The Venture Brothers
2 ratings since posting on Friday, December 22, 2006
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in Sacramento
(submitted by
Vincent
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Overall Rating based on 2 ratings |
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I love this cartoon, its by far one of the funniest animated works of art out there. Watch at least 4 or 5 episodes, you'll need a bit of background to really enjoy the character relationships. - Jared , posted 01/03/07 |
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Origins Show creator Jackson Publick (a pseudonym for Christopher McCulloch) was one of the main writers for the Saturday morning animated show The Tick. Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick, has co-written two episodes, and written one full episode, ¡Viva los Muertos!. Patrick Warburton, who played the Tick in the short-lived live-action series, also provides the voice of Brock Samson. McCulloch created The Venture Bros.' storyline sometime prior to 2000. After working for the television program Sheep in the Big City and the live-action version of 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.[1] Characters New and recurring characters from the show's second season.Main articles: List of characters from The Venture Bros. and List of secondary characters from The Venture Bros. 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 titular twin brothers of the show; both boys have identifiable characteristics, with Hank being the more adventurous and Dean being the more "effeminate" and bookish of the two. Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (voiced by James Urbaniak), currently runs Venture Industries. Dr. Venture assumes the occupation of a "super-scientist," although his knowledge and credentials in the field are questionable. Brock Samson (voiced by Patrick Warburton) is the massively muscled and hyper-masculine bodyguard to the Venture family. He is an Office of Secret Intelligence agent with a license to kill. Dr. Venture's deceased father, Dr. Jonas Venture (voiced by Paul Boocock), developed a loyal and rather emotional robot named H.E.L.P.eR. (voiced by Soul-Bot) that accompanies and assists the Ventures. Similar to other science fiction series, the Venture family has various recurring antagonists. Many of them are current or former members of The Guild of Calamitous Intent, a group that bears resemblance to the Legion of Doom. The pernicious but ineffective Monarch (voiced by Christopher McCulloch), the masculine-voiced Doctor Girlfriend (voiced by Doc Hammer), and their numerous henchmen are some of the Venture family's main villains (Monarch and Girlfriend broke up as a couple at the end of the first season). Baron Werner Ünderbheit (voiced by T. Ryder Smith) is a former dictator of the duchy of Ünderland and specifically opposes Dr. Venture due to Dr. Venture's being responsible for the loss of his jaw in college, citing "One is always supposed to look out for one's lab partner!". Phantom Limb (voiced by James Urbaniak) is a high-ranking member of The Guild of Calamitous Intent and former lover of Dr. Girlfriend. He seems at least as intent on persecuting The Monarch 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 Doctor Byron Orpheus (voiced by Steven Rattazzi) and his goth daughter Triana (voiced by Lisa Hammer) rent out a portion of the Venture Compound. The albino 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. Themes, homages, and references One of the themes of The Venture Bros. is its multifarious use of allusion in its dialogue, character design and other facets. The series openly homages a variety of sources, including adventure serials, pulp magazines and many other elements of pop culture; musical references, television shows, movies, toys, fads, and comic books have all been used for fodder in the past. [edit] Jonny Quest Comparing the main characters of The Venture Bros. and Jonny QuestThe series' predominant homage is to Jonny Quest, as it is the basis for many of the main characters. Dr. Venture represents Benton Quest, Brock as Race Bannon, and the Venture boys as Benton's children. The comparisons, however, are taken to the level of an extreme parody: Dr. Venture is a pill-popping, barely-competent scientist who treats his children and those around him with overt disdain and contempt, Brock is a hyper-macho man who kills without hesitation, and the boys are nincompoops stuck in an out-of-date mindset. In the latter part of the first season and most overtly in the second, the writers have retrofitted the notion of Dr. Venture being an adult analogue for Jonny Quest. Flashbacks and references to merchandise show Rusty as a Jonny Quest-like child adventurer. This was expanded upon in season two with brief appearances from Hector, who served as an analogue for Hadji, and former boxing champion Swifty as another analogue for Race Bannon. Direct connections to Jonny Quest is made in three episodes. "Ice Station – Impossible!" featured a cameo appearance from Race Bannon, who dies after parachuting from an exploding airplane. In "Twenty Years to Midnight," a drug-addicted adult Jonny Quest lives in the same bathysphere his father, Benton Quest, once used to communicate with sea life. In "Fallen Arches,", Dr. Venture has built a "Walking Eye" machine, reminiscent to the spider-like robotic spy built by Dr. Zin from the Jonny Quest episode "The Robot Spy". Music David Bowie's character in the season two finale, "Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part II)"Musicians and songs are commonly referenced and quoted in The Venture Bros. Many characters often quote songs, sometimes to a great length. Monarch henchmen numbers 21 and 24 are usually discussing music related topics. Some musicians have even appeared as characters in the show. David Bowie is the most referenced musician in the series as of 2006, to the point of arising as a character, the Sovereign, in Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part