is a series of children's books and Computer Animated videos produced by Big Idea Productions conveying Christian ideals to children via humorous, anthropomorphic Vegetable -shaped characters. VeggieTales was co-created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki .
The first VeggieTales video was released in 1993, and was the U.S.'s first completely computer animated video widely distributed in VHS format. 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 '' is a many-legged Caterpillar . In a "director" commentary between three VeggieTales characters for Jonah, they reveal that they actually pick stuff up with wire removal technology. They also revealed that they breathe through their mouths, as their noses lack nostrils.
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!" to which Bob replies, "Oh, great!"
VeggieTales clips are periodically played in Chuck E. Cheese's restaurants on the main TV screens of the restaurants' dining rooms.
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.
- ''Bumblyburg Super-Hero Value Pack'' 2004
- ''The Complete Silly Song Collection'' 2004
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 . Vischer sees Bob as his Alter-ego .
- '' 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 sophomoric 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 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 Vischer.
- The French Pea s, Jean Claude and Phillipe (spoofs of the taunting French soldiers from '' Monty Python And The Holy Grail ''). Voiced by Nawrocki and Vischer, respectively.
- Pa Grape Voiced by 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.")
- 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 scallions, and a bunch of Penguins .
- The Larry-Boy Cartoon series was the only Big Idea video that exclusively used traditional 2D animation. According to Vischer, in addition to ''3-2-1 Penguins'', this project was started as a means to provide additional funding to the company during production budget overruns of ''Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie''.
- Big Idea went bankrupt in 2003 after they released ''Jonah: A VeggieTales 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.
- The name of the computer, QWERTY, comes from the first six letters in the second row of a computer's keyboard (which are, from left to right, QWERTYUIOP ).
- There have been three appearances of VeggieTales on '' The Simpsons ''.
: 1. Season 12 Episode 9, entitled ", 2001
: 2. Season 15 Episode 5, entitled, ", 2003
: 3. Season 16 Episode 9, entitled, ", 2005
- The VeggieTales characters were parodied as the "VeggieFables" on the , 2005 )
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