The Mantis-Eye Experiment

And other information you might learn from the DVDs! After entirely too much commentary track listening and extra-feature watching, I've completed my review of the season one DVD complete with screengrabs. As you might expect from a Venture Bros. fansite, I give the Venture Bros. DVD a favorable review. All in all it's a steal considering how much you get for a mere $20 - $30, and well worth picking up.

In my continuing coverage of DVD day, I've noticed that it's currently ranked #8 on Amazon's best selling DVDs. Very good sign, though it is losing to Charmed. Let's at least get ahead of that, people!

Update (4:23pm EST) - It's now at #6. Good job! Keep it up!

Update (12:49am EST) - Seems to have topped out at #4.

So, it's DVD day! And in celebration of the season one DVD and season two starting up in less than a month, I've redone the site yet again! Lots of changes, as you can see. I've switched to an entirely new news/update engine which is a lot easier to manage and far less sloppy. You probably won't notice too much from your side of things though.

I've done away with user accounts as well. Sorry if that upsets you, but they weren't super popular anyway, and really added no benefit. The new comments are simple and you just enter a username and optional URL and post away. The guidelines remain the same, so behave! Comments have also been reset for now. I still have all your old ones, but I'm not going transfer them over just yet. Maybe in the future though.

Aside from that, there are still some kinks to work out here and there, but everything seems to be in working order, so enjoy! I'll have more on the DVD later today (tomorrow). Also I hope you've noticed the promos for season two AS has been airing. Looking pretty good.

On this lovely Memorial Day weekend (if you're in the US), you may want to check out this interview with Jackson Publick, aka Christopher McCulloch (that should probably be the other way around, but whatever). He touches on various happenings with the show and various tidbits like where the name Jackson Publick comes from (answer: nowhere, really) and some of what's happening in season two. Interesting interview, for sure. What would I do without James Urbaniak's LiveJournal telling me where these things were? I can't answer that, my friends.

How about a DVD review? Not from me, because I don't have an advanced copy (I figure if I complain enough eventually I'll get my way... probably not though), but over at DVD Talk there's a very comprehensive review of the upcoming season one DVD. One of the parts I'm interested in is the commentary tracks (since I've seen every episode a billion times), which will appear on episodes 104, 106, 108, 111 and the pilot. As far as other extras, we get a twenty-minute movie entitled Behind The Scenes Of The Live-Action Movie, which is the voice actors discussing how they were cast in a fictional live-action Venture Bros. film. So there you go, looks like it's going to be pretty cool. I'll have a review of it up next week of course, after I pick it up. Many thanks to Jeff for informing me of this.

Figures. I make my usual rounds, then decide on a generic update, and then about an hour later Jackson updates. More pictures of course, including another panorama with various character models and a very excellent looking background. As far as production goes, everything is now in post, so things are looking good. Go read the rest of the update at his livejournal and rejoice.

On sale now! Well, in less than a week anyway, you could have season one in your grubby mitts. Here's some pricing and such:

$20.99 at Amazon.com
$24.99 at Best Buy
$22.63 at Walmart
$24.99 at Circuit City
$25.37 at Buy.com
$23.58 at Deep Discount DVD

The DVD of course contains all the episodes from season one as well as the pilot and Christmas special. A few episodes (I don't know how many right now) will also have commentary from Jackson/Chris and Doc. Along with that there will be deleted scenes and various goofy shorts like the one on AS Fix last week. I might also be running a small contest to give a lucky reader the DVD, but I'm not sure yet. Maybe if someone at AS wants to send me a free copy to give away, hint, hint is anyone reading this?! I'm the fifth result on a Google search for 'venture bros' and I get 500 hits a day on average! Come on people, hook a brother whitey up! Okay that's all.

I'm in Washington, DC on a business trip (there's something I never thought I'd say), but I still have a little bit of time for you guys! If you want to check out a sneak preview from the upcoming season one DVD, look no further than Adult Swim Fix which has a five minute feature that, uh, features Jackson and Michael Sinterniklaas in leotards. Yeah, I don't know either. Still, it's a funny feature and if the rest of the stuff on the DVD is of this quality then we're all in for a treat. And hey, less than ten days to go!

Hey kids, it's mailbag time! This is a mostly filler update where I answer (or just make fun of) all the e-mails I've gotten in the last long time that I've mostly neglected to answer, though I do read them all, I swear. Let's get started!

First we have the response from bill tim (not his real name) after I posted his angry e-mail sent to me when I shifted the site to a 12 oz. Mouse focus on April 1st. He's an okay guy after all!

