A Lifetime of Venture Bros Comes Home to Fans

It's been a big finish for The Venture Bros, Cartoon Network's adult take on the animated adventure genre that blends shows Jonny Quest and Birdman with the sheer banality of ordinary existence -- even if your ordinary existence consists of secret agents, fringe science, and villains who are evil for the sake of being evil.

In back-to-back releases, fans can now get The Venture Bros: The Complete Series on DVD (no doubt a special Blu-ray set is in the works), showcasing the daily lives of Doctor Rusty Venture (James Urbaniak), his indefatigable bodyguard Brock (Patrick Warburton), and his two adventurous sons, Hank (Christopher McCulloch) and Dean (Michael Sinternicklaas), as they explore super-science, deal with their feelings of inadequacy, fend off attacks from their arch nemesis The Monarch (also McCulloch) and his band of butterfly-themed minions as well as his mate, Dr. Mrs. The Monach (Doc Hammer).

There's plenty of gruesome death and destruction, treated with the casual "Hey, stuff happens" attitude. Fortunately nobody important to the series dies. Well, except for the two leads, Hank and Dean. But you get used to that even if they don't -- particularly after they realize it's happening.

That realization is part of the long story of The Venture Bros. Even as the franchise is built on half-hour episodes that can each stand alone, there is an ongoing plot throughout the entire series that sets up the mystery of who the boys actually are -- and what it is that pits The Monarch and Dr. Venture against each other so adamantly. Those questions are, however, never answered in the series.

Which is why the creators followed it up with a full-length animated movie: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart. Picking up where the series leaves off, viewers can follow Hank's quest to find his lost mom, Dean's quest to find a lost Hank, and The Monarch's quest to find his lost dignity as his former girlfriend forms a force of villainy that's actually competent at what they do. But more importantly, it answers all those questions that fans have had for years while setting the stage for potentially more adventures to come.