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VeggieTales

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bob the tomato
bob the tomato

VeggieTales is a series of children's books and computer animated videos conveying Christian ideals to children via humorous, anthropomorphic vegetable-shaped characters.


History

The first VeggieTales video was released in 1993 by Big Idea Productions, and was the U.S.'s first completely computer animated video. Since then, the VeggieTales videos have sold well over 35 million copies. In addition to the videos, there are also books, games, and the ubiquitous plush toys which accompany nearly anything beloved by children.

Reportedly, the characters are vegetables because of the limitations of early computer animation technology; it would have been difficult and expensive to give them arms and legs. (However, they are usually able to hold objects as if they had hands and they typically "walk" by bouncing.) The lack of appendages is sometimes used as self-referential humor, as is the lack of other human characteristics, such as in "The Hairbrush Song". Later videos do not share this limitation: for instance, one of the supporting characters in Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie is a many-legged caterpillar.

Also, in the preview for 3-2-1 Penguins!, Larry the Cucumber shows up, looks at the penguins and shouts off-camera, "Hey, Bob! They've got arms!" Bob replies, "Oh, great!"

VeggieTales clips were periodically played in Chuck E. Cheese's restaurants in the late 90's on the main TV screens of the restaurants' dining rooms.

Video Format

Most VeggieTales videos follow a familiar pattern, but with variations that are as charming as they are jarringly purposeful: The presenters (Bob and Larry) set up a moral situation, often arising from a letter from a viewer at home. There is then a discussion among several of the main characters as to how this is best answered. Inevitably, they get to the point where they "roll the video". There is usually an "intermission" for a "Silly Song With Larry" and at the end, the presenters return to wrap up the moral lesson with an applicable "memory verse" as delivered from QWERTY, the computer.

The internal stories themselves are often based on Bible or famous literary stories, sometimes transferred to a different setting (for example, Madame Blueberry clearly draws inspiration from Madame Bovary, while Sumo of the Opera teaches about perseverance by retelling Rocky mixed with The Karate Kid and The Mikado.)

Violent, sexual, or otherwise "inappropriate" content in the source material is often replaced with something innocuous. For example, in King George and the Ducky, a retelling of the story of David and Bathsheba, Bathsheba is replaced by a rubber duck whose original owner falls victim to a food fight. Another example is in The Ballad of Little Joe, a retelling of the story of Joseph, where, instead of Potiphar's wife attempting to get him to have an affair with her, she tries to get him to steal a bag of gold.

The series made the jump to DVD in 2003.

Episodes And Seasons

Season 1

  • Where's God When I'm Scared?/Water Buffalo/Daniel and the Lion's Den
  • The Grapes of Wrath/Forgive-O-Matic/Larry's Lagoon
  • The Gourds Must Be Crazy!/Hairbrush/Flibber-O-Loo
  • Rack, Shack, and Benny/Dance of the Cucumber
  • Welcome, Larry-Boy!/The Pickle/I Love My Lips
  • The Toy that Saved Christmas/Oh Santa!
  • Larry-Boy and the Fib From Outer Space (Double-Length Episode)

Season 2

  • Josh and the Big Wall!/Cebu
  • Madame Blueberry/His Cheeseburger
  • Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed (Double-Length Episode)
  • King George ant the Ducky/Endangered Love
  • Esther (Double-Length Episode)
  • Omelette/High Silk Hat/Lyle, The Kindly Viking
  • The Star of Christmas (1-Hour Length Episode)

Season 3

  • The Ballad of Little Joe/Bellybutton
  • An Easter Carol (1-Hour Length Episode)
  • The Strange Case of Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly/S.U.V./A Snoodle's Tale
  • Going Up/Lutfi's Fanciful Flannograph: St. Patrick/Schoolhouse Polka/Sumo of the Opera
  • Babysitter in De-Nile/The Blues With Larry/Duke and the Great Pie War
  • Bully Trouble/Pizza Angel/Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush

Season 4

  • The Lord of the Beans/Silly songs for Elves
  • The Asparagus of La Mancha/Gated Community/Sheerluck Holmes and the Case of the Golden Ruler
  • Larry-Boy and the Bad Apple (Double-Length Episode)
  • Gideon

Feature Length Cinema Movies

Videos

  • Where's God When I'm S-Scared? 1993
  • God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?! 1994
  • Are You My Neighbor? 1995
  • Rack, Shack and Benny 1995
  • Dave and the Giant Pickle 1996
  • The Toy That Saved Christmas 1996
  • Very Silly Songs! 1996
  • Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space! 1997
  • Josh and the Big Wall! 1997
  • Madame Blueberry 1998
  • The End Of Silliness? 1998
    • a compliation of Silly Song segments
  • Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed 1999
  • King George and the Ducky 2000
  • Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen 2001
  • Lyle the Kindly Viking 2001
  • The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown 2001
    • a compilation of silly song segments, contains the previously released The End Of Silliness?. This was released in an attempt to fund the budget overruns of the Jonah feature film.
  • Heroes of the Bible - Vol. 1 2001
  • Heroes of the Bible - Vol. 2 2001
  • Jonah Sing-Along Songs and More! 2002
  • The Star of Christmas 2002
  • The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment! 2003
  • The Ballad of Little Joe 2003
  • An Easter Carol 2004
  • A Snoodle's Tale 2004
  • Sumo of the Opera 2004
  • The Bumblyburg Superhero 2004
  • Complete Silly Song Collection 2004
  • Holiday Double Feature 2004
  • Bob and Larry's How to Draw! 2004
  • Duke and the Great Pie War 2005
    • Prequel to King George and the Ducky
  • Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush 2005
  • Lord of the Beans 2005
  • Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler 2006

Videos To be Released

  • Larry-Boy and the Bad Apple 2006
  • Gideon 2006
  • Minnesota Cuke and the Quest for Noah's Umbrella 2006

Characters

Veggie Tales has a continuous back story that all of the cartoons are actually teleplays, performed by various vegetables and fruit that live together on the same kitchen countertop. Some of these characters have "real names", and take on various roles in the teleplays, although they will also frequently appear as themselves. These "regulars" were established in the very earliest videos.

