Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002)

Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie: Directed by Mike Nawrocki, Phil Vischer. With Phil Vischer, Mike Nawrocki, Tim Hodge, Lisa Vischer. When the singing Veggies encounter some car trouble, they are stranded at an old rundown seafood joint, where nothing is quite as it seems.

“I bought this movie before I ever even bothered watching it because I figured, hey, itu0026#39;s Veggie Tales. How can you go wrong, right? Well, I donu0026#39;t regret buying it, but itu0026#39;s not quite as good as most of the regular Veggie stuff.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMost of us have a pretty good grasp on the Jonah story right? Well, just as always with Veggie Tales, the heart of the story is there with the most important details, and then everything else gets mixed up and screwed around with. It starts off with Dad Asparagus and Bob the Tomato driving a bunch of the little veggies to a Twippo concert. Then they encounter some difficulties on the road and find themselves with two flat tires and crashed into a tree stump.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThey get out and head for the nearest building, a seafood restaurant. When Junior Asparagus sits down at the table, he hears some people talking on the other side of the glass. Itu0026#39;s the pirates who donu0026#39;t do anything! I donu0026#39;t remember what they ask Junior, but they eventually strike up a conversation, and the pirates tell Junior the story of that one time when they met Jonah and had a little adventure… Jonah was a prophet who traveled across Israel delivering Godu0026#39;s messages to His people. Then Jonah gets a call from God to deliver a u0026quot;turn and repentu0026quot; message to Ninevah. But why Ninevah? The Israelites and the Ninevites donu0026#39;t get along, and Jonah would rather die than go there. So he decides to go against Godu0026#39;s orders and sail as far as possible in the opposite direction, to Tarshish. He hires the pirates who donu0026#39;t do anything to take him out there, and so the four of them set sail for Tarshish.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJust like in the Bible story, thereu0026#39;s a big storm because of Jonah, and after they cast lots to determine who is responsible (done quite ingeniously in the movie I think), they throw Jonah into the ocean. The storm goes away when they throw him in, and a whale (not a big fish like the story) comes along and swallows Jonah up. There Jonah has a little encounter with a choir of asparagus angels, and then the whale barfs him up on the shore, and he heads out for Ninevah.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI think the hilarious thing is how the pirates end the story. Just like in the Bible story, at the end, Jonah is wailing and mourning and whining and crying and thereu0026#39;s no real conclusion, and thatu0026#39;s how it ends in the movie. The pirates just say u0026quot;the endu0026quot; and thatu0026#39;s pretty much it. Of course, thereu0026#39;s still some other stuff that happens outside of the story segment of the movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall itu0026#39;s done pretty cleverly, but it doesnu0026#39;t quite have the same Veggie Tales zip that it should. The special features on the DVD and certainly worth the cost though.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBottom Line: 3 out of 4 (worth watching)”