Sunday, October 28, 2012

"A Very Venture Halloween": First Look at The Venture Bros Season 5

Venture Bros. fanatics will finally get a show fix to tide us over for the time being. At 11:30 pm ET, Adult Swim will air The Venture Bros. half-hour special “A Very Venture Halloween.” Two different previews of the special have been released (see below). In one of the previews, Hank Venture wears his sunglasses at night and Dermott Fictel is done up in makeup based one way or another on The Crow. (Dermott might say his makeup was black metal or maybe even intended to look like the pro wrestler Sting). Together with a sullen Dean Venture, the three investigate a spooky house on the Venture compound. The other preview features Dr. Venture, Sergeant Hatred, Pete White in a Ziggy Stardust costume, and Billy Quizboy dressed as an unconvincing Rusty Venture sitting in the compound’s surveillance room placing wagers on how far trick-or-treaters can make it onto the estate’s grounds without setting off the deadly security system. Alongside the usual voice talents, J. K. Simmons provide the voice of a geneticist for the first new episode of The Venture Bros.in 14 months.

On August 28, 2011, The Venture Bros. special “From the Ladle to the Grave: The Story of Shallow Gravy” gave fans some of the characters and the nerdy popular culture humor we love, but the special wasn’t entirely significant to the show’s storyline. The last time an episode aired that advanced The Venture Bros. narrative was the fourth season finale on November 21, 2010. That was almost two years ago! And despite the long wait, most Venture Bros. fans haven’t found much reason to complain. The Venture Bros. wasn’t put on a network hiatus, nor was the show being retooled. Fans of the critically-praised Adult Swim cartoon have learned to be patient in waiting for new episodes of the series. Fans know that when series creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer take their time producing the show, the end product is extremely high quality episodes. After all, it took a year and a half from the time the show’s pilot aired for the first season of The Venture Bros. to begin.

 

When the fifth season premieres in early 2013, it will pick up where season 4 left off, beginning--in the timeline of the show--before The Halloween Special. The fifth season will feature ten episodes; the Halloween special counts as one episode and the hour-long season premiere counts as two. The remaining seven episodes will be 30 minutes each.

A clip from a fifth season episode played during The Venture Bros. panel at New York Comic Con 2012. The clip features a flashback scene with Jonas Venture Sr. and the original Team Venture in Greece preparing to go to the Kennedy-Onassis wedding. As is typical of these types of flashbacks in Venture Bros., a young Rusty Venture is pretending to be an adventurer like his dad and Jonas Sr. is dismissive of Rusty’s shenanigans.

Also during that same panel discussion at New York Comic Con a sizzle reel for season 5 was shown. The reel was introduced by Colonel Hunter Gathers in his usual tone: a no nonsense bark that is a mix between R. Lee Ermey and Hunter S. Thompson. The predominantly voiceless video features Henchman 21 dressed in a S.P.H.I.N.X. costume using his butterfly wings to hijack a truck; Sgt. Hatred--sporting a large pair of breasts--seemingly saving the Doc from a group of kidnappers; Dr. Orpheus standing inside a glyph surrounded by various characters with magical powers including Jefferson Twilight, The Alchemist, Orpheus’s ex-wife Tatiana and her new husband the OutRider; someone opening a bathroom stall to find Brock in his underwear standing between the legs of a large robot; Jonas Venture Sr. sword-fighting with L. Ron Hubbard’s robotic avatar; Dean dressed as Dracula rising from his learning bed; The Monarch about to perform dental work on Dr. Venture; Tim-Tom in the Monarch’s throne; Captain Sunshine and Wonder Boy; and numerous other snippets.

As the Venture Bros. panel drew to a close, Doc Hammer summed up just why the upcoming Halloween special is so awesome. “You know what’s better than all this crap?” Hammer asked. “There’s actual Venture Brothers. Like soon.”

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