Pros: well-done, well-animated, different enough to be good
Cons: a little scary for younger or more sensitive children
The Bottom Line: Big Idea does it again. They leap (splash?) onto the big screen with style, substance, integrity and imagination. See it, but leave your presumptions, expectations, and piety at the door.
tesserae's Full Review: Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie
Some people think that whenever a company has a good thing going, they should stick with it. They suggest keeping everything the same, from the award-winning format that works, and that straying from format is bad, it makes the movie a bunch of junk.
Not true.
This kind of approach does not allow for creativity and freshness, but only judges what has been before, rather than what is. It limits things to what has been, not what can be.
Veggie Tales/Big Idea remains the pioneers that they have been with their first full-feature movie, and continue to surprise and please the people who are willing to embrace change.
I just came home from the Veggie Tales movie. My special needs nearly 5 year old daughter, my husband and I all took in the 7 pm show. The theatre was not crowded. There were a few other families and a group of teenage girls.
From the moment the movie started, I knew it was different. There was no usual original theme song. There was no perky happy music. Instead, there was a quirky beginning, some somber, movie-theatre soundtrack, and an immediate jump into the action.
Let's say our mantra again: Different. Is. Good
With this movie, Big Idea leaps from the small screen into the big screen. They leap from a primarily christian audience into the mainstream audience. They are competing on levels with Pixar, and nobody will pay $8.50 for what works at home. They had to be different. They had to be revolutionary. They had to engage their creative spirit in order to be successful out in "the real world."
Jonah is based on the story in the Bible. It follows it almost exactly, with the exception of the dirtier details of violence and the prayer prayed from the belly of the whale. Big Idea Productions borrowed the fish-slapping city (of Ninevah) right out of Monty Python (fantastic, something a lot of folks miss), and creatively used the first African American veggies I've seen in a wonderful (though slightly over-handed with the cross imagery) gospel number that had my little girl bouncing gleefully in her seat.
It even had the ending right. I cannot tell you how much I respect Big Idea for doing this. In our world of Jesus bumper stickers and prosperity theology, Veggie Tales actually tells the truth, even though it is ugly. Jonah actually didn't learn his lesson. He says, in the Bible, "I am angry enough to die." and so he did. This movie held true to real life, and I am so, so, SO impressed with this.
How easy it would have been to cheapen the story, end on a happy note, and lie. But this gives us something to talk about with our children, and tells the truth. What a wonderful thing.
Other people have written about the plot, with bold-lettered names of characters and detailed one-liners. I'm not here to do that, I figure you either know the story of Jonah or can go read about it for yourself. What I want to tell you, is that this movie is worth it. This movie is worth going to. This movie is as good as anything out there, and it manages to keep its integrity and its honesty, til the very end.
Awesome stuff:
animation
People have talked about the animation being sub-standard and not very good. This is ridiculous. There is a scene in this movie with a fountain in the background, and the fountain is as good as anything Pixar does, or better.
You cannot adequately compare small-screen Veggie Tales with this movie. It's unfair to both. Don't go with the assumption that what you see is what you get. Give Big Idea a chance to surprise you. Look at the background animation as well as the forefront animation. Try and remember what Jimmy neutron really looked like on the big screen.
integrity
I mentioned this above, so I won't rehash it again. But kudos, cheers and hip hip hoorays to Big Idea for their faithful telling of the story, for not watering down the ending to appease churchianity, and for still managing to have a happy ending.
music
This movie has wonderful music. It doesn't have the Silly songs stuff, but it has wonderful moody soundtrack stuff, and some wonderful original songs (that gospel number sung in the belly of the whale gave me goosebumps), and a bam-dazzling spectacle at the end. (moulin rouge, anyone?)
originality
Don't go to this movie expecting what you see at home. Expect something more along the lines of typical movies, and then expect something different again. let it surprise you with its attention to detail, its quirky lines, and its humour. Enjoy how different it really is -- not only from everything else in the theatres today, but also from itself.
Not so Awesome Stuff
loud and scary
I spent a lot of this time cuddling my daughter. I rested my hand on her forehead, and she alternatively pulled it down over her eyes (at the scary parts), and pushed it back up again.
The first scene where the whale lurches out of the water is the most terrifying, sudden scene in the entire movie. It startled even me. In that sense, it was well done. But you might want to prepare younger children for some scary scenes, and be prepared to talk a lot on the way home about "the big whale, mama."
some heavy-handed religiosity
This movie was well done and really not very preachy. I was, however, a little disparaged by the many, many crosses (ship masts) in the belly of the whale/gospel choir scene. What they didn't preach, they certainly made up in symbolism. It was inventive, but unnecessary.
Go see Veggie Tales in the theatre
Take a risk. Take your kids. Take your friends and your friends kids. Expect the unexpected. Big Idea is still the same great company we all have known and loved for several years now, and they continue in their quirky, imaginative, unpredictable fun-loving creativity right onto the big screen. You must see this movie if you love Veggie Tales. You must see this movie even if you don't.
Based on the popular children's series JONAH: A VEGGIE TALES MOVIE gives computer-animated talking vegetables their feature film debut. Bob the Tomato...More at Family Video
Get ready as Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber and the rest of the Veggie gang set sail on a whale of an adventure in Jonah, Big Idea s first full-le...More at Buy.com
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