Review: Venture Bros. ‘Momma’s Boys’

This week on the Venture Bros., “Momma’s Boys” takes us on a bit of a departure from the typical Ventures vs. Villains fare by concentrating on something a little more family.  This time, the kids are trying to get away from their oppressive dad and end up getting into a bit of trouble for their efforts.

Hank and Dermott, in an effort to get more time to themselves, play a nasty trick on Doctor Venture, phoning him up and occupying his time by having him talk to a Teddy Ruxpin doll.  Of course, in typical brain-dead Venture fashion, the good Doc believes that he has a friend and, when he can’t return the calls to his friend, believes that friend has been kidnapped.  So he heads out, with the help of Hatred, to find and rescue his Teddy buddy.

In order to calm dad down and still avoid getting busted, Hank and Dermott recruit 21/Gary and track down the guy who did the original Teddy Ruxpin voice.  The guy, naturally, went insane at some point during his life and ended up in a mental asylum.  So it’s up to Team Sort-of-Venture to break into the asylum.  Their plan?  Act like insane villains and get arrested and committed.  While Hank and Gary pull it off, Dermott and H.E.L.P.R. (who was assisting them) only manage to get thrown in real jail.

Unfortunately, the asylum also happens to be home to Hank and Dean’s wanna-be mommy.  She’s still crazy as hell and now she’s managed to recruit all the resident crazy villains into her Momma’s Boys cadre.  Enter Dean, who has been talking to mom on the phone and is now visiting her.  His plan also goes awry and he gets kidnapped by mom, her intent to cram him back into the womb so she can give birth to him.  Ick.

In the end, we get the amazingly anticipated (yet not incredibly glorious) return of none-other-than Doctor Orpheus.  He shows us to save Dermott and H.E.L.P.R., Hank and Gary save Dean from crazy mom and Teddy Ruxpin voice guy makes a fateful journey to save Doctor Venture and Hatred from their own impending doom.  All-in-all, a good day for the Venture family.

With this latest, it feels like the season is getting better and better.  It was nice to see them pick up something different, something that was clever and funny while not resorting to the usual format.  And, of course, Orpheus coming back was awesome.  Now he needs his own episode, please.

To check out some Venture Bros. action, head over to the Adult Swim website.

Momma’s Boys courtesy of denofgeek.com