James Urbaniak-related stories
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 1:46PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E06) This episode was a rare star-studded treat for
Venture Bros. Really honing in on the idea of adult aftermath in the lives of boy adventurer types, Jackson Publick introduced a robot boy, boy detective brothers (Seth Green and John Hodgman), former Wonder Boy (Patton Oswalt) and the return of Action Johnny (Brendon Small). Never before have so many guest voices (okay, four) been crammed into an installment, bringing the entire audience to an immediate nerdgasm.
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - Self-Medication
Posted Nov 16th 2009 12:41PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E05) This episode was certainly a surprise in many respects. It was one of the funnier installments of the season so far. It also brought back a lot of old themes and cleared up some incomplete storylines that had started to gather dust. On one hand, I'm glad that those have been resolved, because most of them were revealed to be kind of irrelevant anyway, but I also felt as though it was rushed, like, five loose ends from old major arcs had to be hastily tied up in twenty-some minutes. Well, it's better than continuing to string us along, right?
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - The Revenge Society
Posted Nov 9th 2009 12:40PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E04) It's enough to make you stop believing when tears come fast and furious, in a
town called Malice. Yeah. I totally just made that up. Right now. Free words of wisdom, from me to you.
This episode wasn't spectacular for the purposes of laughing-out-loud. It was funny in a few moments, yes, but I spent most of the twenty-some minutes resting my chin on my fist, brow furrowed with concern. All the characters are going through some heavy stuff right now, and that inner turmoil, dealing with loss and identity and love, came bubbling to the surface in this episode. Doing so, again, isn't much of a gut-buster, but it makes for beautiful character development. Can you tell I have faith in this show? Maybe a little too much.
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - Return to Malice
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 8:35AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews
(S04E03) I swear to you, dear reader, that I do my best to stay somewhat objective when reviewing
The Venture Bros. It's tough, though, when the writers keep knocking them out of the park like this. We're only a few episodes in, but I'm already enjoying things more than I did with season three, and it's not just because this episode had mind-blowing prog rock and UPS guys with the Shining.
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - Perchance to Dean
Posted Oct 26th 2009 12:08PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E02) First things first. If you are not a connoisseur of '90s superhero cartoons or a huge nerd that has been closely following
Venture Bros. news all the way through production, you may have missed out on the full "Handsome Ransom" experience. That is not to say the unaware couldn't have a good time, but things were made ten times funnier if a viewer knew that the not-so-pure Captain Sunshine was voiced by Kevin Conroy, aka Batman.
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - Handsome Ransom
Posted Oct 19th 2009 1:37PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E01) Is it going too far calling
Venture Bros. the
Lost of animated shows? Because, especially when one compares it to other programs in the [adult swim] line-up, it definitely is. While shows like
Robot Chicken are custom-tailored for short attention spans (which isn't necessarily a bad thing),
VB does a beautiful job of rewarding the loyal who take time to learn and love the show.
You know how else it's also kind of like
Lost? It's really damn confusing sometimes. It wasn't until the very end of the premiere, when bits of my brain were coming out my ears, that I finally managed to put most of the story together in my head, though I knew I would have to watch it at least once to more to seriously understand. I see what you did there, Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick. Real sneaky.
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - Blood of the Father, Heart of Steel (season premiere)
Posted May 15th 2009 5:03PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Reality-Free
On Sunday night/Monday morning, [adult swim] premiered something called
Snake 'N' Bacon. What is
Snake 'N' Bacon? Well, I'm not entirely sure, actually. But I liked it. I think. Yes. Actually, I really liked it.
Like most [as] shows,
Snake 'N' Bacon is a fifteen minute program with its own distinct aesthetic, presenting an interesting mix of animated sequences with live-action bits. I never thought there would be a way to translate creator
Michael Kupperman's stuff on the small screen, but there we go. Weird, extra-funny, weird.
Continue reading Have you experienced Snake 'N' Bacon?
