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The Venture Bros. is an American animated television series airing as part of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. It chronicles the adventures of two dopey teenage boys, their super-scientist father, and their father's secret-agent bodyguard.

The series pays homage to the style of the classic Hanna-Barbera action series Jonny Quest: Hank and Dean's roles resemble those of Jonny and Hadji, Dr. Venture is a caricature of Dr. Benton Quest, and Brock Samson presents a testosterone-loaded, excessively violent take on Race Bannon (flashbacks show, however, that Dr. Venture was more like Jonny in his youth, and his own father was a more traditional "Dr. Quest"). It has been stated by the show's creators that the show also parodies Hardy Boys mysteries and comic super heroes, although the show does not focus exclusively on parody and has begun to develop its own storyline. Show creator Jackson Publick (a pseudonym for Christopher McCulloch) was one of the main writers for the Saturday morning animated show The Tick, and Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick, has co-written two episodes of The Venture Bros. (Patrick Warburton, who played the Tick in the short-lived live-action series, also provides the voice of Brock Samson.)

Origins

Christopher McCulloch, alias Jackson Publick, created The Venture Bros.' storyline sometime prior to 2000. After working for the television programs Sheep in the Big City and the live-action The Tick, McCulloch set to turning The Venture Bros. into an animated series. The Venture Bros. was originally conceived of as a comic book story for an issue of Monkeysuit. McCulloch realized that his notes were too extensive for a short comic story, and decided to pitch it as an animated series to Comedy Central, but it was rejected. Although the first draft of the pilot script was written in the spring of 2000, the premise was not greenlit until around the summer of 2002 by Adult Swim. McCulloch had not previously considered Cartoon Network because he "didn't want to tone The Venture Bros. down" and was unaware of the existence of Adult Swim. With the revised pilot, production began in autumn of that year and the pilot was first run on February 16 2003. The first season of the series was completed in 2004 and it was added to the summer schedule in August.

Characters

The characters of The Venture Bros. are largely either reimaginings of the characters from Jonny Quest, comic book superheroes and supervillains, or other famous figures from popular culture. Hank (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) and Dean Venture (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas) are the two titular brothers of the show; both boys have vigorous tendencies, with Hank being the more adventurous and Dean being the more "effeminate" and bookish of the two. The brothers' father (their only parent seen thus far), Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (voiced by James Urbaniak), currently runs the fictional Venture Industries. Dr. Venture assumes the occupation of a "super-scientist," although his knowledge in the field is questionable (in one episode it is revealed that he never finished college, and thus is not a "doctor" of anything.) It is important to note, however, that Dr. Venture has occasionally been shown to be a capable scientist. In the show's pilot he invented a fully functioning death ray and in another episode titled "Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic" he creates a box that makes all the user's fantasies come true. Brock Samson (voiced by Patrick Warburton) is the massively muscled and hyper-masculine bodyguard to the Venture family. He holds rank as an Office of Secret Intelligence agent with a license to kill that he is eager to exercise. Dr. Venture's deceased father, Dr. Jonas Venture (voiced by Paul Boocock), developed a loyal robot named H.E.L.P.eR. (voiced by Soul-Bot) that accompanies and assists the Ventures (and frequently displays what appear to be human emotions).

Similar to other science fiction series, the Venture family has various recurring, antagonistic villains; many of them are current or former members of The Guild of Calamitous Intent, a fictional guild that bears resemblance to the Legion of Doom. The pernicious but ineffective Monarch (voiced by Christopher McCulloch), his manly-voiced girlfriend Dr. Girlfriend (voiced by Doc Hammer and modeled after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis), and their numerous henchmen are some of the Venture family's main villains; Dr. Venture, however, does not understand The Monarch's obsessive antagonism and usually ignores him. Another villain, Baron Werner Ünderbheit (voiced by T. Ryder Smith and based on Doctor Doom), is the dictator of the duchy of Ünderland and specifically opposes Dr. Venture due to unresolved differences between them in college. The Phantom Limb (voiced by James Urbaniak) is a high-ranking member of The Guild of Calamitous Intent and former lover of Dr. Girlfriend; he appears to be at least as intent on preventing The Monarch from interfering with his romancing of Dr. Girlfriend as he is in pursuing the Guild's villainous agenda.

