That’s the only explanation I can come up with. I’ve never heard of these characters. Ever! And now they have a movie. A long anticipated movie, at that! Who the fark are these animated vegetables and what, exactly, are their tales about?
Oh, sorry. It seems you joined me in the middle of my quasi-rant. Allow me to fill you in.
You see, there’s a movie in theatres now called Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie. Not just a movie, but a long anticipated movie. How can that be? I’ve never heard of them.
For the purposes of this thread, I intentionally did no research about the VeggieTales. I’d like you, Dopers, to tell me:
Who they are,
Why I’ve never heard of them and
What else I missed while I was in that cave on Mars.
There have been plenty of children’s characters/shows that I don’t watch but have at least heard of. The Teletubbies, Arthur, Barney and Friends and Dragon Tales to name a few. These animated vegetables, however…I just don’t get it.
It’s a tv show on the PAX network that teaches religion and morals to very young children. I’m not sure how long they’ve been around, but I saw their christmas special (which was cute rather than overly preachy, as I worried it’d be) around three years ago, and I’d heard of them before that point, given I work with wee folks. I’d guess they’ve been around between 4 and 5 years.
You don’t watch PAX?
Ok, there’s this movie about a little boy who goes to a school for wizards and…
I don’t know that much about them, but here are a few things. I think that they have only been available on home video up to now (no TV shows). The stories they tell are based on the Bible, and so they are mostly popular with Christians. I’m sure someone else can fill in the blanks.
BTW, I have heard of them, but I’ve never actually seen one of the videos.
I was talking to my disturbingly Christian sister who lives in a speck of a town in Kanas. She and her kids love the veggie tales. She says that they are not entirely based on the bible but all do have a moral lesson.
Apparently there is a some sort of hairbrush song. (my sister sang it to me while she was giggling) I guess the idea of a bald cucumber singing ‘Oh where is my hairbrush’ is really funny.
Thank you for the best phrase I’ve heard all week, Zebra: disturbingly Christian.
I guess my little family is just a bunch of heathens. Not only do I not watch the PAX network, I always thought letters PAX on the on-screen digital cable guide were short for something else. I’m not sure what, though.
I’ve never, ever watched the PAX network. I guess if I did it would burn my skin like so much holy water…
All that being said, I still think I would have at least heard of the VeggieTales…
It’s apparently extremely popular, not only among the religious right. (Don’t yell at me, just trying to show Veggie Tales broader appeal.) I heard a review of the movie on NPR and the usual reviewer loved it, though it was great. Lots of funny jokes, clever dialogue, and didn’t take itself very seriously.
The song under the closing credits is about how songs under the closing credits have nothing to do with the film. Clever.
VeggieTales actually go back five or six years. When I lived in the suburbs of Chicago at that time, an acquaintance of mine was an animator for Big Idea Productions (the production company) which is based around there. When the first video or two came out, no one was sure it would sell. My friend would often go several weeks w/out getting paid while the company stayed afloat.
After the first video video came out (cute animation, catchy songs, moral lesson, talking vegetables), it became quite popular among the church crowd and was picked up by Word (a big Christian distributer), IIRC. From there it went into Christian bookstores across the country. It picked up steam and my friend began getting paid on a more regular basis as new videos were cranked out.
Eventually things like the Christmas special on PAX and loads of merchandising followed. You can’t walk into a Christian bookstore without bumping into a large display of Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber products. I remember being at a Christian music festival 3-4 years ago where a big inflatable Bob the Tomato was being passed around.
Just a few months ago I was at a AAA baseball game and Larry the Cucumber was there shaking hands with the kiddies.
I’ve seen a few of the videos, and find them really funny and enjoyable. However, I’m too embarassed to buy them for myself, having no kids. I was going to see if I could borrow someone’s kid to go to the movie with.
Yes, but they have non-religious themed shows too. Look up “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.mp3” when you get a chance. No religion there, just silly characters.
Yeah, the VT crew is mighty popular with the pre-literate set. They are Christian is focus but occasionally go of in odd directions with song parodies and such that can make the adults laugh.
We have a couple of videos. They’re a lot of fun, and if you happen to be even nominally Christian, teach good lessons. (I think they try pretty hard not to be too preachy; and they never get specific or mention Jesus, only God.) The story lines are usually either made up or a twisted version of an OT story-- “King George and the Ducky” is about selfishness (David and Bathsheba), etc. We have 'Lyle the Kindly Viking," which is a send-off of Gilbert and Sullivan.
The jokes are comparable to Sesame Street–clever and multi-layered for adults to enjoy. Monty Python references and so on. It is possible for an adult to watch a VT video hundreds of times without going batty, unlike with, say, Barney.
And then there are the Silly Songs, which are completely non-religious, and extremely silly. If you want a VeggieTales trial without the religion, try the “Ultimate Silly Songs Countdown” or other Silly Songs video.
Oh, and “Oh Santa” is my favorite secular Christmas song ever, and I don’t even like Santa. Which I guess isn’t too hard really, since I hate Bing Crosby and Frosty the Snowman. But it’s a really funny song.
I was at a high school concert recently (friend’s daughter in jazz choir), and while we were waiting for the show to start, a whole row of teenagers behind us all started loudly singing “Oh where is my hairbrush?” It was surreal.