The Venture Bros. has been entertaining fans and skewing genre fare for more than 15 years now and it's honestly never been better. From the rich character development that spends equal time on heroes and villains, not to mention sidekicks and henchmen, to the razor-sharp satire and multiple entendre that followers have come to know and love, to the impressive animation quality that's heads above where the show started, The Venture Bros. is one of the best animated series going today. You can check out my review of the most recent season here.
To celebrate Season 7's arrival on home video on Tuesday June 4th, we have an exclusive clip from the Blu-ray to share with you today. It's one of the Bonus Features that gives fans unique insight into the voice-acting process behind the scenes, one that specifically sees Cristin Milioti going completely off book as Sirena and delivering some savage one-liners to Hank. (Hank's not the only one who gets a dose of Milioti's sharp wit, but you'll have to check out the Blu-ray to see more.) It's a great example of the talent behind the scenes of The Venture Bros. and the humor they all bring to the table. And for more from show creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick themselves, be sure to come back tomorrow for our extensive interview with the duo, as well as a fantastic giveaway!
Check out this early look at the bonus features on the Venture Bros. Season 7 Blu-ray, followed by my review of the home release:
An exclusive clip from Adult Swim’s Venture Bros. S7 Blu-Ray and DVD, releasing June 4.
Here's my review of the home video release's bonus features, including commentary tracks from Hammer and Publick for all 10 episodes, deleted scenes and animatics, and featurettes/extended sequences where the actors riffed on scenes to fantastic effect.
Commentary: (Publick and Hammer)
"The Venture Bros. & The Curse of the Haunted Problem"
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"The Rorqual Affair"
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"The High Cost of Loathing"
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"The Bellicose Proxy"
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"The Terminus Mandate"
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"The Saphrax Protocol"
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“The High Cost of Loathing”
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Ghost in the Pro-BLEM
- “Part 1 of The Morphic Trilogy” aka What Should Have Been the Season 6 Finale
- Discussion about writing “classic episodic comedy” but also including a character narrative
- They’d like to explore Sirena and Rocco’s relationship a little more but they always have more riff commentary than there is room to include it
- Some riffing on Blackula vs Blackula Hunters and not being able to tell them apart
- If you look in the background at the Venture compound, you can see Elektro the robot from the 1939 World’s Fair
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"The Rorqual Affair"
- The title, borrowed from titles like Robert Ludlum thrillers “The Bourne Identity”, etc, was part of Doc Hammer’s idea for a theme of episode titles; “rorqual” is the name for a family of baleen whales
- Plenty of Jaws references here
- Originally, this was going to be a two-parter but they kept adding more until it grew to a three-part arc
- Doc Hammer really dislikes Damien Hirst
- One deleted scene was the first appearance of ScareBear; they managed to keep the Mad Libs scene with Rocco and the Monarch though
- The title is a pun and a throwback to “Careers in Science”, featuring Bud Manstrong
- Concluding the Morphic Trilogy, this episode had a scene with seizure concerns; they had to run it through the Harding test a number of times
- Other random trivia they drop: Montgomery’s tubercles a.k.a. areolar glands, are bumps around the nipple
- “Honey, I am home,” wasn’t a written joke, but an ad-libbed one
- Vendata is voiced by two different people: One as a robot, one as Blue Morpho
- In the diner sequence, a supervillain inspired by Freddie Mercury can be seen; he’s named Mr. Fahrenheit, a.k.a. Fast Freddie, Supersonic Man; and the “I’m a computer” guy is named Hate-Bit
- In that same scene, there’s an ad for a 1987 Stanza car in the newspaper
- The writers want to know just how disgusted viewers are with Jonas Venture by this point
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"The High Cost of Loathing"
- *two months later, accounting for the holiday time jump and the absence of a Christmas episode
- *Don’t buy the Handy Dandy shirt since they originally sold poorly and are only available now as knock-offs
- Publick and Hammer really didn’t like the animation in this episode, referencing a number of off-model characters and janky animation; they do say that the animation studio did deliver on some heavy stuff this season, however
- Dean’s dreamcatcher is something that HELPeR made from things he’d find in a kitchen drawer
- They spent their song licensing budget on “Street Life” from 1981’s “Sharky’s Machine”, for pretty much no reason, and didn’t have budget left for other musical ideas
- Jeffrey Wright’s character ThinkTank/Dr. Nidaba gets a quick cameo appearance here; ThinkTank and Stars & Garters’ relationship is similar to Marvel Comics’ MODOK and Captain America
- Gary Cole was a guest voice actor in this episode as Professor Von Helping
- Rather than write together, Hammer and Publick talk to each other in silly character voices like little kids “forgetting the good stuff but keeping the stupid stuff”
- “Inamorata” is another term for a paramour or someone’s female lover
- Definitely go Google "Tom Carvel from vintage Carvel ice cream commercials"
- Be sure to pause the HELPeR flashback and read the newspaper articles: In one, Becky Dobson of Clear Water Springs, Montana almost choked on a robot eye; in another, Carol Delaney, leader of “Mothers Against Robots”, warns American housewives that the HELPeR robots will replace them while the journalist writing the article hopes for a sex robot from Dr. Venture; and a third reports on mass HELPeR burnings where protesters hole “God Hates HELPeRS” signs; Dr. Venture promises a flying car by ’64 – he also saves “sexy, curvy ‘seal’ Miss Chenelwith from freezing waters” a week later