The Ventures also have acquaintances that are used to help progress stories and add to the atmosphere of the show. The expert necromancer Dr. Byron Orpheus (voiced by Steven Rattazzi) and his goth daughter Triana (voiced by Lisa Hammer) rent out a portion of the Venture Compound. The flamboyant, albino, 80's-styled computer scientist Pete White (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) is a former college friend of Dr. Venture's who usually appears in the company of hydrocephalic "boy genius" Master Billy Quizboy (voiced by Doc Hammer). Surviving members of the original Team Venture, a group of extraordinary people assembled by Dr. Jonas Venture, have also appeared in occasional episodes.

Episodes

The second season of the series premiered on the internet via Adult Swim Fix Premiered on the World Wide Web as part of Adult Swim Fix prior to the television broadcast. * on June 23 2006 and on television on June 25 2006. The considerable delay between the end of the first season and the start of the second was partially caused by Adult Swim's delay in deciding whether to renew the show, but primarily because the show is drawn and inked in the traditional animation style, albeit digitally, causing each episode to take considerable time to move through production. Additionally, the producers were dealing with time constraints of producing a first-season DVD that contained live action interviews and commentary for several episodes.

Every episode opens with a letterboxed scene prior to the opening title sequence. Additionally, every episode has a short scene following the credits that usually wraps up the episode humorously or reveals something significant about the characters (usually both).

Each episode is "presented in glorious EXTRA-color", as jokingly stated during the end credits of each episode - a reference to Hanna-Barbera programs in their golden age being presented in Technicolor. The only normal episodes that this is missing from are episode 2, "Careers in Science", and episode 13, "Return to Spider-Skull Island" (however, this episode was cut down for length).

Homages and References

Media

By and large the series is based on adventure serials, pulps, and related stories in the genre. The most obvious homage is Jonny Quest, as noted in the article's introduction, in that Dr. Venture represents Benton Quest, Brock as Race Bannon, and the Venture boys as the children of Benton-albeit pushed to humorous extremes as Dr. Venture is extremely lazy and corner-cutting, Brock is overzealous in killing and eliminating threats, and the boys utter morons, stuck in a 1960s mindset. Another grouping of this type was shown in a flashback with a young Rusty Venture representing Jonny Quest, his father Jonas Venture representing Benton Quest, Rusty's boyhood friend Hector as Hadji, and boxing champion Swifty in a Race Bannon-type role. The literal character of Race Bannon himself has once cameoed.

The dialogue between characters Major Tom and the Action Man at the beginning of "Ghosts of the Sargasso" refers to the famous David Bowie songs "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes." Major Tom's spacecraft is named TVC 15, the title of another Bowie song. Bowie also plays a passive role in the plot of the fourth episode (The Incredible Mr. Brisby} in which he hires a mercenary to retrieve a giant panda that he had previously owned) and is mentioned passingly in the "Venture Bros. Movie" mockumentary included on the DVD set.

There have been numerous references to the band Led Zeppelin, primarily in relation to Brock. Brock Samson once told Hank not to listen to the album In Through the Out Door because "Zep sold out on that *." When Brock must take an exam to renew his license to kill, instead of answering the questions on its written portion, he draws Apollo from the Swan Song Records logo, incorrectly calling him Icarus. When the man grading his exam mentions the doodle, Brock replies, "So what are you trying to tell me, little man, you don't like Zep?" Lastly, when Brock and his love interest, Molotov Cocktease, reminisce about their last meeting it was in Akron, Ohio and involved them watching "Laser Zeppelin" at a planetarium.

When Hank is stabbed by Cocktease's poison-tipped boots, in a drug-induced haze, he becomes convinced that he has to kill his father to keep Cocktease. The Doors' song "The End" begins to play and the scenes between Hank and Dr. Venture play out like the lyrics, with Hank saying Morrison's line of "Father...I want to kill you". This scene also mirrors the Kurtz assassination scene from the end of the movie Apocalypse Now.

