The Venture Bros.: Season 3 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

The Venture Bros.: Season 3 Blu-ray Movie Review

Smart and subversive meets dim-witted and shallow in this decent series...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown March 23, 2009

Helmed by Jackson Publick (King of the Hill, The Tick), Venture Bros follows the at-times tangled misadventures of an eccentric foursome that includes naive and bumbling teenage brothers Hank and Dean Venture (voiced by Christopher McCulloch and Michael Sinterniklaas), their nearly-mad scientist father Dr. Thaddeus Venture (James Urbaniak), and the clan's block of a bodyguard, government agent Brock Samson (voiceover-veteran Patrick Warburton). The series not only spoofs Johnny Quest, but nearly every '60s animated-action show of its ilk, modern politics, trends in science, and anything else its stab-in-the-dark writers can skewer. In its third season, Venture Bros drags its namesake family into even more danger and intrigue, facing familiar foes like The Monarch (McCulloch), Dr. Girlfriend (Doc Hammer), Sergeant Hatred (formerly voiced by Brendan Small, but currently handled by McCulloch as well), and The Phantom Limb (James Urbaniak). Can Hank and Dean come to grips with the realities of the real world? Can Dr. Venture resist his draw to oddball money-making schemes? Can Samson keep them all in line? The Venture Bros: Season 3 is the place to find out.

It's not easy being a henchmen when your boss's sworn enemy is the Venture family...

Even if the series' patented blend of slow-setup/strong-payoff humor and throwback animation aesthetics is exactly what you're looking for, no one should dive into this release without having first watched the two seasons that proceed it. While it won't take anyone very long to get acquainted with the concept, its collection of thick-headed protagonists and shortsighted villains, or Publick's recurring jokes, none of it will resonate if you don't have a pre-existing love affair with the show. That being said, diehard fans will find Season 3 expands upon Publick's initially (and occasionally ongoing) one-note premise, takes several unpredictable twists and turns in both story and character development, and serves up a fair share of solid laughs. Adult Swim regulars will probably agree that Venture Bros has never been a gut-buster grabbing for every last tear in your ducts, but rather an amusing cultural commentary of sorts that relies on witty banter and ironic exchanges to make its audience grin. It offers loaded jabs in place of quick jolts, lofty tongue-in-cheek musings in place of obvious dialogue, and slow-building tales in place of cheap and easy stories.

For me, Venture Bros often falls a bit too flat and resorts to too many redundancies to give the series any serious praise, but, like most Adult Swim shows, it has its audience and it treats them to exactly what they're looking for with each episode. Comedy is always a fickle thing -- appealing to some and alienating others -- and Venture Bros is no different. If you haven't seen it, rent its first season and give its first four episodes a shot. You'll know if it's the kind of show that's worth your time or the kind of shrug-inducing bust that doesn't warrant your attention.

The Venture Bros.: Season 3 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I've really found myself looking forward to animated releases from Warner Brothers lately. Recent titles like Wonder Woman, The New Frontier, and Tales of the Black Freighter all stick out in my mind as excellent high definition releases of traditionally-styled animated features. Thankfully, each episode of Venture Bros: Season 3 is delivered with a similarly impressive 1080p/VC-1 transfer; one that packs the screen with brilliant primaries, stable color fills, inky blacks, and refined details (so much so that some of the series finest lineart appears slightly pixelated at times). Compared to the show's television broadcast, the Blu-ray presentation boasts a relatively clean and sturdy image that doesn't suffer from digital noise, debilitating macroblocking, or severe banding. While minor banding pops up from time to time and bits of artifacting creep into a handful of frames (the most distracting of which appear during a screen-bending effect in the opening shot of Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny and a later-episode's nighttime reveal of a murderous doorway), the overall transfer is rarely hindered by its fleeting technical anomalies.

All things considered (particularly the series' humble roots), I would wager Venture Bros fans will be blown away by the quality of each episode included on this roomy dual-layered disc.

The Venture Bros.: Season 3 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Audiophiles rejoice! While the back cover of Venture Brothers: Season 3 doesn't list a lossless audio option, the Blu-ray edition nevertheless features an optional Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track. You have to pay a visit to the audio menu to access it (for some reason, Warner releases often default to the disc's standard Dolby track), but its presence should help assuage any fears fans have that the studio isn't fulfilling their recent promises.

I doubt the series' original sound design will defy anyone's expectations -- this is, after all, a show that parodies '60s cartoons in every regard -- but dialogue is crisp and perfectly prioritized, the rear speakers are tasked with a surprising amount of activity during action sequences, and LFE support is quite aggressive considering the nature of the production. And even though directionality is fairly imprecise on occasion, pans are smooth, dynamics are strong, and the soundfield isn't burdened with any glaring technical deficiencies. Granted, the strides the TrueHD track makes over the standard Dolby mix are minimal at best, but it only serves as a testament to their quality, not to any lossless shortcomings. Ultimately, Venture Bros junkies will be praising the Adult Swim gods for producing such a solid AV presentation.

The Venture Bros.: Season 3 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Bundled in a faux-worn-and-torn slip cover, the uncensored Blu-ray edition of Venture Bros: Season 3 includes a veritable wealth of special features including five hours... that's right, five hours of commentary tracks, twenty minutes of deleted scenes and a bonus 20-track audio CD. I would have liked to see a few behind-the-scenes featurettes about the voice actors and the production itself, but it's hard to complain when there's so much other material on tap.

• Audio Commentaries (286 minutes): Series creator Jackson Publick sits down with co-writer/editor/voice actor Doc Hammer for a snarky, hilarious, and infectious collection of commentaries that dig through each animated entry in Season 3. The pair talk about current events, pop culture, classic television, and random genre flicks more than anything else, but their chatter is often far funnier than the episodes themselves. While they do manage to reveal a lot of behind-the-scenes information, it's sprinkled throughout the length of the 13-part commentary. Still, it's a real treat for fans and, in my opinion, made it worth sitting through the entire commentary.
• Deleted Scenes (20 minutes): The only disappointment Venture Bros regulars will encounter here is that all of Publick's cuts are presented with storyboards and voice overs. Otherwise, the scenes will attract anyone who digs the show.
• Audio CD (51 minutes): You also get a 20-track CD loaded with JG Thurwell's multi-genre electronica music including Brock Graveside, Tuff, Tenssacts, 13 BigMan/ Boys as Transformers, Node Wrestling, Thunder-Bro, Damion, Assclamp!, Mississippi Noir, Spag, Bolly, Gawker, Descension, Warped Carousel, Sexy Sultry, In a Spaceage Mood, X1 Krashi/ Woozzy, Warped Span, Fumblestealth, and the Venture Bros Theme.

The Venture Bros.: Season 3 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I can make it from week to week without following the Venture family's antics, but I'm sure there are countless folks salivating at the chance to nab Adult Swim's first Blu-ray release. And what a fantastic one it is. Slapping together a proficient video transfer, a strong audio package (that, despite its absence from the back cover tech specs, does include a TrueHD track), and a massive dose of supplemental material, Venture Bros: Season 3 is worth every dollar. Newcomers should definitely sample earlier seasons before committing to this one, but fans should feel safe with a blind buy.