The Venture Bros. – The Complete Series DVD review
Jun 15, 2023- Permalink
Warner Brothers has just released The Venture Bros. – The Complete Series on DVD. This Adult Swim animated series premiered in 2004 and ran for seven seasons. The final season of the 82 episode run ended in 2018, and it was announced that work on a eighth season ended when the show was cancelled in 2020. For the uninitiated, the show follows the lives of fraternal twins Hank and Dean Venture and their super-scientist dad Dr. Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture as they deal with their supervillain nemesis, The Monarch. The WB likes disclaimers, so here goes: Though Warner Brothers provided me with a copy of this release to review, the thoughts and opinions below are mine.
The 480p DVD release is a bit of a shame, considering the last five seasons had been released on Blu-ray and it would have been nice to have a complete Blu-ray set. A Blu-ray would have added some extra punch to the clarity and colour reproduction, but with 82 half-hour episodes, 4 specials and bonus features spread over 14 discs, the video has some room to breathe, so we’re not dealing with much in the way of compression artifacts. It’s a good looking DVD.
On the audio side of things, the first season has an English Dolby Digital 2.0 track, while the remaining seasons are Dolby Digital 5.1. English, French and Spanish subtitles are available for seasons 1 and 2, with English SDH for seasons 3-7. The 5.1 track is quite pleasing, with some nice action in the surrounds and some extra oomph in the low-end. The score is dynamic and the dialogue is clear and overall it’s a good DVD audio presentation.
As mentioned, The Venture Bros. – The Complete Series is spread over 14 DVD discs. There is no digital code. The discs are loaded with bonus features like the four specials, deleted scenes, episode commentaries, promos and other fun bits.
Though it would have been great to see a Blu-ray presentation, The Venture Bros. – The Complete Series on DVD does have very good sound and video and a nice collection of extras. If you’re a fan of the series, or of adult animation in general, this set will be up your alley.