- Rhys Darby guest stars as a HELPeR MOD-2 here
- The mountain of jackets in the hangar is a callback to the “Jacket” video; apparently the fire didn’t reach the hangar
- Dermott’s fantasy sequence had to be cut from this episode; Hammer was apparently fascinated with bureaucracy as a kid, just as Publick wanted to run a detective agency in his youth
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"The Bellicose Proxy"
- The character first seen in this episode is The Splotch, and she’s a woman
- The torture scene in this episode is an actual ancient torture that was done by Romans/Etruscans
- You should also pause the scene in which Dr. Venture/Rusty reads the declaration from the Guild of Calamitous Intent
- The Rosie Grier’s Needlepoint for Men book comes from Doc Hammer’s father’s “sensitive moment, culturally” in the 70s; his father also did rug latching
- Of all the possible spinoffs from Venture Bros., they’d like to do one with Enzo, the Sicilian tailor who outfits both heroes and villains
- Billy Quiz Boy’s costume was based on an old Life magazine cover of what the future would look like
- FYI the scenes that play behind the end credits are chosen simply due to their length and not having any cuts
- The super-science show rarely performs actual super-science, but this episode changes that up a bit
- The Monarch’s kitchen is basically Doc Hammer’s kitchen, just in black-and-white instead
- There are at least 200 named characters in this show
- Mark Hamill guest stars as Presto Change-o and the Illuminati leader; Toby Huss guest stars as Copycat
- They talk about borrowing each other’s jokes and even their own jokes for the show, with a special name-drop of Ben Edlund of The Tick fame
- They did some “research” at The Cloisters in New York for the Eyes Wide Shut-like debauchery scene
- Even the writers are weirded out by seeing Dr. Girlfriend naked in the uncensored version
- They hate any comic book characters who bend and stretch, especially the ones who delight in using their own specific terminology
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"The Terminus Mandate"
- Brendon Small guest stars as Blind Rage and Action Johnny while James Adomian guest stars as Night Dick
- The Monarch has apparently switched the hinge that his secret door in the library swings on; the writers explain it away as part of the remodel or a “double hinge” that opens from either side
- There’s a nod to the 70s-era Guardian Angels here
- There’s a shot-for-shot remake of a Jonny Quest sequence for “Action Johnny” with a Native American “indian” in place of Haji
- Dragoon’s house is based on a house that Publick used to walk by as a kid, which they dubbed the “gingerbread house”
- Red Death is the show’s “Liam Neeson” in that he can deliver monologues and then “punch people really hard”
- There was a post-credits scene that they cut; it featured Hunter berating the surgeon for removing too much of his penis
- This commentary opens up with a riveting suppository anecdote, as you do.
- Dragon Finkelstein is inspired by Tiger Schulmann
- The castle in this episode is inspired by the Bannerman Castle
- “Mission Creep” is made up of other villains and heroes’ costumes and weapons, from Underbite, to Wolverine, to the PP Belt, and more
- Expect them to explain Dr. Venture’s missing finger and why the Monarch’s called “Malcolm” next season
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"The Saphrax Protocol"
- Doc apparently has a ton of background info on Saphrax; the myth of the first villain
- Originally, they wanted to have “The Enemy Awards” with The Tenning Ceremony as a Level 10 villain handed out; the problem is this was originally used on The Tick (They may revisit that idea in the future; Publick regrets not being able to include the In Memorium montage film, showing all the villains the Blue Morpho killed)
- So they developed the secret society instead, based on the Masonic ritual; Doc wrote out the whole journey and the entire ritual and then just revealed parts of it in the show
- Hank and Sirena with Rocco pounding on the door
- Extended scene with Dean complaining about his hair standing on end and his father dismissing it as a cowlick
- Hatred continues his story about approaching Princess Tiny Feet’s father; the two apparently became “horrible, horrible alcoholics”
- Orpheus arrives and talks to Dean about Triana; two scenes which cut out Dean’s lingering interest in his former girlfriend
- Rocco takes the pizza without sharing with the other guards
- An extra quip from Wide Whale while he has The Monarch/Blue Morpho in his custody
- The fully animated scene featuring Scare Bear, covered in blood and wielding a bloody knife, who’s offered an AA pamphlet from an older man
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“The High Cost of Loathing”
- Extended animatic of The Monarch captured in the Brown Widow’s web while two cops read a note from “that amicable arachnid”; they toss it aside as Gary/21 comes to rescue him
- Extra joke from The Monarch and Gary/21 calling Von Helping a “pussy”, basically
- Animatic showing Gary getting emergency texts from The Monarch
- Extension of the scene after Dr. Venture tries to seduce Novia and wakes up the next morning in bed, happy to be alive
- The animatic of Hunter Gather arguing with the surgeon over a missing inch of his penis
- Dean’s “I’m a crappy brother” speech gets an additional comment about masturbation
- Rough storyboards of Brock and HELPeR cleaning up after Brock’s brutal killing of the blackout squad members
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Ghost in the Pro-BLEM
- A creepy, artsy, and very short “film” that lends a bit more spooky stuff to the Pro-BLEM problem, with a vibe almost like an X-Files episode intro
- Cristin Milioti riffing off the script and going completely crazy in the best possible way; it’s amazing.
- Scenes include Sirena going off on Wide Whale about incest babies, on Hank about how stupid he is for thinking she only takes one class a day at college, on Rocco for knowing too much about her underwear, on the Monarch and Henchman 21 for being incompetent villains, and Rocco again for his stupidity
- Get some pure, uncut, Venture Bros. goodness in this short promo teaser