  • Bob the Tomato, Host of "Veggie Tales" and the straight man of the comedy troupe. Bob is most likely to appear as the narrator or show up as himself, although he occasionally plays a role in the teleplays. His lead role as "Cavis Appythart" in "The Star of Christmas" and "An Easter Carol" has been his largest part to date. Bob is voiced by VeggieTales founder Phil Vischer.
  • Larry the Cucumber, Co-host of "Veggie Tales" and the comedy "star" of the series. Larry is often cast as the lead in the teleplays. His superhero alter ego, Larry-Boy, had a short lived spinoff cartoon series called "LarryBoy - The Cartoon Adventures". Larry is the regular host of another "show within the show", Silly Songs with Larry. Larry is voiced by Mike Nawrocki.
  • Archibald Asparagus, a very British stuffed shirt, who is constantly trying to bring "high culture" to the otherwise lowbrow humour that VeggieTales represents. He somewhat grudgingly plays the title role in the cinematic release Jonah - A Veggie Tales Movie. Patterned after the Monty Python's Flying Circus character, "The Colonel" (a stuffy army officer played by Graham Chapman who occasionally appeared out of nowhere to order the end of a sketch), Archibald often takes Larry to task for being too silly, especially in the early videos. On the video Lyle the Kindly Viking, Archibald is given the opportunity the host the show, but much to Archie's chagrin, the show devolves into sophmoric parodies of Shakespeare and Gilbert and Sullivan. However his constant pleas for culture seem to be rubbing off on the rest of the gang, resulting in some very "respectable" videos such as Esther - The Girl Who Became Queen, The Star of Christmas, and An Easter Carol, an adaptation of the Charles Dickens' classic, A Christmas Carol. Archibald is also voiced by Phil Vischer.
  • Junior Asparagus, Five-year-old Junior Asparagus is one of the most active co-stars of the VeggieTales series. Junior is a typical playful child, but also is wise beyond his years, taking the lead role in several videos. Junior also has a loving relationship with his parents, who also appear in several of the videos. Junior is voiced by Lisa Vischer, wife of Phil Vischer.
  • Mr. Lunt, a decorative gourd who grew up in New Jersey and speaks with a Mexican-Spanish accent. He is often seen as assistant to Mr. Nezzer. Mr. Lunt also frequently appears as part of "The Pirates who Don't Do Anything", and even once got his own Silly Song ("His Cheeseburger"). That song and 'Lord of the Beans' (where he appears as a Gollum-like character) are the only times we ever see Mr. Lunt without a hat, although we still do not see his eyes. Mr. Lunt is voiced by Phil Vischer.
  • Khalil (An arab-accented caterpillar appearing first in Jonah and in a few videos thereafter. "Well, actually, that is only half true. My mother was a caterpillar, my father was a worm, but I am okay with that now.")
  • Sweet Petunia
  • QWERTY, the computer that delivers the memory verses from the Bible
  • Buzz Saw Louie (The only member of the cast ever to possess arms.)
  • various other side characters including numbers of other peas, three leeks, and a bunch of penguins.

Spin Offs

Trivia

  • The Larry-Boy Cartoon series was the only Big Idea video that used traditional 2D animation.
  • Big Idea went bankrupt in 2003 after they released Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie. The company was bought out of bankruptcy by Classic Media, Inc. later in 2003 and was moved to Franklin, TN. in 2004.
  • At the end of most VeggieTales videos, we hear a humorous little ditty entitled "What Have We Learned?". Bob the Tomato originally hated the tune, since it always interrupted him. However Bob later grew to like the song as much as Larry did.

Parodies

  • There have been three appearances of VeggieTales on The Simpsons.
1. Season 12 Episode 9, entitled "HOMR," the Simpson family visits an animation convention and Bob and Larry are shown on one of the booths. Original Airdate: January 7, 2001
2. Season 15 Episode 5, entitled, "The Fat and the Furriest," Homer, Bart and Lisa are walking outside of the "Sprawl-Mart," and in the front window are a cluster of television sets. On the TV sets a cucumber Moses says, "Mighty Yamses, we are weary of building your food pyramid. Let my pickles go!" To which Homer comments, "Mmmm...Moses." Original Airdate: November 30, 2003
3. Season 16 Episode 9, entitled, "Pranksta Rap," the Simpsons' dog has swallowed the TV remote and every time he barks the channel changes. After one of his barks the channel changes to a program called, "The Salad of the Christ," in which Bob the Tomato is in the Christ position, carrying the cross upon his back and carrot guards are whipping him. Original Airdate: February 13, 2005
  • The VeggieTales characters were parodied as the "VeggieFables" on the Comedy Central show, Drawn Together, where it is called "religious propoganda clumsily disguised as children's entertainment." (Season 2 Episode 5, entitled "Clum Babies (Drawn Together episode) Original Airdate: November 16, 2005)
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