Sunday -Monday, June 4 & 5, 2006

Venture Brothers, Season One – 2003

     My son asked that I get this get these discs. Yeah, its from Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, but how bad could it be? Well, it turns out, plenty. I allowed by eldest to watch it, provided he watched it when the 8 year old couldn’t see it, as it was way too adult for him.

Why, you ask? Well, imagine Johnny Quest for Gen X. Imagine if Johnny Quest existed in the universe of The Tick. This is some laugh out loud funny stuff. It is not for the kiddies. The IMDB write ups are will supply you with plenty of details about the plot, so suffice it to say that  you gotta love any series where the bodyguard kills indiscriminately, and has sex with prostitutes and female villains. And the Venture Brothers themselves? Nancy boys in just the way that you’ve always felt that these “kid” heros are. And in case you don’t think these are inspired by Johnny Quest, Race Bannon makes a cameo appearance. Gotta like that.

There are thirteen episodes, along with a VERY funny Christmas special (that you need to have seen all the episodes to get). There is also a pilot that was done with FLASH animation, that finally has a commentary.

In the commentary, we learn that one of the writers (don’t ask me which, its impossible to tell from the general chatter on the commentary) worked on The Tick. He doesn’t say if it was the animated version or the short lived Live Version, but a quick trip to IMDB shows that  Christopher McCulloch (who is the voice of about half the cast), was a writer on BOTH versions. Anyway, that certainly explains why this feels like Johnny Quest in the Tick Universe.

There are also deleted scenes, which are not so great, and these weird interviews with the cast in costumes, pertenting to be actors from the Live Action version (another Tick reference, I’m sure) that will leave you saying “WTF?”

Four beers out of five. Be careful of spit-takes, however.