Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray Movie Review

Welcome back, and see you again in 2023.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III May 23, 2019

Almost unintentionally, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer’s The Venture Bros. has grown from a crudely animated superhero satire into an elder statesman. It was originally conceived in 2000, has been on the air since 2003, and is currently the longest-running original show on Cartoon Network’s popular Adult Swim block. It’s not exactly the most prolific one, though: seasons rarely debut less than two years apart, and only three full seasons have been produced this entire decade. The seventh and most recent aired in 2018, consisting of 10 episodes that resolve a few cliffhangers while carving out plenty of new territory in the process. It's quite an unusual strategy for maintaining a strong fanbase, but one thing’s for sure: The Venture Bros. only comes back when it’s good and ready, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Although common knowledge at this point, series creator Jackson Publick (real name Christopher McCulloch) has roots in the world of comic books: he wrote his own superhero spoof series, was eventually picked to write four issues of The Tick: Karma Tornado in 1994, and was hired as a storyboard artist for Fox's animated series later that year. Similarly, Venture co-writer Eric “Doc” Hammer, along with then-wife Lisa, worked closely with The Tick creator Ben Edlund on The Venture Bros.’ early development after collaborating on a few projects including the 1999 short film Crawley.

Not surprisingly, those particular roots are clearly seen in almost every frame of The Venture Bros. . Its ridiculous stable of heroes and villains -- “The Monarch”, “Colonel Horace Gentleman”, “Shuttle Cock”, "Girl Hitler", “The Alchemist”, “Henchman 21” , “The Intangible Fancy”, “Phantom Limb”, “Molotov Cocktease”, and at least a hundred others -- is so deep that Wikipedia’s page of “The Venture Bros. characters” is over 30,000 words long, and most of this motley crew could fit snugly inside Edlund’s own hand-built universe. (Hell, even fan favorite Brock Samson is voiced by Patrick Warburton, who played The Tick himself on Fox’s short-lived 2001 live-action series.) Running a close second is The Venture Bros.' madcap, take-no-prisoners attitude and ability to consistently surprise even the most dedicated viewers; though I haven’t seen every episode to date, I have yet to correctly predict the outcome of a single one.

Not that it really matters, of course: more than half of the enjoyment derived from a typical episode of The Venture Bros. -- whatever that means -- is just being entertained by all the abject chaos and confusion as it unfolds. It's not mandatory that you remember a minor character's surprising return after their frivolous death three seasons ago...but if you do, that makes everything all the more enjoyable. While The Venture Bros. has been challenged in recent years by shows like Archer and Rick and Morty, it has managed to persevere by expanding the bubble it so gleefully occupies. And while it didn't exactly begin as a carefully-planned adventure series overstuffed with characters and razor-sharp ideas, The Venture Bros. has certainly grown in scope, ambition, intelligence, and detail over the last sixteen years; this also applies to its visuals, which have likewise improved exponentially while still "feeling" the same.

Speaking of which, Warner Bros. has been steadily releasing The Venture Bros. on Blu-ray since Season 3 in 2009, right when the series switched to high definition. These have been solid packages more often than not, serving up decent A/V presentations with extras that have included audio commentaries with Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer for pretty much every single episode (except one, but you can still get that here). Season 7 follows suit with all 10 episodes on a single Blu-ray; this isn’t as troublesome as expected, as it looks and sounds great with a handful of decent extras. It's another great package that die-hard fans should enjoy, while newcomers should get caught up on Hulu first.

The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio, The Venture Bros. Season 7 looks excellent on Warner Bros.' new Blu-ray. I'll admit that I was somewhat skeptical about the studio squeezing over four hours of HD content (including the bonus features) on a single disc, but it's handled perfectly well more often than not.. Most of this is due to The Venture Bros.' trademark art style, which often utilizes a limited and very flat color palette during character close-ups and mid-range conversations. The Blu-ray's bit-rate during scenes like this often drops into the single-digit and 10- 20 Mbps range while maintaining a clean, crisp, and razor-sharp appearance. More complex backgrounds, such as bustling cityscapes and other detailed locales, pop right back up to +/- 35 Mpbs to compensate and look quite impressive. It sounds like a mixed bag on paper but actually works better than expected, with the only red flags being mild to moderate banding on harsher color gradients like skylines, fog, and other effects, as well as subtle but persistent horizontal moiré patterns and sporadic compression artifacts on some of the solid colors. (The former is likely a source issue rather than one related to disc authoring, but still worth a mention.) Overall, it's a great-looking disc with bold colors, solid black levels, crisp linework, and razor-sharp details that look excellent in motion. Even more than past seasons, fans should be very pleased with how The Venture Bros. looks on Blu-ray and I'm glad it's still earning season releases.

