Go Team Venture!
Posted on | September 27, 2004 at 6:49 pm | Comments Off
I wanted to mention my new favorite animated show on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim: The Venture Brothers. On the surface, it’s a fond parody of (homage to?) the old Johnny Quest series. It manages to be somewhat respectful of the source material yet still extremely funny. It’s brought to us by some of the people responsible for The Tick TV shows (both cartoon and live action). I wasn’t sure what to think from the first couple of episodes, but it’s really grown on me, especially after the rich mythology and back story has gradually revealed itself.
You know you’ve got a quirky show when all the spoken dialog in the before-credits teaser of one episode (”Ghosts of the Sargasso”) is taken from the lyrics to David Bowie songs. The voice acting is excellent, led by Patrick Warburton’s deadpan reading of Venture family bodyguard/licensed-to-kill secret agent Brock Samson (who actually gets to meet JQ’s Race Bannon, or what’s left of him, in one episode and Steve Austin, now hitched up with a Yeti, in another). There’s pathos galore as Dr. Venture tries to live up to the legend of his late super-scientist/adventurer father, and fails miserably because he’s… well… not all that smart, and extremely selfish & vain. And then there’s Dr. Venture’s kids Hank and Dean, who are so naive and bumbling they make Shaggy from Scooby-Doo look with-it. Best of all may be their main nemesis, the can’t-get-a-break supervillain The Monarch, who dresses like a giant butterfly and has a lot of problems with his henchmen, including the deep-voiced Dr. Girlfriend. Monarch doesn’t appear in every episode, but it’s a treat when he does.
If you have any affection at all for those adventurer cartoons of yore, or just want a good laugh, give it a try. More info here. This is one series I hope comes out on DVD very soon.
Latre.