Tragic Tale of the Christian Cucumber

April 30, 2005 3:00 PM

How Bob the Tomato got squashed by Barney the Dinosaur
Phil Vischer, creator of those Veggie-Tales cartoons gives a reflective account of why he did not become "The Christian Disney". So why did Big Idea Productions fail while other "Holy Cultural Warriors" are thriving? (Maybe this guy was too sincerely Christian?)
A shorter version of this Tale from "Christianity Today" magazine here.
via the spiritual center of animation on the web: Cartoon Brew
posted by wendell (21 comments total)

This is a really, really sad tale. It is also precisely why you should not commit yourself in a business venture without actually signing the contract first. Bid Idea was naively trusting, but mostly just out-lawyered.
posted by caddis at 3:34 PM on April 30, 2005

I had no idea they were out of business. I really enjoyed those cartoons, and I usually hate stuff like that. I hope he creates a genetically modified clone of Bob and Larry soon. and learns to use a "print this article" button on his web page.
posted by mecran01 at 3:47 PM on April 30, 2005

great post wendell! Would love to hear the story from the animators perspective though.
posted by TetrisKid at 3:55 PM on April 30, 2005

The only Big Idea thing you really need to know is that Spaced Penguin! is still online. I had no idea when it first made the rounds that it was part of a wannabe xtian media empire, but it's still a hella neat game.
posted by yhbc at 3:59 PM on April 30, 2005

Other distributors had asked us to remove “God” from our videos to ensure their acceptability in the mainstream world

Wow, talk about not getting it. "We love this 'The Wiz' property, but does it absolutely need all the black folks?"
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 4:06 PM on April 30, 2005

That was a pretty engaging read, more so than I expected. Thanks.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:11 PM on April 30, 2005

This breaks my heart. My nephews grew up on Veggietales and it didn't take too many shared watchings to get me interested.

The genius of Veggietales is how is could be incredibly funny on a kid level and an adult level without ever splitting the message. While unapologetically Christian, the adventures of Bob and Larryboy were never heavy-handed. Sure, they're teaching a Biblical message, but every kid I know could do with a little more help in the sharing and caring department.

Sigh.

*** Picks up Larryboy plush cucumber from desk to hear it say, "Have you seen my hairbrush?" ***
posted by grabbingsand at 4:33 PM on April 30, 2005

I read through more of Phil's website. Phil's still doing Veggie Tales, at least one a year, and still voicing the characters. He's also doing advice for up to two VT videos a year.

He's being paid as a consultant, so he can concentrate on new ventures and the Veggies, and not run the company.

Also, his wife is a MILF.
posted by taumeson at 5:28 PM on April 30, 2005

"Bid Idea" is perhaps Freudian? It should be "Big Idea." Oy vay, these spell checkers these days, they know not what I think, only what I mistype.
posted by caddis at 5:48 PM on April 30, 2005

Good article. He sounds like a really good guy, and it sucks that he held out for God to mysteriously save them instead of listening to the faint warning bells in the back of his mind. I used to work for a Christian bookstore, and VT merchandise sells like hotcakes. My favourites were the finger puppets. :)

Everybody's got a water-buffalo,
Yours is fast, but mine is slow,
Oh, where do we get them, well I don't know
But everybody's got a water-buffalo, ooooooooooooooh!

Took my buffalo to the store
Got his head stuck in the door
Spilled some lima beans on the floor
Oh everybody's got a water-buffalo, ooooooooooooooooooooooh!
posted by heatherann at 6:12 PM on April 30, 2005

Good article, and the VeggieTales were great fun. Did anyone else catch his slams against the estate tax and unions?
posted by Slothrup at 6:25 PM on April 30, 2005

I'll have to remember to check back for his "why I'm not mad at God" thing.
posted by kevspace at 6:57 PM on April 30, 2005

Several years’ back the veggie tales toys were available in the U.S. but not in Canada so a friend asked if I could bring a toy to him for his daughter for Christmas. At the border crossing the customs agent asked if I was bringing anything into Canada. I said, “Yes a twelve inch, singing dancing Christian cucumber…” Traffic backed up at the Detroit-Windsor tunnel as everyone came out to hear “Where’s my hairbrush?”
posted by arse_hat at 8:00 PM on April 30, 2005

That was a very sad story.
posted by ddf at 8:58 PM on April 30, 2005

Since the average American kid was watching more than three hours of television per day, the impact Nickelodeon's programming and intentionally subversive attitude (Nick marketers freely admitted that their strategy was to position themselves as a kids “true ally” and to exclude parents from the conversation) drove me to do as much as I could, as quickly as I could.

I have always noticed this about Nickelodeon, and have always hated it.

It's not just encouraging kids to be disrespectful and scornful toward their parents. It's positioning themselves -- the large corporation (and by extension, their advertisers) -- as the kids' ally against the parents.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:23 PM on April 30, 2005 [1 favorite has favorites]

Did anyone else catch his slams against the estate tax and unions?

I'm not sure he was slamming either. The inheritance tax comment could actually be read as a slam against tax evasion. And the mention of union labor was as one factor that made a Clear-Channel-produced stage show overly expensive. Mostly he was criticizing Clear Channel.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:39 PM on April 30, 2005

Wasn't the core flaw in his grand scheme (20/20 hindsight I know) the simple fact that the market for Christian cartoon vegetables was by nature a niche one - a big one perhaps, particularly in North America, but still a niche?
posted by elgilito at 1:13 AM on May 1, 2005

elgilito: Perhaps it's that VeggieTales had the unusual fortune of finding an audience outside of the Christian markets (I was introduced to the series in college by friends); grabbingsand's description of the series is right on the money. They did pwn the niche, but had also found a niche outside the niche (people who like quirky, quality, original animation). Obviously, they started to lose their way after that bit of success...

I've only read half the article, but was surprised to see that Big Idea had gone under at all.
posted by May Kasahara at 7:00 AM on May 1, 2005

Classic tale of why most marketing "professionals" need to be marched off the nearest cliff. I've worked with too many of them in my life to read this account and see it as anything other than typical.
Sad.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:04 AM on May 1, 2005

elgilito - You could also say that the market for Christian self-help books (say, The Purpose-Driven Life) have a niche market. That book alone has sold over 21 million copies.
posted by Alt F4 at 7:30 AM on May 1, 2005

Not to mention Christian fiction such as the Left Behind series. Those books have sold millions of copies as well.

The mall where Big Idea was headquartered is Yorktown Center in Lombard, IL, not far from where I live. A couple years ago I temped at a place in Lombard right near Yorktown and would go to lunch at the food court there every so often. The door where I came in was right by the headquarters...the windows into the mall were covered with VeggieTales pictures so we couldn't look in. I had no idea the company went under.
posted by SisterHavana at 9:30 PM on May 1, 2005