From the Cover

Get ready as Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber and the rest of the Veggie gang set sail on a whale of an adventure in Jonah, Big Idea’s first full-length, 3-D animated, feature film.  Filled with music, laughs and some of the silliest adventurers ever to be swallowed while, this is the story of Jonah and the whale as you’ve never seen it before– a story where everyone learns that one of the best gifts you can give– or get– is a second chance.

This movie is made up of two separate plot lines.  Rather than trying to cover both of them in sequence, I’m going to cover the plot lines separately.  Hopefully this makes sense.

Bob, Junior, Laura, and the Here and Now

The setup for the Bible story is a couple of fights that are going on in the van that Bob the Tomato is driving on the way to the Twippo concert.  In the midst of singing a song, Mr. Asparagus breaks the steering wheel off of the car because Bob’s looking at a map– and they end up off the road after a porcupine shoots out one of their tires.  In all the commotion, Laura the Carrot loses her backstage pass out the window.

When they all show up at a fish restaurant trying to find a way to still get to the concert– Junior and Laura are still fighting and Bob and Mr. Asparagus are feuding over whose job it was to do what and who to call first.

It is at this point that the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything hear the arguing at the table and decide to tell Junior and Laura the story of Jonah.  They are now the narrators for the Bible story– and only break in to underscore the importance of the lesson.

At the end of the Bible story, they ask the veggies “what have you learned today”– a take off of the ending countertop if there ever was one.  They then apply compassion and mercy directly to the two situations, and are greeted by Twippo, who offers to give them a ride to the concert and to sing a song for them right there.

Jonah, Veggie-style

Jonah gets the Veggie-style makeover.  He includes commandments like “don’t do drugs” and “stay in school” to hit the moral crowd.  Along with some of the other sins Nineveh was embroiled in is “slapping with fishes” and as Jonah flees he ends up having the Pirates as transportation to Tarsus.

At this point, we meet Khalil, a worm with an identity crisis.  Of course, instead of casting lots to find out why the storm is coming up, they have to play go fish.  (And the whale is one of the cards.)  There’s an amusing sequence where the whale takes the boat for a ride after they’ve tried to save him.

Inside the whale hasn’t changed since Pinocchio in that there’s still the small boat, it’s cavernous, and there’s room for 100 angels (give or take a few).  They get Jonah to realize that God is a God of second chances, and he’s sent back to Nineveh.

Once there, he finds that he can’t get in without the help of the pirates, who think they are folk heroes for winning a contest, but find themselves (conveniently) in front of the whole city on accounts that they stole some cheese curls.

Jonah gets them to listen to him because he’s been inside a whale and lived to tell about it (the Ninevites worship the fish).  They repent, and he leaves and finds a nice spot to watch God destroy the place.

Only that’s not what God does.  And Big Idea uses Khalil as the voice of God to tell Jonah how absurd it is to be so bent out of shape that his weed died, but to desire that the whole city be destroyed.

from Jonah – A VeggieTales Movie

You see, repentance is a great thing, and we shouldn’t overlook it, but this story was about more than just God’s message to Israel’s enemy.  It was also about God’s love, compassion and mercy towards Jonah.

Jonah, you see, responds a lot like us every day.  We know exactly what God wants us to do– it’s in His Word which we all have like 5 copies of (even if two are collecting dust, and one’s the interlinear and the other is in King James which is hard for you to read).  We know His commands, but like Jonah we choose to go the other way, to do the other thing, and then when trials come we know that it’s because we disobeyed, but we’re still reluctant to do the right thing– or we do so because we “have to”.

Jonah really is the Christian’s story.  It’s one of mercy towards us, because we have a mission to share the Gospel, but how many of us are fulfilling this mission where we are every day?

How many of us are ready for the fire and brimstone, because we know that “no one will repent” and even if they do, they’re still bad.  What a sad commentary of Christianity– and what a challenge to us!

VeggieTales has an unique problem– one that other cartoons do not have– in its original audience base.  It made it big by being a Christian alternative to other cartoons, distributed via Christian bookstores on videocassette.  Its apex was Jonah– a Bible story told by Vegetables that appealed to its base.

