Adult Swim’s The Venture Bros. had an eventful life up to and including its sudden cancellation in 2018. For as long as gaps between seasons could get, it was just one of those shows that came to define the late night Cartoon Network block and also released at just the right moment. The years changed and the world changed with it, but when those seasons hit, they were something special. You could always rely on the now 20-year-old show to give you a hilarious, frequently meta time.
The newly released (and incredibly named) Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart feels as special as the show it’s spun off from. It very much functions like an eighth season and pick up right where things left off—Hank Venture (Chris McCulloch) went on the run after twin brother Dean (Michael Sinterniklaas) slept with his girlfriend, while at the same time the Monarch (McCulloch) discovered he and Rusty Venture (James Urbaniak) are brothers—and assumes you’ve either rewatched or remember those earlier events. This is a movie that understands its purpose isn’t to bring in new audiences, but to serve as a series finale for a show that very well almost didn’t have one. It only came about because then-HBO Max head Andy Forsell worked to make it happen in response to the show’s passionate fanbase, and in that regard, Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart is a satisfying end for characters that have been around (and loved) for two decades.
Despite the indicators that come with an animated series getting boosted to movie status (see: characters having shadows and a bigger-than-average scale), Radiant is playing in a similar space as one of the show’s best episodes, All This & Gargantua-2. There were several 44-minute long specials released when the show was airing, but Gargantua-2 is the best of those bunch, and felt like the testing ground for a film. (Fittingly, it also felt like a series finale in its own way, in that the characters subsequently transferred to New York for its final two seasons.) It’s best to have that special in mind while watching, as Radiant’s scope is similarly big enough to provide some good movie-length spectacle, but not so big that it feels alien or betrays the show’s television roots.
This isn’t The Bob’s Burgers Movie where it becomes a full-on musical, nor is it a Spongebob Squarepants film where live-action is suddenly incorporated. You could easily watch Radiant like i’s a set of previously unaired episodes and it would make complete sense. Even so, it can’t help but feel different. Sequences like Hank interacting with his various personas talking to him (and them bickering with each other) or a fight scene between Jefferson Twilight (Charles Parnell) against a gang of blaculas feel like flexes, in their own way. Key creatives Jackson Publick (McCulloch’s alias) and Doc Hammer (who voices Dr. Mrs. The Monarch and Henchman 21) are clearly taking advantage of the extra runtime and budget provided to them. It isn’t just that the pair give ample time to let the characters just exist in their world, and by extension get to pepper in more jokes; there are some interesting swings taken that may not have been fully realized on TV.
Publick and Hammer nailed the show’s winning formula ages ago, so the real fun has been seeing how characters bounce off each other or react to a strange new factor into their already odd lives. Outside of classic characters like Brock Samson (Patrick Warburton) and the always delightful Doctor Orpheus (Steven Rattazzi), Radiant gives most of its supporting cast enough time to remind you why they were so fun in the first place—Clancy Brown’s Red Death is as delightful as when he showed up in season six—and succeeds in making its handful of new characters equally memorable. The standout newcomer is a Nina Arianda’s supervillain Mantilla, who feels like such a natural addition to the show’s cast almost instantly when she shows up looking to recruit Monarch and 21 into her scheme. Within minutes, it’s very easy to get back on the show’s wavelength and be reminded why Venture was so beloved in the first place. It’s a credit to the show’s longevity (and the duo’s writing) that Radiant manages to feel so comfortably familiar while still managing to surprise with the character beats it goes to.
Over the years, there’ve been plenty of legacy films, each with their own varying levels of success. At their worst, these types of films can feel too in love with their subject material. But Venture Bros. has always been a little bit mean-spirited toward its characters by design, even as some of that edge was sanded down so characters could get to win. It’s always been endearing to see how much the Ventures and their entourage get shown as idiots who don’t really belong in their line of work. But it’s never been clearer than with Radiant Blood that Publick and Hammer love these characters to death, and why the show was worth fighting for in the first place.
Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart is out now digitally and will release July 25 on physical formats. Both Hulu and Max have the complete seven-season Venture Bros. series, and it’s also available on DVD.
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