Venture Bros. miscellaneous
In the pilot, I love how The Monarch has, in addition to his antennae-like eyebrows, another pair of pretend antennae on his crown. As though to say, “Look how evil I am! TWO PAIRS OF ANTENNAE!”
In the Christmas episode, it’s a true pleasure to hear James Urbaniak recite the most faithful, and yet most demented, version I’ve ever encountered of the climactic scene from A Christmas Carol. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that one of the key pleasures of this show is how it is incredibly faithful, even fannish, about its source material, while simultaneously gutting it in the most disrespectful ways.
The pilot is interesting mostly to see how the characters aren’t quite there yet, how the timing and feel of the show, its balance of elements, developed and matured over time. Given the rapid rise in quality from the pilot to the first episode, I can’t wait to see what happens in Season 2.
The Christmas episode is so packed with incident and ideas, presented at such a breathless pace, it almost makes me wish more shows were done in 11-minute segments, like Spongebob is. Maybe there could be more 11-minute Venture Bros. pieces, ideas that are funny but won’t sustain a 23-minute narrative.
Worth it for the “Tiny Joseph” character, and the moment when Hank says “Uh-oh, baby Jesus is out of the manger!” and Brock habitually checks his fly.
I was sad to see Baron Unterbheit kill off his henchmen with the Tiger Bombs. I really wanted to see the further adventures of Cat Cyclops, Girl Hitler and Manic 8-Ball.
Well, Girl Hitler pretty much ran out of juice as far as I was concerned… But Manic 8-Ball had some potential.
And I agree with you about almost everything re: the pilot. I actually really like the Monarch in the Pilot. He doesn’t seem to shoot anyone anymore… Brock got soooo much better overtime, his eye-twitch thingy was a little overdone in my humble opinion. And where are the cut-offs?? I don’t remember seeing them outside the pilot! They’re integral to his character!
The boys are just the same, locked in Questworld. I’m glad they dropped the man-crush Rusty had on Brock; I don’t think it really added much, it just made this awkward. Oh, and Dr. Girlfriend’s voice is much better later. I believe they switched actors, if I’m not mistaken. Oh, and one more thing- the idea that Rusty would have NO idea that the U-Ray was a weapon? C’mon. I’m glad they made him a little snarkier, a little more bitter in the series. He’s still naive in a lot of ways (see: Midlife Chrysalis), but he’s certainly not as bizarrely ignorant as he was in the pilot.
The Girls from Brazil
Catclops! I love Catclops! And you know he could have survived by sympathizing with one of the tigers or something.
And I’m sure there are clones of Girl Hitler around. The Mauve Cranium is probably whipping up a batch as we speak.
Thank you for your kind words. My overriding influence in the Christmas Carol sequence was, of course, Alistair Sim, who in the climax of his film version really does go balls-to-the-wall batshit crazy. Fun fact: I recorded the Christmas episode in London with Jackson Publick phone-patched in from New York.
For a greater Dickensian feel, no doubt. Man, you method actors!
For make it really Dickensian, it was all recorded 20 seconds at a time over a period of several months.
Worth it for the “Tiny Joseph” character
And for inspiring the ASMB and PRoV’s own Tiny Joseph.
I think you’re the first fan to think the show would be better in a 15 minute frame.
Not at all. I just liked the breakneck pace of the Christmas episode and thought perhaps, if the idea warranted the treatment, that it might be fun to see more episodes like that. I can’t think of another episode that I would want to truncate like that. I will also say that the Christmas episode, even though it cops out with a “dream within a dream within a dream” structure, was still totally satisfying as a Venture Bros. adventure.
I liked that too, but in the same sense the episode began to miss the indepth Chris Warian sadness that the other ones have, it became like Harvey Birdman [which is no way a bad thing]. The Venture Brothers have the richest history of all and any of Adult Swim’s original [and purchased programming] so seeing little moments in life, maybe that fight at the movie theatre or, as it was here, The Christmas Party that Doc Venture, as a realistic sad human being, must throw as a certain of some kind of aristocratic existence…
Funny thing is Mike Lazzo, head of CN, after seeing the orignal script for the pilot wanted to make it 15 minutes long [the new pilot, the one on the DVD, convinced him otherwise]. [Shahh..]
Wandering in from Mr. Urbaniak’s page…
Thought you would dig this…
Re: Wandering in from Mr. Urbaniak’s page…
Who wouldn’t enjoy watching James Urbaniak eternally fucked up the ass by a scarlet-tongued demon?
you may get your wish…
Those backup villains you like may just come back in style… check out the new Love-Bheit episode!
Re: you may get your wish…
Thanks for the tip!