You see, for as much time as Phil Vischer or I spend telling everyone that VeggieTales is more than just Bible stories (it’s about half Bible stories half parodies), that’s not the impression of those that actually buy the videos.  The Christian base believes that it is mostly Bible stories (if not all Bible stories) even if they’ve seen the episodes that mimic Gilligan’s Island, Indiana Jones, or Rocky.

And this does not escape the mainstream view of VeggieTales.  This is exactly the reason that VeggieTales had to be scrubbed of God references when it went live on NBC, but they left all sorts of things in 3-2-1 Penguins (including a closing prayer at the end of the episodes!).  VeggieTales = Christian.

So when you came to Jonah, the Christians lined up in droves because they believed they were supporting a Christian message. 

However, a lot has changed.  Christians now believe that VeggieTales has been wooed by the possibility of getting the secular audience.  So, they see The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything as an attempt to get more viewers, as a movie that strays away from what they think are the core values of VeggieTales.

Therefore, you have a two-fold problem:

• Christians may not be as passionate about seeing this movie in the theaters because it isn’t a Bible story, and they believe that it’s going away from core principles.
• Non-Christians may not go see the movie because they know that VeggieTales = Christian.

What do you think?

It’s still swirling.  I’m subscribed to this forum that talks about VeggieTales and one poster had this to say:

Having said that, I also want to take this opportunity to air my
grievances about the Pirates. Okay, they were funny with the Silly
Song. The Countdown was cool. But seriously, didn’t we just have a
Pirates movie a few years ago? Or am I imagining things? (That’s
sarcasm, by the way, but I’m partially serious too. The Pirates took
up at least 60-75% of ‘Jonah’, I think)

Now, for those who like the Pirates, more power to ya’. By all rights,
you are entitled to enjoy them.

Maybe I’m just one of those bitter fans who’s upset at all the ‘fame’
the series has gotten. You know, like the indie music fans who turn
their backs and loathe the band because they ’sold out’ to the bigger
fish industry? That kinda explains where I’m at with VeggieTales right
now in my life. I think the NBC censorship debacle a year or so ago
was the straw that broke the camel’s back too.

Which is sad, because VeggieTales brought me and my family back to the
Christian faith several years ago. So you can kinda understand why I’m
a little upset at everything that’s happened.

But for what it’s worth, I do plan on seeing the ‘Pirates’ movie ONLY
out of nostalgia and the hope against hope that somehow it’ll
recapture the charm of the early Veggie episodes. Even if it centered
around the now-overplayed Pirates.

He is right, to some degree.  The pirates are the move overused set of Veggies there are.  And I can’t even find where they started as a silly song.  I mean, I have them on the silly song countdown, but where are they?  Where’s the original.

So, have they gotten too big?  That’s part of the problem that a lot of people are having– wondering whether or not the dollar is now driving them, or some desire to broaden their tent to bring more people in.  Only they don’t really have a strong gospel message on many of their videos (The Easter Carol and the Toy that Saved Christmas being the exceptions).

What do you think?  Which way do you fall on this discussion?

This adventure is of epic proportions and you can tell that this isn’t your average VeggieTales adventure. I’ll be splitting up this review over the week so that I can cover different aspects in detail, but if you like VeggieTales you’ll want to see this movie!

It’s wild seeing VeggieTales on the big screen. I did not see Jonah in the theater, so this was my first experience. Penny Peach and I took two of our young fruits with us, and the older one was quite excited through multiple part. The younger one thought it was too loud in the theater.

The kids will like the good blend of adventure and learning. The kids loved the sword fights. There were a few memorable lines that they brought away from it.

Anyone else see it this weekend and want to comment?

Penny Peach and I will be taking our little fruits to see The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything tonight.  That will make four of us!

I’ll let you know what I thought of it as soon as I can get to write about it.  If you go, or are planning on going, let us know!

It certainly makes sense, after all, Thanksgiving to Christmas is a great time to be in Theaters!

The pirates who don’t do anything are out to do something again. Pretty soon they’ll have to change their name!

The next VeggieTales Movie adventure is set to launch in 2008. It is being directed by Phil Vischer and stars the Pirates (Larry the Cucumber, Pa Grape and Mr. Lunt) as they set out on an adventure where they are called to be real heroes.