excitement. There's also a very basic directionality, but in general the opportunity to create a real "action" soundtrack was missed. There are rare, fun little bits of surround as when The Monarch's death's head panoply spins out of control, but not much bass to speak of. I actually do wish that the dialogue was a little clearer too, because it can go by rather fast and it's just so good.
The Extras
Creator/writer/voice actor Jackson Publick (a.k.a. Chris McCulloch) and writer/voice actor Doc Hammer provide commentary for each of the 13 episodes, almost always as tongue-in-cheek as we would expect, at times revealing some jaw-droppingly bizarre unused gags. Almost 20 minutes of deleted scenes are also included, as HD storyboards with voiceover. The second disc is in fact a wonderful 20-track audio CD exclusive to this set, The Venture Bros.: The Music of JG Thirlwell, covering his contributions across all three seasons. With catchy beats--and titles like "Thunder-Bro," "Spag" and "Assclamp!"--the CD provides generous entertainment even away from the home theater.
Final Thoughts
I adore The Venture Bros. and just want to share it with everyone I know. This set makes it easy, the first-ever Blu-ray release from Cartoon Network but hopefully not the last.
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