Well this review is a bit tricky to write. I was thinking about movies to watch for this blog, and since it is December, this is a biblical story, and I was a big fan of VeggieTales as a kid, I thought this would be the perfect movie to talk about. Then I put the movie in and got reminded that most of the Bible is set in Israel, and Israel has kind of been a hot topic at the moment. Still, I do think this is a good time to talk about this movie, or more accurately the themes of the movie, but my job primarily is to review a movie as a movie, so I'm going to save my soap box standing for the end. Still, Christmas, and most of the winter holidays, is a good time to remind people about good will, kindness, love, friendship and especially compassion and mercy. So, the themes of this movie are good, but the question now becomes, is this a good way to teach these themes?
I was a huge VeggieTales fan as a kid, had plenty of the DVDs and VHS Tapes, and a couple DVDs for 3-2-1 Penguins too. So the main plot structure of this movie is not unfamiliar to me, and shouldn't be for anyone that is familiar with VeggieTales. The stories usually begun with a conflict and the stories being told were lessons on how to resolve the conflicts, and this movie works similarly. The conflict starts when, on their way to a concert, a few misfortunes happen to Bob the Tomato, Dad Asparagus, Junior Asparagus and Laura Carrot, as Bob and Mr. Asparagus get two flat tires on their bus, and Laura loses her concert ticket, which Junior says is her fault for teasing them with it. This is overheard by Pa Grape, Mr. Lunt and Larry the Cucumber, the infamous band of scallywags known as The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, who tell Junior that he should be compassionate to his friend, reciting the tale of Jonah and his voyage to Nineveh. The story is told in a kid friendly way, which... is fine. Sure, I would have liked something like The Prince of Egypt, a much darker movie that doesn't shy away from the drama and trauma of the events, but as a movie for really young kids, this is fine. I won't say it's completely sanitized, like they do have a ridiculous and kinda silly form of execution in the movie, but it's still is execution, it's toned down definitely, but it's still there. I can't think of anything plotwise I take issue with.
VeggieTales is a fun series, mostly because the characters in the films do feel like they're putting on a play or production. So when you see a character like Mr. Nezzer or Archibald Asparagus, even if they play a different character they still have their own characteristics, which means that Jonah, played by Archibald, has a sarcastic side to him that is very entertaining. We also spend a lot of time with the Pirates, and they're an entertaining bunch. I think the only character I'm not to keen on is Khalil, and for two reasons, firstly, he's not a vegetable, he's a half-caterpillar, I'm sorry that just weirds me out a little, like I know animals are a thing in the VeggieTales world, but... actually no, that also weirds me out, why does the VeggieTales world have animals? Okay, one thing at a time, the animals previously in the series were... animals, they never talked, or at least very rarely. The second thing is, you know the whole, white voice actor putting on an accent is a bit of a debate topic, but apparently the performance was nominated for an Annie in 2003, I mean it isn't a bad performance, as long as you can sit through bad Persian accents.
Animation wise, it looks like VeggieTales, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because it won't be too alienating to go from direct-to-video CG animation to this movie. To be fair, VeggieTales was a major step forward in CG animation, being one of, if not the first direct-to-video series made with Computer Generated Animation. However, it is also a bit of a weakness in this movie's case, as this was early 2000s CG, and couple that with the almost simplistic style of VeggieTales, some moments of animation don't really mask the weaknesses in the animation, stuff that makes you ask if this was worth putting on the big screen. That being said, there are a lot of fun details, little touches that make the animation a little better. Honestly, I think the same can be said for the writing, there are little moments that give this story more life and identity than just a flat re-telling of the story of Jonah, like during a huge storm, Larry and Mr. Lunt are just playing Go Fish as if nothing is happening. There are some moments in this movie where I did chuckle, or even straight up laugh.
I should also bring up the musical numbers, because as VeggieTales is known for their silly songs, this movie is as one would anticipate, a musical. The songs are... mostly okay. The first real song in the movie "Message from the Lord" is pretty good, there is a line about not eating bats which has aged... interestingly, but most of the other songs are not that great. "It Cannot Be" is a good moment with Jonah having a small crisis, but the backing music sounds like an ambient track you would get in a small quiet moment where the characters look up at the sky or something, and the song "Second Chances" has one of the worst editing choices I've ever seen in an animated movie. The background music is also alright, there was one moment where Jonah was riding a camel, and the music synced with the camel's movements, that was neat. Overall, I can't say this is a bad movie, it's adequate for young kids, and bearable for adults.
And I do think that the themes of this movie are delivered well, Khalil does kind of spell it out at the end, as do the Pirates, but it is shown throughout the movie what compassion and mercy are, and how people should be given second chances. I'm not going to discuss whether I agree with all of it, but I want to stress we should be living these themes, Christmas is a time of love, kindness, friendship and joy, and why do we have to keep that to one time of the year? What stops us from giving our friends gifts any other time of the year? Love, Kindness, Peace, these are not things we should keep to one time, these are things we should live year round, and I think we need to remember that above all else, we need to be good people. Is this movie the best way to send this message? Maybe not, but it's not a bad way either, if you have kids, I do think this movie is worth showing them, regardless of if you're Christian or not, because kindness knows no faith, pray for peace everyone, and fight for goodness.
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