The Venture Bros.: 3rd Season (Blu-ray)

As the impending idiocracy approaches, it becomes harder to differentiate between those who have already succumbed, and those who hasten its arrival because it’s an easy way to make a buck and gain a little notoriety.

Both groups create “decade in review” pieces a year early, but the sell-outs who know better reveal themselves through admittedly wise selections. A surefire way to spot one is if they include Adult Swim’s The Venture Bros. in any best-of article dealing with animation, comedy, or television in general because the series is a damn fine piece of brilliance and has been for three seasons running.

The Venture Bros. began as a spoof of children’s adventure series Jonny Quest, but has since expanded into the telling of an epic narrative to rival shows like The Wire and Lost. This season in particular reveals a lot of character backstory from villains The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend, who changed her name to Dr. Mrs. The Monarch after their marriage, to Venture ally Master Billy Quizboy, and the original Dr. Jonas Venture.

While some animated series don’t pay attention to continuity, current storylines running through this season include Dr. Rusty Venture having financial trouble at Venture Industries and The Monarch trying to move on as archenemy of Rusty after Sgt. Hatred is assigned the position by the Guild of Calamitous Intent. The season also makes a number of revelations, such as who was actually responsible for Baron Underbheit losing his jaw in an explosion (he blamed former college lab-partner Rusty), and the true nature of Brock Sampson’s assignment from the Office of Secret Intelligence. A few characters die and leave, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be seen again.

For Season Three the series was animated in high definition and is the first to be released on Blu-ray. It is presented in 1080p and the image looks great. The colors are vibrant; blacks are rich; and when textures are drawn, they are clearly detailed. The aspect ratio is 1.78:1 even though the liner notes on the box, whose artwork is modeled after the artwork for Atari 2600 game boxes, say it is 2.4:1.

The audio is set low. I normally watch a Blu-ray with the volume set between 40 and 50 had to turn this up to 55 to hear the dialogue, music, and effects clearly. The latter two can be heard in the surrounds and subwoofer. The liner notes say there’s only Dolby Digital English 5.1 but the menu options also offer True HD, although I couldn’t hear a difference.

This season is also the first to be released uncensored, which means there’s not only profanity but also depictions of nudity. However, it’s all male, which will likely startle viewers who have never seen HBO’s Oz.

This release offers a good amount of special features. There are deleted scenes (20 min) from 11 of the 13 episodes, which have voices matched with sketches. Show creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick provide episode commentaries talking about inspirations, going off on tangents, and even revealing spoilers because they figure you should have seen the episodes first. They are very amusing together here, revealing why they make a good team. A major bonus for Blu-ray buyers is the inclusion of the soundtrack album The Venture Bros. – The Music of JG Thirwell, Vol. 1. Thirwell’s imagination seems as boundless as Hammer and Publick’s and it is a very fun listen.

While Season Three isn’t the best place to start for those new to The Venture Bros., it is extremely rewarding for those who have followed the series. The stories offer plenty of action and humor that doesn’t solely derive from pop-culture references like most animated shows, but from the characters and situations as well. If you are new to the series, I strongly recommend you catch up.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Volume 5

Most times when I notice the phrase “on acid” used to describe some work of art, it’s a lazy catchall to explain something very odd and unusual, usually by people who have never taken acid themselves. “That music sounds like so-and-so on acid” as if there’s complete certainty that so-and-so’s music, which is the base level, wasn’t attributable to the influence of acid in the first place. For all the reports of wild, colorful hallucinations, there’s also near-catatonic introspection that is as just much a part of the experience.

With full awareness of the cliché, I truly believe that people on acid created Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The premise is so bizarre that there had to be major amounts of drugs involved in the series’ creation. It features the 11-and-a-half-minute adventures of Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad, an anthropomorphic value meal that lives in South New Jersey. A variation of the team first appeared in an unproduced episode of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.

Volume 5, incorrectly labeled as “Season 5,” collects the 13 episodes from season four and an uncensored version of “Dickesode” for those who want to hear all 53 times the word “dick” is said. The first three shows originally aired in December 2005, including the double-length “Deleted Scenes” episode, which is titled “Star Studded Xmas Spectatcular” on the DVD, and the remainder ran from October through December of 2006.

The episodes are all self-contained, so there’s no continuity, allowing every episode to begin anew. That’s how Frylock can reappear after dying from skin cancer and the ATHF’s neighbor Carl can return unscathed after having his genitals removed. The humor is very weird and outlandish -- at times laugh-out-loud funny, but it occasionally goes too far to shock and badly misfires. When The Mooninites, two-dimensional creatures illustrated with early computer graphic designs, hypnotize Carl, they make him torture himself by putting a broom up his own ass and cutting open his leg with a butter knife. Your reaction (either amusement or disgust) to the previous sentence will determine if this set is right for you.

The DVD set is jam packed with special features. There are deleted scenes, promos for the show, and behind-the-scenes footage in the recording studio with Tera Patrick and someone’s grandmother. Space Ghost pulls double duty. The SG:C2C episode “Chambraigne” appears and live-action Space Ghost works as an entertainment reporter outside the ATHF movie premiere. The latter goes on way longer than it should and will only be of interest to people who appeared in it. The funniest feature is “ATHF Responds to the Critics” where they get back at a critic who trashed their film.

