The Venture Bros: “Venture Libre” part 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few years back, I was talking to a woman from Pixar, who explained to me the logic of Finding Nemo. Finding Nemo, she said, is about, and only about, a father’s relationship with his son. The problem presented by the narrative is that, at the end of Act I, the son is abducted. How could they make a movie about a father’s relationship with his son if the son vanishes at the end of Act I? The answer, they found, was to replace the son with another child, the forgetful fish Dory. The father then plays out the conflict with his son with this surrogate. It’s a simple yet brilliant device, and if you remove the forgetful fish and put in a reanimated corpse, it’s the same device that fuels “Venture Libre.”

Dean, in “vegetarian rebellion” mode, doesn’t want to eat his breakfast, because “I don’t eat face.” I’m guessing it’s Sgt Hatred who gave Dean’s breakfast a literal face, since he’s growing into the mothering type. In fact, we happen upon the Venture clan in the midst of a pretty normal domestic scene: hot coffee, gripes about chores, dad upset with some juvenile hokey-pokey, a jaded teen. Before The Venture Bros can devolve into Family Ties, however, army guys crash through the window to deliver a Venture-Industries iPad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just as “What Color is Your Cleansuit?”‘s plot began with Rusty getting an order for a science project, “Venture Libre”‘s plot is catapulted into motion by Rusty getting an order for the military. But instead of building a new Venture product, the “case of the week” here is to take an old Venture product out of commission: “Viva los Muertas!”‘s Venturestein has gone rogue in Puerto Bahia, a Latin American island nation (probably not this Puerto Bahia).

Rusty gathers Sgt Hatred and Hank to “go on an adventure” (which, it’s fairly certain, will end in bloodshed) but Dean, for the first time, demands to be left at home (reading Wifey, the 1978 “adult novel” by children’s writer Judy Blume, which I assume he swiped out of Rusty’s nightstand. Just as Judy Blume escaped the world of kid-lit with Wifey, Dean has escaped the like of Giant Boy Detective). “What’s Eating Dean?” is the question that drives Season 5 of The Venture Bros. (Rusty also alerts Dean to the presence of a “Ted” in his life, the significance of which will become clear later). Lacking anyone with whom to commune, not even his twin brother (who is currently OD’ing on a sip of coffee), Dean goes to HELPeR, another one of Rusty’s abused and discarded toys. He cannot fix himself, but he vows to fix HELPeR. And instantly fails – independance is not a guarantee of success.

Rusty, at this point, is an interesting character to hang a narrative on. He’s a protagonist without a desire to do anything. In “What Color is Your Cleansuit?” he leaped into action by immediately hiring a bunch of college students to build his Palaemon Project while he sat in the house and drank cocktails, and before he’s even tracked down Venturestein he’s already looking forward to the job being over. Hank senses a plot, namely, the plot of Venturestein’s namesake, Frankenstein (which, being Hank, he confuses with the plot of Blade Runner). In Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s Creature plots to kill his maker, just as Hank suspects Venturestein will try to kill Rusty, just as Dean, and, at times, all sons, wish to kill their fathers. Because Rusty is such a reactive protagonist, “Venture Libre” presents a guest protagonist, Venturestein himself. “What Does Venturestein Want?” becomes the question that drives the episode. (It’s interesting, to me anyway, that Venturestein, like Frankenstein’s Creature, has no memories before his rebirths, he thinks of himself as having been born into this world as he is now, and thus thinks of Rusty as his father, while Hank and Dean, Rusty’s biological sons, while clones several times over, get to have all the memories they want. Just another reminder that it’s who you know that counts.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy “Past Coming Back to Haunt You!” Rusty and company approach their destination and are immediately attacked by the pteronodon from the title sequence of Jonny Quest. Hank, still hopped up on coffee, takes charge of the emergency, and immediately fails, confusing a parachute with a jet pack and separating himself from his father and bodyguard (the bodyguard question was, oddly, not addressed for Dean, who was left to fend for himself). Rusty, of course, is unconcerned about Hank’s safety as he and Hatred plummet into the jungle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at the Venture compound, Dean meets this episode’s guest antagonist. Not a member of the Guild of Calamitous Intent but a Michelle-Bachmann-like congresswoman Marsha Backwood. In a rare moment of contemporary political commentary, Congresswoman Backwood takes it upon herself to rescue Rusty from his ordeal in Puerto Bahai. In typical Venture Bros tradition, of course, she has no idea who Rusty is, what he’s doing in Puerto Bahia, nor what she might be rescuing him from. Meanwhile, HELPeR wrests Dean’s b-plot away from him and takes it over, becoming the episode’s minor protagonist. His goal: to locate Rusty, who has called him to help. In spite of everything Rusty has done to poor HELPeR, HELPeR still leaps to Rusty’s aid when called – the only loyal son Rusty still has in this episode.

Stuck in the jungle, Rusty and Sgt Hatred are set upon by some Dr. Moreau-style man-beasts. And “Dr. Moreau-style man-beasts” is where most parodic cartoon shows would stop, but not The Venture Bros. One of the things that separates this show from its brethren is the extent to which its influences are digested. A bargain-basement parody factory like the Epic Movie people simply presents a pop-culture icon, then pulls down its pants; The Venture Bros takes its references apart, examines them, adds in other references for added resonance, separates different elements of references for different purposes, and, most important, keeps ’em coming, knowing that it’s not enough to simply quote a reference for its recognition factor, anyone can do that to please a fanboy base, you then have to add something to the reference to make it part of your show, to own it. And so, Rusty finds himself held captive by Venturestein and is awoken by a rat with a human ear growing on its back – oddly, one of the few things on The Venture Bros taken directly from real life. Venturestein has not become Dr. Moreau; rather, he’s organized all the creatures of “hurt science,” all the wounded and deformed and discarded experiments of scientists just a hair more creepy than Rusty (think of that!)

(To save readers the trouble, here is Jocelyn Wildenstein – not a stein in the Venturestein sense – or is she?)

Where did Venturestein get his revolutionary ideas? From a striking sweatshop worker, from a plot point lifted from Ocean’s 13. Venturestein has “gone native,” but instead of simply regurgitating revolutionary rhetoric, he’s taken to the next step and claimed a place for himself and his brethren. So the answer to our plot question, “What does Venturestein Want?” is: “For Rusty to help him, to be a good father and help him in his quest to protect his people from the predations of science.” But Rusty can’t help Venturestein any more than he can help Dean. Family, community really, is a hollow joke to Rusty.