Comic books and other literature

An extremely large amount of characters from the Marvel Universe are parodies or referenced in the show.
  • The most prominent is the necromancer and major supporting character Dr. Orpheus, who is based on Doctor Strange and shares his penchant for overly dramatic and elaborate words and phrases.
  • The character of Baron Ünderbheit is patterned after Doctor Doom: Both share a similar origin and both rule a small eastern European nation with an iron fist. The resemblance is so strong that at one point the Monarch actually refers to the Baron as a “dime-store Dr. Doom”.
  • A family of four Impossible Industries members have received horrific, inefficient versions of the Fantastic Four's powers.
  • A retired gung-ho soldier called the Action Man is a lesser version of Captain America. The uniforms of the Monarch's Henchmen closely resemble the original costumes of the X-Men.
  • Henchmen 21 has an extensive collection of various toy memorabilia that recall the Hulk, Magneto, and Spider-Man. Among his faux-weaponry are Wolverine's claws, Captain America's shield, and Batman's utility belt -- or at least collectible replica props thereof.
  • Brock's former commanding officer was revealed to be a riff on the Nick Fury Marvel style of superspy, even having an office that appeared to be located on a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. However, the character model appeared to be based on the late Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, smoking a cigarette in a long holder, and speaking with Thompson's distinctive cadence.
  • Brock Samson may be based on Eddie Brock, the man who would later become Venom. Similarities botch characters share include the name Brock, burly physiques, and blonde "mullet" hair cuts.
  • In several episodes, the boys are shown to wear superhero pajamas, with Dean's being modelled after Spider-Man, and Hank's resembling Aquaman's costume.

Thus far DC Comics references have been much rarer.

  • Besides the Aquaman and Batman references noted above, Hank was once shown wearing a poorly-made Batman costume.
  • The minor villain Mr. Monday could be considered an homage to Batman's rogues gallery; like many of Batman's foes, his only power seems to be an odd obsession (in this case, with Mondays). Specifically, his monocle and cigarette holder give him a more-than-passing resemblance to the Penguin, and his obsession with days and calendars is similar to Calendar Man.
  • When The Monarch drugs and flies away with Dr. Girlfriend, The Monarch recites the same poem as Lois Lane does to Superman in Superman: The Movie.

The boys' age (being at least sixteen years old) and desire to solve mysteries and problems is reminiscent of The Hardy Boys; Jackson Publick's original sketches of the boys depicted what he called 'dim-witted Hardy Boys'.

General Pop Culture

The character of Mike Sorayama is extremely similar in personality and characteristics to the character Mike Yanagita in the 1996 film Fargo. Both characters speak with a distinct Minnesotan accent (including the phrase "son of a gun") and share an unhealthy obsession with former classmates. In fact, Mike Sorayama and Mike Yanagita are both portrayed by actor Steve Park. The character's name also refers to that of artist Hajime Sorayama, whose illustrations of "Sexy Robots" have appeared in Heavy Metal magazine. Mike Sorayama constructs female robots with a similar design, and when Dr. Venture sees them he comments, "Yeah, I read that issue of Heavy Metal too."

The names, garb and actions of The Guild Of Calamitous Intent's agents seem inspired by the antagonists of the 1998 science fiction thriller Dark City. Both groups are called "Strangers," dress in fur-lined trench coats, and alter people's memories after putting them in a state of stasis. The Monarch bears a similarity to the film's protagonist, John Murdock, in that each is blamed for a murder he did not commit.

Numerous other pop culture references are abundant. Henchman 21 plays with a gadget that resembles a Star Wars lightsaber while practicing faux swordplay in the style of that used by Ghyslain Raza, better known as the "Star Wars kid". Other references, most of which are used as "one-shot" jokes, include Easy Rider, Lydia Lunch, mullets, John Woo films, the questionable sexuality of members of Depeche Mode, and the music video for Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf."

Technology

Dr. Venture's airplane, the X-1, is named after the Bell X-1, which was the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound; this X-n naming convention extends to the Ventures' research ship, the X-2. Time machines, including a "Grover Cleveland time machine," have been used by the characters in at least two episodes.

DVD releases

The first season of The Venture Bros. on DVD was released on May 30, 2006, as officially announced by Warner Home Video. It coincided with the June 25 premiere of the second season. Originally, it was scheduled for March 14, 2006, but was delayed until May 30, 2006. The DVD packaging and interior art was created by comic artist Bill Sienkiewicz.

On May 31, 2006, the DVD reached #1 on Amazon's top selling DVD's list.

DVD info:

The "Lost DVD Commentary"

On a June 30th, 2006 LiveJournal post, Jackson Publick revealed that he and Doc Hammer had recorded a commentary track for the season one episode "Home Insecurity." Warner Bros. chose to omit this track from the Season One DVD due to space limitations and some minor sound quality issues. Publick also stated that the commentary can be found and downloaded from Quickstop Entertainment. *

References

  • The Venture Bros. Created by Christopher McCulloch (credited as Jackson Publick). 2004-present. Broadcast and DVD.

External links

Animated television series | The Venture Bros. | 2000s TV shows in the United States | Shows on Adult Swim

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "The Venture Bros.".

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