For those new to the series, episodes still air on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and can be seen at AdultSwim.com to judge for yourself. Major amounts of drugs will likely increase your viewing pleasure, but stay away from “Moonajuana.”

Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Volume Three

Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law is a show so wonderfully bizarre, wildly unpredictable, and oddly humorous it is not bound by the laws of continuity, so it doesn’t matter where you jump in. Volume Three collects episodes #27 through series finale #39; these shows premiered from August 2005 to July 2007. It is just as good a place to start as any.

The series uses a concept similar to that of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, updating an old Hanna-Barbera superhero, but instead of a talk show, Birdman appears in a courtroom show working as an attorney for Sebben & Sebben. The episodes are 12 minutes long and feature the talents of Gary Cole, Stephen Colbert, and a number of talented actors in a variety of roles. Guest appearances include Lewis Black as Elliott, The Deadly Duplicator, Michael McKean as Evelyn Spyro Throckmorton, and for H-B fans, cartoon voice veteran Frank Welker in the finale.

The cases involve other HB characters in ridiculous yet plausible circumstances. This collection includes Top Cat involved with illegal gambling, Atom Ant being cited by the EPA for high radiation levels in his home, and in an amusing post-modern tweak, “Identity Theft” pokes fun at how a number of Hanna Barbera cartoons, Scooby Doo, Speed Buggy and Jabberjaw, had the same premise (a group of kids solving mysteries) and characters (Shaggy, Tinker, and Clambake respectively).

Fans of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio and 1960’s H-B cartoons will recognize the cast, albeit in appearance only. Avenger, a purple eagle that was Birdman’s sidekick, now works as his legal secretary. Falcon Seven, Birdman’s superior, is now Phil Ken Sebben, his boss at the law firm. Former villains also show up. Reducto and Vulturo are opposing attorneys, and Mentok the Mind Taker is a judge. But don’t worry; the scales of justice are balanced as The Mighty Mightor, a former star of his own superhero cartoon, is as well. Plenty of other characters from the H-B library with the strangest deviation coming in the form of Peter Potamus as the irritating, sex-obsessed co-worker. In this volume, he develops the ability to turn into a creature similar to The Incredible Hulk.

The wildest shows of the set occur outside the courtroom. “Turner Classic Birdman” is hysterical with TCM’s Robert Osborne introducing a “discovered” classic episode that the creative team has messed with. There is also a funny industrial orientation video for new employees joining the law firm Sebben and Sebben.

The language on the two-DVD set is censored, which as usual is funnier than hearing the curse words. There are special features that show behind the scenes with the voice actors, deleted scenes, storyboard animation, and a joke timeline of the running gags throughout the series, so every appearance of Inch High Private Eye and every utterance of Black Vulcan saying, “In my pants,” is revealed.

The show is a lot of fun if you can keep up with the rapid-fire pace. An awareness of the character’s previous incarnations aren't needed to enjoy the show, but they do make it more rewarding. Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law currently still airs on Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network.

MORAL OREL: Volume 1

Dino Stamatopoulos has an amazing resume as a television comedy writer. He has worked on the late night talk shows of David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, the sketch comedy shows of Ben Stiller, Dana Carvey, and Mr. Show, and the difficult-to-describe TV Funhouse and Tom Goes to the Mayor. He can now list “creator” with Moral Orel, which airs on Adult Swim and has its first 15 episodes, all of season one and half of season two, available on DVD as Volume 1.

The series is set in Moralton, Statesota. Presented in stop-motion animation, it follows the exploits of Orel, a young Christian boy who lives in with his know-it-all father, his unhappily married mother, and his spastic, younger brother, Shapey, who Orel believes is the second coming of Christ. He constantly misinterprets the teachings of God and grown-ups with outlandish, vulgar, and funny results.

After Reverend Putty’s sermon about the sanctity of life being God’s greatest gift, Orel figures dead people are “spitting in God’s face.” To rectify the situation, he steals the “Necronomicon” from the library’s book-burning pile, so he can raise the dead and stop them from sinning. That they become brain-eating zombies doesn’t upset the townspeople as much as the fact that they are running around naked.

Orel upsets people for unexpected reasons. When he doesn’t want to waste his urine, he sells it as an energy drink. The townspeople don’t get angry about drinking his urine, but that he made it for free yet charged them to buy it. In another episode, Orel wants to help the homeless so he gives a man some money. The man happens to drug dealer, so he gives Orel crack-cocaine in return. Since Orel has been taught not to waste, he begins using. He gets in trouble with his father not for taking drugs, but because, “Crack is a gateway to slang.”