I) and II. The dialogue between Major Tom and the Action Man at the beginning of "Ghosts of the Sargasso" refers to the David Bowie songs "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes." Major Tom's spacecraft is named "TVC 15", the title of another Bowie song. It is said that Mr. Brisby won his "lifelong companda" from Bowie in a trivia contest. Bowie later sends the mercenary Molotov Cocktease to retrieve the animal. In "Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part II)" it is revealed that Bowie is the Sovereign of the Guild of Calamitous Intent. After being briefly usurped by Phantom Limb (with the help of Iggy Pop and Klaus Nomi), he reappears and defeats the three traitors. There have been numerous references to the band Led Zeppelin, primarily in relation to Brock. Brock mentions that "Zep sold out" on In Through the Out Door. He later implies that he hates the album due to its connection to his memories of a former lover (possibly Molotov Cocktease). When Brock must take an exam to renew his license to kill, instead of answering the questions on its written portion, he draws whom he deems Icarus from the Swan Song Records logo (The actual logo contains Apollo); Brock eventually gets a tattoo of this logo. While listening to "When the Levee Breaks," H.E.L.P.e.R. proceeds to call Zeppelin "jock rock" and an argument ensues with it and Brock. My strong opinons: My favorite character has always been Brock Samson due to his strong personality and characteristics. My least likable character are the two venture brothers because they both appeared to be "sissies" especially Dean. And then there is that so called "Goth girl character" which is basically a sterotyped version of Goth in general, she talks like shes high, and has that deppressing "Im pissed at everybody" expression on her face in every episode she appears in, and her dad is a rather weird Necromantis, who for some reason care more about the Venture brothers than their own father. Speaking of which, Dr. Venture is actually careless of his two sons. In the second season they introduced a woman in a leather like suit that is suppose to be the Venture brothers mom who is extremelly mental and nutty. There aren't that many likably characters, except for Brock, and the Monarch which is a guy in a butterfly suit constantly hunting down the Venture family with his evil minons and his woman known as "Dr. Girlfriend." She has a deep manly voice, and I consider her to be the most anoyying character in the entire show. Personally I didn't like season 2 that much but it was still good. I will be looking forward to Season 3, amd hopefully they show less of Orpheus and his boring "Gothic" daughter Triana. Plus Dr. Girlfriend yells, and complains far to damn much. I may be wrong about there not being enough likable characters. Still its a perfect good show. Its just that most characters have boring personalities. 1.Brock Samson: The Protector of the Venture Family. Brock is the badass in the show often beating up Dr. Venture's enemies in all sorts of gruesome ways. He's my favorite character in the show. Big, tough, and doesn't take orders from anyone. 2. Dean Venture: Dean is in love with Triana, but somtimes he acts like a sissy. In one episode I almost thought he was gay. 3. Hank Venture:Pretends like he's really mature but is often weird because he constantly wears his batman halloween costume. Some people say he looks like Freddy from Scooby Doo. 4. Dr. Venture: A failure scientist who never seems proud of his two sons for anything, and he's always seem to have an attitude with everyone in the show except for Brock because he's Dr. Ventures body guard 5.Orpheus: A loud mouth necromancer. 6.Triana: Automatically was labeled as a Gothic character just because of the way she dresses. Her personality is rather dull like a teen goth in real life. Who actually sits around 24 hours a day in a dark looking room with a straight face, unhappy? Somtimes she looks extremelly high on drugs. Gothic wannabe characters are getting damn old. These days every cartoon wants a Goth character thrown in *coughing* "Lame old Danny Phantom, or Invader Zim." We've been seeing this since the 1970's (Adams Family) and 1980's-1990's Beetle Juice cartoon. Give it a rest. Goth characters are boring, to similar to the posers in reality. 7.The Monarch: Loud, but damn well proud of it. He's one of my second favorite characters in the show. The only thing I hate about him is how he sits around letting his loud mouth girlfriend shout at him. He's still a funny character. 8.Dr. Girlfriend: The least likable character next to Triana except shes allot worst. Dr Girlfriend complains in every episode wether shes complaining about The Monarch whos trying to get even with Dr. Venture or shes yelling at The Phantom Limb for whatever reasons I don't know. At the end of Season 2 of "Showdown At Cremation Part II" you see Dr. Girlfriend and The Monarch inside of a cocoon escape pod after a sexual encounter (if you catch my drift), she tells The Monarch a secrete: Monarch: You almost said "I do" during the wedding. Dr. Girlfriend: I never said I did Monarch: Yes but you never said you didnt either. Dr. Girlfriend: Well, theres somthing else I never told you about. Dr.Girlfriend: Im..... The Monarch: What?!?!! (The show ends) So I believe shes going to announce in Season 3 that shes "pregnant." This would totally ruin the show if thats the truth. I highly advice the creator to leave it the way it is. Introducing new characters is the main reason why most shows fail. The original fans don't want anything "new" leave it original. There are other characters in the show that are interesting such as other super villans, and supporting characters that appear in most episodes. I also don't remember everything they said at the end of Season 2, but I remember most of the parts. - Vincent , posted 12/26/06 |
The Venture Brothers was recommended for:
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