While the episode keeps up with the series' ADHD-fueled channel surfing style, there is a lot more continuity this time. Where most episodes will have one or two skits that come together to tell an overarching story for the episode, almost everything in Villains in Paradise follows the super villains and why they decide to go to the beach for a bit of much deserved vacation.
Lex Luthor (Alfred Molina, Spider-Man 2) brings his daughter Lena (Sarah Hyland, Modern Family) to the Hall of Doom for her spring break. Instead of letting her hang out with her new boyfriend, Lex has her working at the local Starbucks. When she skips out on this job and makes her way to the beach, Lex takes the Hall of Doom, and all of the super villains in it, to find her.
Oddly enough, while Lena and her new boyfriend are a major catalyst for this special, the character that seems to really grow the most is Gorilla Grodd (Clancy Brown), as he is truly inspired by Lena's quest for independence.
Scattered throughout this plot are snippets including Superman (Breckin Meyer) introducing his "clone" Superboy (Zac Efron) to the rest of the JLA and another where Batman (Seth Green) is tired of flying around in Green Lantern's (Nathan Fillion) bubble. Oddly enough, this special also features three lengthy musical numbers, one featuring a young Lex Luthor in a hair band, another is the result of the aforementioned Batman/Green Lantern conversation, and a third that's a parody of "Summer Nights" from Grease.
Rounding out Robot Chicken DC Comics Special II: Villains in Paradise's cast is Alex Borstein returning as Wonder Woman, Paul Reubens as The Riddler, Giovanni Ribisi as both The Joker and Two-Face, Tara Strong briefly as Harley Quinn and Green filling in the gaps as Robin, The Nerd, Scarecrow, Darkseid, Dr. Fate, Jimmy Olsen, Aquaman, Clayface, The Penguin and well, apparently whoever else they couldn't get to put another voice behind.
Much like the first DC Special, picking up this DVD for a single half-hour episode of a show (even if that show is normally much shorter), feels like a bit of a waste, but Villains in Paradise comes with quite a few special features. The DVD comes with an actors' and writers' commentary, as well as the show's unique Chicken Nuggets feature. In this, a Robot Chicken icon appears on the screen. If you click a button on your remote while this is on-screen, then the show will pause and you will get a bit of additional commentary about the scene. This stretches the 22 minute episode into something far longer if you decide to pause and listen to every single comment by Green, Matthew Senreich and Geoff Johns, Chief Creative Officer at DC Entertainment.
The extras also included a short making-of and a behind the scenes look at what went into making another DC special. There are also interviews with the writers as they talk about getting skits voted out of the show and also the animatics and sketches that were cut out. Another amusing special feature is 20 Questions where the show's writers and Geoff Johns are asked a series of questions about the DC Universe. All of the extras are a treat and really help to make this disc more than just a half-hour DVD.
