The Venture Bros. Movie Is The Perfect Ending To A Series Too Good For This World
(Welcome to Animation Celebration, a recurring feature where we explore the limitless possibilities of animation as a medium. In this edition: "The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart.")
Adult Swim has always felt like a safe haven for the weirdos of the world, a network willing to let absurdist geniuses like Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim run wild and subvert classic cartoons for a new generation no matter how bizarre things would turn out. Plenty of shows have come and gone since the channel's launch in 2001, but for the last 20 years, there has remained a constant presence that captures the heart of what makes Adult Swim such a vital network for creativity — "The Venture Bros." Created By Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick (Eric Hammer and Christopher McCulloch), "The Venture Bros." started out as a satire on the boy adventurer and Space Age adventure cartoons prevalent in the early 1960s like "Jonny Quest," following a trend set by "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" and "Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law." But it quickly became obvious that "The Venture Bros." was so much more than just a subversion of something that came before.
The series follows the triumphs and misadventures of the Venture family and their many associates, led by patriarch Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (James Urbaniak), a deeply-traumatized former boy adventurer who has dedicated himself to a life of egomaniacal science as a means of avoiding his own problems. Dr. Venture has two sons, Hank and Dean (McCulloch, Michael Sinterniklaas), fraternal twins greatly inspired by the Hardy Boys. Rounding out their family is not a mother figure, but the hulking hoss Brock Samson (Patrick Warburton) the family's ultra-macho bodyguard appointed by the Office of Secret Intelligence (OSI) to protect the family.
On paper, "The Venture Bros." premise sounds like something that would stale faster than a loaf of bread left out in the desert, but in practice, it's one of the most remarkable feats of animation in TV history.
A show that grows
I've lost track of how many times I've rewatched "The Venture Bros." at this point, but something that has always impressed me with every rewatch is how the humor evolved with the times. When the show debuted in the early 2000s, it was a reflection of the offensive, edgelord humor of the era that contemporary voices love to pretend wasn't the required status quo. Despite the show's 20-year run, there are only seven seasons, meaning there was a lot of waiting between new seasons. This also gave the show plenty of time to mature, with many of the most poorly-aged bits acknowledged and repaired as the world changed along with the show. In the same way critics and audiences alike have hailed a series like "South Park" for retconning their most harmful gags, "The Venture Bros." has been quietly doing the same canonically through its storytelling.
It's not only a testament to the brilliance of Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick, but a comforting reminder to the Gen Xers and Millennials who grew up along with the series. We too are not confined by our season 1 and 2 missteps, and if given the space to grow, can progress into something wonderful. "The Venture Bros." had originally been renewed for an eighth season, but after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, Adult Swim canceled the series, leaving fans devastated.
Fortunately, a savior appeared in the form of "The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart," a direct-to-VOD film serving as the farewell to the series and its many dangling plot threads. Pairing down a full season of animation to less than an hour and a half still feels like a complete slap in the face to all of those who have kept "The Venture Bros." running for two decades, but fortunately, the film provides a satisfying conclusion that cements the series' legacy as an all-time great.
A movie playing by its own rules
If there's anything to knock against "The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart," it's that this movie truly doesn't give a flying rat's ass about accommodating freshman viewers. I don't doubt that there are those who will still enjoy the film as a standalone feature, but this isn't a movie trying to appeal to the masses. No, this is a film interested in bringing years of "The Venture Bros." full circle, and ensuring the characters in crisis are given a resolution, whatever it may mean for them — emphasis on "for them." This isn't "Avengers: Endgame" for Team Venture, but rather the movie that these characters need it to be.
Given the crunch for time, "Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart" moves with an urgency that immediately raises the stakes for the conflicts, decades of lore, interpersonal dramas, and unresolved plot twists. With every passing minute, it's hard not to get wrapped up in thinking "How the hell are they going to pull this off?" But then they do, with all of the nonsensical delight and empathy the show has always brought in between sharp wordplay, endless pop culture parodies, and high-octane action.
"The Venture Bros." has always been a series about people failing, and in particular, the failure of men plagued by the patriarchal insecurities put upon them by the adventure genre and the male archetypes that exist within. "Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart" is a vibrant look at what happens to these characters when they finally experience a little bit of success, even if success is just finally accepting a truth you've been avoiding for 20 years, or allowing yourself to forgive.
A reward for dedicated viewers
Shows like "The Simpsons," "South Park," "Arthur," and "Family Guy" have been on the air longer than "The Venture Bros." and new faces like "Bob's Burgers" have certainly been more consistent with their output, but "The Venture Bros." is an anomaly in serialized western animation, because of its deep character development. They age, they change, and there are ramifications for their decisions and actions that aren't wiped away after every episode. As a viewer, we are rewarded by "The Venture Bros." for staying along for the ride and not giving up on them. "Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart" is the perfect ending to the series because it doesn't actually feel like the end. We may be done watching them, but the film ends with a sense that these characters are not done growing or evolving, they're just entering a new era. We're getting the chance to see a new direction for all of them to take, and the lack of finality while still being a finale is incredibly rewarding.
And yet, I can't help but feel heartbroken that this might actually be the end. I was only 13 years old when the show debuted and much of my sense of humor and appreciation for subversion was forged by watching episodes on a 13" Magnavox in my bedroom instead of doing my homework. Because of the cult status of the show, dropping a reference to Henchman 21 (or Gary, if we're being formal) was a way to find "my people" in new surroundings. Hell, a love of the show (and a particular fondness for Dr. Mrs. The Monarch) was one of the first "a-ha" moments my now-wife and I shared during our early days of dating. "The Venture Bros." was too good for this world, because it wasn't afraid of admitting how broken and messy we, like the characters, all are.
Now make a 'V' with your fingers
I am fully aware of how absolutely ridiculous I sound as a 33-year-old woman crying over the end of an animated TV show where characters have names like "Molotov Cocktease" and "Billy Quizboy," but the circumstances surrounding the end of "The Venture Bros." is downright infuriating. Season 8 being canceled in the midst of writing is abhorrent, especially considering two people write, direct, voice, storyboard, produce, and edit every episode. The team behind "The Venture Bros." is small but mighty, with a remarkable dedication to the craft. As streamers and studios continue to devalue the work of animation despite it flourishing at the box office while overinflated blockbusters flounder into four-quadrant appeasement attempt mediocrity, it's an even bigger slap in the face to a boldly unique and unbelievably intelligent show like "The Venture Bros."
The core mystery of "Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart" is one of family, and its revelations confirm something many of us have always known — family is what you make it. Sometimes family is a cynical, self-important super-scientist with two daffy twin boys who can't stay out of trouble and their half-Swedish, one-quarter Polish, one-quarter Winnebago murder machine of a bodyguard/nanny. Sometimes family is a supervillain with an army of henchmen dressed like butterflies and a raspy-voiced wife who can hotwire anything while dressed like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. And sometimes family is a legion of weirdos spanning generations and continents bound by a shared love of a silly cartoon.
Go. Team. Venture.