The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Likewise, the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio mix does a great job replicating the series' chaotic source elements. Though obviously a dialogue-driven show, The Venture Bros. Season 7 is loaded with action, excitement, and surprises which means that it's hardly a front-loaded presentation from start to finish. The sound stage is typically nice and wide during the show's more ambitious moments, with excellent panning effects and suitable placement of supportive sounds and music cues. There were even times where subtle background noises tricked me, which is an unofficial way to earn bonus points in my book. Series composer J. G. Thirlwell's original score sounds especially crisp and dynamic, at times drifting well into the rear channels without overpowering other aspects of the presentation. Low frequency effects are somewhat sparing but kick in nicely, especially during explosions, fly-bys, and music cues. Overall, this is a perfectly active and robust mix that sounds right on par with past seasons of The Venture Bros., if not slightly better.

Optional English SDH subtitles are included during the episodes only.

The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Warner Bros. presents The Venture Bros. Season 7 as a one-disc package in a standard keepcase with terrific artwork, a nice outer slipcase, a digital copy redemption code, and a handful of on-disc extras. While they're vaguely listed on the packaging as "Bonus Features" (and one's even buried in the "Episode List" menu with very small print), die-hard fans get a respectable amount of stuff to dig through and most of it's worthwhile.

• Creator Commentary - Undoubtedly the highlight here, as fans are treated to full- length audio commentaries with Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer during all 10 episodes (a long-standing tradition at this point). Although I logistically couldn't sit through all of these from start to finish, a few sample topics include The Morphic Trilogy, avoiding a ten-part story while maintaining continuity, Hank's premature ejaculation, the limitation of 22-minute episodes, cringing at the first season, Korean computer keyboards, Doc's Hot Topic fashions, the brilliance of Jaws, undersized water heaters, deleted scenes and unused ideas, Dr. Girlfriend's can, moving scenes from one episode to another, happy accidents, Montgomery's tubercles, and more. As usual, their comments are candid and uncensored and, at times, have nothing to do with the actual episodes but are still entertaining as hell.

• Deleted Scenes (16 clips, 5:40 total) - A collection of very short deleted and/or extended scenes from "The Curse of the Haunted Problem", The Rorqual Affair", "The High Cost of Loathing", "The Unicorn in Captivity", "The Terminus Mandate", and "The Saphrax Protocol". Most are presented as storyboards or animatics with finished voice work and sound effects, and are usually book-ended by scenes from the final episodes.

• Ghost in the Pro-BLEM (0:32) - A more complete version of the computer glitch segment as glimpsed in season opener "The Curse of the Haunted Problem".

• Sirena Goes Off... (5:35) - Voice actress Cristin Milioti ("Sirena") deviates from the original script to cuss out a variety of victims including Wide Wale, Hank, Rocco (twice), The Monarch, and Henchman 21. If your favorite character from Curb Your Enthusiasm was Susie, you'll definitely enjoy this one.

• Promo (2:20) - A highlight reel from this season as originally seen on Cartoon Network.

The Venture Bros.: Season 7 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Venture Bros. continues its raucous evolution with Season 7, serving up 10 more wildly unpredictable episodes that somehow feel right at home within the series' ever-expanding universe. Venture's been proudly doing its own thing since 2003 and I love that it still has the heart of a scrappy cult classic while enjoying the "whenever we feel like it" release schedule of shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm. It's almost always a fun ride and this season is no exception: featuring a few resolved plot elements from earlier years, new places, familiar faces, and some of the best one-liners in recent memory, it's highly entertaining even (especially?) when things go completely off the rails. Warner Bros.' Blu-ray fights the good fight by simply existing, armed with a solid A/V presentation and decent bonus features including another welcome batch of audio commentaries. Highly recommended to die-hard fans, obviously.