The religious content and stop-motion animation will bring to mind Davey and Goliath for those who remember a time when you had to get up to change the channel to see what was on UHF. For those of the cable generation who may have missed out, Davey and Goliath was created in the 1960s by Art Clokey, the man responsible for Gumby, and the Lutheran Church in America. It presented life lessons and religious teachings in an entertaining way. Davey was a young child who ignored warnings from grown-ups about matters like skating on thin ice and exploring abandoned mines. He got himself in trouble, which is where his dog Goliath came in. Goliath spoke, but only Davey and the audience could understand him. He acted as Davey’s conscience, questioning his master’s poor choices with the familiar refrain, “I don't know, Davey.” Goliath would then help get Davey out of the jam, and everyone learned the moral of the story.

Some religious folks may be offended, but Moral Orel is so over-the-top it can’t be taken as a serious attack or criticism of anyone’s beliefs unless you choose it to be. It doesn’t so much poke fun at Christianity but mocks hypocrisy, ‘50s sitcoms, and incorrect interpretations of the Bible. It definitely is not for children.

The DVD contains extras. There are commentary tracks on some episodes that alternate between chaotic and funny with all the people in the room. A funny argument occurs as they argue about a character’s true nature. The deleted scenes are almost too short to be of any worth other than the original open, which has commentary.

The wildest extra is the Adult Swim panel from Comic-con 2006 with the creative teams from Robot Chicken, the Venture Bros., Metalocalypse and Moral Orel. Dino was drunk and took over the proceeding, acting very obnoxious. He comes across as desperate for attention and rude to the others. There are two commentary tracks of the event. Dino candidly admits to being bitter because they are lesser known, which was impressive because he didn’t have to be so honest. The creative team of the Venture Bros. provides a commentary track about their reaction to the event.

THE VENTURE BROS.:
Season Two

The Internet has replaced campfires, coffee shops, and the halls of academia as the place where mankind’s greatest questions about life are debated endlessly, because they are never answered. Although there never has been nor will there ever be any accepted universal truths by the planet’s entire population, a great many opinions are presented on a great many websites in a great many languages regarding the existence of God, the ethicality of abortion, and who the all-time greatest guitarist is.

One new argument recently added to canon seeks to determine the greatest cartoon show. The contenders currently put forth for the title by fans are The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy. Neither of these is correct for a variety of reasons. The Simpsons is somehow still coasting off its first four seasons, South Park has a very infrequent good episode in a season, and Family Guy illustrates the corrosive nature of marijuana on regions of the brain no matter how cool the bong looks.

The main reason those shows are wrong is because the actual answer is the Venture Bros. from Adult Swim, a brilliant spoof of boys’ adventure stories and superheroes. Aside from being well drawn and presented in Glorious Extra Color, they tell funny stories with surprisingly believable characters under the circumstances. The show is chock full of funny pop culture references that blend into the story rather than stick out like a sore thumb because of a writer’s limited skills, a condition the people at Webster’s Dictionary aren’t sure whether to refer to as Tarantinoesque or MacFarlanesque.

The first season of the Venture Bros. ended dramatically with the deaths of twin brothers Hank and Dean, leaving fans to wonder how the show would proceed. Season Two begins with Dr. Venture going on a worldwide sabbatical from Venture Industries to find life’s meaning. The viewer is meant to think the series has moved on as Venture and his brother Jonas Jr. are now shown in the stylized opening credits where the boys used to be. Dr. Orpheus searches for the boys’ souls, and ultimately they return in what is quite possibly the smartest resolution to a television show cliffhanger, which won’t get the credit due because it’s a cartoon.

While the shows don’t have to be seen in order, it does enrich the experience because unlike other shows the characters don’t return to the same starting point at the beginning of each episode. The mythology of the characters continues, such as the ever-evolving love triangle between Dr. Girlfriend and her two suitors, the super-villains Phantom Limb and The Monarch.

This season brings back Prof. Impossible, voiced by Stephen Colbert, and Brock’s ex-girlfriend, the former Russian spy Molotov Cocktease. It also expands the universe of characters with the Grand Galactic Inquisitor, an observer from beyond the stars who is hard to ignore, and based a similarly named gonzo journalist, Hunter Gathers, Brock’s mentor when he previously worked at OSI, the Office of Secret Intelligence.

The Tick creator Ben Edlund contributes to the series with a co-story credit on “Guess Who’s Coming To State Dinner?” and writing the episode “¡Viva los Muertos!” featuring a bizarre amalgamation of characters that combine the Scooby Doo gang with notorious Americans, such as Ted Bundy, David Berkowitz, and Pamela Hearst

The DVDs don’t present the shows unedited, so the cursing is still bleeped and the nudity pixilated, which is probably funnier. There are deleted scenes that weren’t animated, so the audio plays over sketches. As with the previous release, the commentaries by creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick are dull and only occasionally deal with the episode. If these two were talking like this at a party, you would get up and leave the room. Publick doesn’t sound mic’d properly, and after the first couple I gave up. After seeing Hammer and Publick during the tour of Astro-base Go, I believe characters Pete White and Master Billy Quizboy are based on them, and in a funny twist, they perform the voice of the other character.

Do yourself a favor and pick up this DVD set or watch the program on Cartoon Network. You’re on your own for the rest of life’s mysteries, although Jimi Hendrix is hard to argue against.