Man that was a good joke. Had me fooled. I would
have responded sooner but i was pretty pissed off that
the best venture brothers site out there had changed.
I hadn't been back to the site since then. As soon as
i saw that the site was the same when i came back i
said "Shit". And when i read that you posted my email
my exact words were "I guess i'm the dumbass?" Well
that was a good April fools joke. Keep up the good
work with the site. I can barely type this email with
the amount of egg on my face. Man you got me good.

A fan
Bill Tim(not real name) aka. Real Dumbass

Aww now, Bill, don't be so hard on yourself. These things happen to the best of us! Next we have an inquiry from one 'Vincent Volpe' (which may or may not be his real name, it is a mystery!):

Are Hank and Dean really clones made form genetic material obtained from Dr.Ventrue and Brock because there is no mention of their mother or if they were adopted. Please email back when available, thank you.

Well Vincent, since I'm not a writer for the show (in fact I don't have any involvement with the show at all, aside from being a fan) I can't tell you for sure. That's one of the most popular theories on the boys, and certainly can be supported with lines from various episodes. There are many other possibilities of course, but the clone angle seems like the most obvious one. We'll find out in season two for sure though! Next up we have some e-mail all the way from Sweden via a fellow named Bjorn Rudolfsson:

Hey,

I just recently saw the series and have become a huge fan of it! I found my way to your site when I was searching for info on season two and I'm glad your site could enlighten me on that. Anyways, since you seem to be well connected and informed on the Venture Bros, I figured I should direct a question I had to you - In the first episode (Dia De Los Dangerous), the Monarch curses about Brock Samson, calling him Dr.Venture's Swedish killing machine. Got any info on that whole swedish bit, cause I'm dying to know, being a swede myself and all?

Thanks for a great site!

The heritage of Brock Samson is unknown at this point, but I think it's safe to assume that if he's not really Swedish, calling him as such by the Monarch is an understandable stab at his stature and follicle coloring, since Swedes are often stereotyped as being large, buff and blond. We may find out Brock's background in season two though! Thanks, Bjorn!

Steve Takata sent me an excellent e-mail with many facts that I will hopefully get around to adding to the site some day (if I haven't done so already), but he ended his very informative e-mail with a question:

BTW, how do you know that that Dr. Venture says "Get their clothes" and not "Get their clones?" I'm sure you're right but I was curious about how you arrived at such a definitive conclusion.

Well, Steve, I know this because Jackson Publick, head writer and creator of the Venture Bros. wrote that very line as the headline on his LiveJournal entry on that episode after it aired. Also if you listen very carefully, there is no distinct 'l' sound in that line. You perhaps want to hear the word 'clones', because on some sort of subconscious level you know the boys were clones, perhaps. Maybe. Next we have a question from the enigmatic 'Swanky~Tuna':

I was wondering, do you know what song is playing when Brock is hosing down the X-1? I hunted through the Foetus and Steriod Maximus song samples on cduniverse but didn't seem to have any luck. Would you happen to know?

Unfortunately I do not, since I am not that familiar with the works of Foetus. If you are talking about the pilot episode, then you will have to continue to scour his CDs. If, however, you are talking about the episode Ice Station, Impossible!, that would be an original tune not available on any of JG Thirwell's CDs, since all the music composed for the series is original. Next question comes from Anthony D'Andrea:

I am looking for DVD’s with no luck. Dude this cartoon is god dam funny! They need to show Brock freaking out more. The one episode were he beats the sh#@ out of the little bee guy was so F-ing funny. I have a brother in Iraq and I know this show will get the guys rolling over their. He requested me to send funny DVD’s and this was the first show that came to mind. Were can I get the DVD’s?

Well, if you notice at the top of the front page there's a DVD countdown. The DVDs for season one will be released on May 30th, so you can pick them up then. However you can of course buy bootleg DVDs with sub-par quality episodes (ripped from TV viewings, and almost certain to contain the Adult Swim or Cartoon Network watermark) off eBay if you must. However, I'd recommend just waiting for the official DVDs since they will also contain some excellent art and great extras along with the always hilarious episodes.

That's all the e-mail I have for today. And once again many thanks to anyone who sent in any useful tidbits of information. I try to add them to the site when I remember to, but I don't usually reply to the e-mails (though I do once in a while), so chances are, if you sent me in some neat facts or info I've already added it to the capsules and you just didn't notice (or you already did, perhaps). Until next time, enjoy! And don't forget to watch the show every 10pm EST on Sunday night!