I once heard Phil Vischer, the man who launched VeggieTales, say that his original idea for characters involved talking candy bars. I can fully understand his reasoning. Phil was looking to develop relatable “somethings” and figured that every child could connect with scrumptious sugary treats. But when he ran the idea by his wife Lisa, she promptly nixed the brainstorm. Lisa pointed out that moms just wouldn’t warm up to heroic Snickers bars. What her hubby needed to do was come up with some type of characters that mothers would actually want their children to enjoy—something like talking vegetables. And as they say, the rest is history.
In truth, Vischer’s nearly 20-year journey with VeggieTales has been a wild roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs (check out our interview with Vischer here). But one thing’s for sure: Untold thousands have learned more about God, the Bible and the Lord’s view of right and wrong through the storytelling of Vischer’s basic salad food group. As Phil explains: “[With our first video Where Is God When I’m Scared?, we] retold the story of Daniel in the lion’s den with Larry the Cucumber playing Daniel. And one of the first letters we got was someone saying, ‘How dare you portray Daniel as a vegetable.’ …But for every letter like that, there were 10 that said, ‘My kids just learned the story of Daniel and the lion’s den better than they ever did from Sunday school or from me trying to get them to read the Bible.'”
I can relate. My two kids watched and rewatched hours and hours of VeggieTales and Silly Songs with Bob and Larry. As a parent, it was something I not only allowed, but actually wanted them to watch. Outside of Focus’ Adventures in Odyssey, there just weren’t that many entertainment projects I could say that about!
I wasn’t alone. Watching the VeggieTales phenomenon become part of American culture was nothing short of extraordinary. Millions of videos were sold, and I remember being blown away seeing Larry the Cucumber on a float for a Thanksgiving Day parade. A decade ago, it never ceased to amaze me that countless numbers of teenagers would proudly sport VeggieTales T-shirts as if they were letter jackets. Speaking of teens, around 2004 while driving a vanload of them to a ski resort (as part of a Christian high school club my wife and I worked with), I can still recall the kids singing the Veggie classic “Cheeseburger” song repeatedly. Absolutely no embarrassment! I’m way out of the intended demographic and yet I own a Bob the Tomato T-shirt.
Which brings me to the latest VeggieTales movie, The League of Incredible Vegetables, out on video Oct. 16. With a bit of an Avengers‘ theme, superhero-suit-wearing vegetables with such names as Vogue, Thingamabob and S-Cape are quickly summoned to recover the stolen and oh-so-dangerous fear gun, the most deadly device on the planet. Why so lethal? Because the gun can ascertain what an individual fears and use that knowledge against him/her. Obviously, overcoming fear is this DVD’s main theme. But it’s how The League does it that really matters. Ultimately, our heroes learn that their trust should be in God.
With this latest video project, Focus on the Family has teamed up with (or dare I say it, is in league with) the folks of VeggieTales. In fact, Plugged In was called upon to write a kryptonite-free companion discussion guide so that families could further delve into the video’s positive themes.
I’ve seen The League of Incredible Vegetables twice. It’s a creative and fun action adventure, and as always, has a good message to boot. You might just want to pull your old Bob the Tomato T-shirt out of mothballs, pop some popcorn, gather your own clan of cucumbers around the TV, and find new meaning to “be sure to take in plenty of vegetables.”
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