Posted Aug 25th 2008 8:42AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E13) It feels like the third season started only yesterday, but it's over, kids. Even though it didn't end with a massive cliff-hanger like in previous seasons, it certainly went out with a bang. Because the lovely, creative people that make this wonderful show can feel our pain in waiting, Season Four is already in production and actors will be recording next month. Calm yourselves. If you're still looking for goodness to get your fix, check out our
VB-related posts.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together (Part II) (season finale)
Posted Aug 17th 2008 11:55PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E12) Firstly, a bit of news. Both Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick, as opposed to a solo Doc, will be attending this year's
Dragon*Con in Georgia, so go see them if you can. Secondly, the guys have done a
video commentary for "ORB" and you can watch it on Adult Swim's website. Not as many off-topic ramblings that we know and love in this one, so if you miss irrelevance and mimed nunchuck skills, revisit the old
"The Buddy System" commentary. And last but not least... This week's episode premiered on the Adult Swim Fix as usual, but this time there's actually bonus footage that was not included in the televised version. It's pretty self-contained, but definitely worth a watch. I've embedded it here, to save you that exhausting trip across teh internetz.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together (Part I) - VIDEO
Posted Aug 11th 2008 1:41PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E11) We haven't seen the entire Venture family really buckle down and do some hardcore adventuring since last season's "Twenty Years to Midnight". This was more of a
Da Vinci Code-esque adventure though, in the sense that it also involved mysterious paintings, secret codes, and weird albinos. This was one of the best episodes of the season, finally setting us on the right path to understanding many of the strange revelations from the flashbacks. Plus, it has set the perfect tone for our inevitably epic two-part season finale, starting next week.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: ORB
Posted Aug 4th 2008 9:23AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E10) The world of heroes and villains has a long, intricate history and with that comes lots and lots of cliches. Like, I mean, a lot of cliches. It was cool to see the show take on itself, making fun of things from invulnerable redshirts to protagonist/antagonist banter. Plus, we got to see giant robots and death rays, so all in all, it was a good day had by all. Also, "The Lepidopterists" pulled us back to the post-credits clip from "
Tears of a Sea Cow". So, in case you're confused, all this took place
after the Museum party and that's why there was no mention of the Monarch in the last episode. Got it? Good.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: The Lepidopterists
Posted Jul 28th 2008 9:22AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E09) This was a real treat for all of those that love some old-school Team Venture action ("Action, action, action!"). In this episode, we found past and present protagonists and antagonists meeting for the first time in decades. The action-packed cold open featured Jonas Venture, Sr. as a terribly unconvincing Asian stereotype sporting a nipple on his face. You know,
that same old story. Of course, this far-fetched disguise was just another part of the Team's plan to bring down Scaramantula and his Fraternity of Torment, a sort of a not quite as impressive Guild of Calamitous Intent boasting the powers of Brainulo and a young Manotaur.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: Now Museum -- Now You Don't! - VIDEO
Posted Jul 14th 2008 1:24AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E07) Now,
that was a
Venture Bros. episode. In fact, throw the cake and eat some confetti, because I think I may have a new addition to my top five favorite episodes. After my less-than-confident review of last week's episode, "
Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman", this was a very pleasant surprise. The episode didn't have any real ties to previous ones, but we got the chance to explore yet another part of the compound and some dark secrets of the original Team Venture.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: What Goes Down, Must Come Up - VIDEO
Posted Jul 6th 2008 11:58PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E06) I'm not sure what I just watched, and I'm not sure if I liked it. I recently realized that my anticipation from week to week has been less about looking forward to another episode and more about waiting for something as awesome as "
Escape to the House of Mummies, Part II" or "
Twenty Years To Midnight" to come along. The show is still amazing and all, but it's not packing the same punch as before. Last season, I had a new favorite just about every week, but this time around, I have to watch the episodes multiple times before I really like it. It's like I've built up a tolerance to
The Venture Bros. Soon, I'll have to cop four or five viewings a week, just to get that same high.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman
Posted Jul 3rd 2008 12:03PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
Once again proving that I will listen to any nonsense Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer spit, I fought crippling 3AM sleepiness just to get through
this commentary (hidden under the "Extras" buttons) for the latest
Venture Bros. episode, "
The Buddy System". That's right, no need to wait for the Season Three DVD to come out, because you can learn about Doc and Jackson's thoughts on above ground pools
right now. Best of all, it's video, so we feel the full impact of their wildly off-topic conversations and also get to admire how these two look more like rock stars than the minds behind
Metalocalypse. Compared to their DVD commentaries, though, they managed to offer quite a bit of episode-specific information.
Continue reading Why wait? Get Venture Bros. commentary now!
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