Modest Start-Up Is On A Mission
Parents, will you buy your kids a Power Rangers video to teach them how to karate chop? Or Ren and Stimpy, which instructs children how to be more sarcastic? How about Rugrats, featuring kids who upset their parents?
Nuts to that! Why buy something that makes your job harder?
Instead, why not buy a VeggieTale video that teaches the real meaning of Christmas? A tomato named Bob and Larry the Cucumber narrate “The Toy that Saved Christmas.”
An evil toymaker named Mr. Nezzer has convinced all of Dinkletown that “Christmas is when you get stuff!” With TV ads, he sells a toy named Buzz-Saw Louie. The town’s kids, who are little peas, start nagging their broccoli parents: “I need more toys. I want a Buzz-Saw Louie! Waa!”
It looks like this will be the worst Christmas ever, until one brave little Buzz-Saw Louie rebels and decides Christmas is not about children whining for more toys.
Buzz-Saw Louie, Bob and Larry ask a wise mailman what the real meaning of Christmas is. He tells them about the first Christmas in Bethlehem, with verses from Luke about an angel of the Lord appearing to shepherds, saying “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy … Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord.” Angels appear, singing “Glory to God.”
“That baby was Jesus,” says the mailman. “God loved people so much that he gave his only son. Christmas is not about getting. Christmas is about giving.”
The delightful trio decide they must tell all of Dinkletown the real meaning of Christmas. But how, with only one day to go? Buzz-Saw Louie remembers that Mr. Nezzer has a TV studio. Like Hardy boys, the group walks into the Toy Factory, finds the TV studio and broadcasts the news with a snappy song. That gladdens the hearts of parents and children.
Mr. Nezzer catches them at the end of the broadcast, and is furious. He sneers: “Do you think anyone cares about this giving and love stuff?” He ties them up and is about to push their toboggan over a cliff, when several families from Dinkletown show up, saying, “We’re here to tell you that we care, and are here to give you what you deserve.”
What does the old curmudgeon deserve? Why, a Christmas present of course! That melts the old boy, who joins them in celebrating Christmas.
There are ten other VeggieTale videos such as “Dave and the Giant Pickle,” which stars Junior Asparagus, whose foe is an eight-foot pickle. It is a retelling of David and Goliath, teaching that with God’s help, little guys can do big things, too.
VeggieTales was created by Phil Vischer, 32, a former bible college student who was asked not to return because he and a pal, Mike Nawrocki, flunked chapel. They met when they were auditioning for a puppet team. In 1986, both worked for a video post-production house on computer animation, which was being born as an art form.
They helped create commercials such as Pop Tarts jumping out of a toaster. But Vischer longed to “use storytelling and filmmaking to point people to God, to reintroduce a higher authority into media.”
He had to create characters that “could not have arms, legs, hair or clothes” because those were too difficult to animate. He thought of using candy bars but thought parents might object, so he chose to use vegetables that they’d like more: an armless, legless cucumber that moved by hopping. In 1990-91, he created a 12-second scene to see if its personality came across.
The character was charming but a year of knocking on the doors of potential funders was so fruitless that he nearly gave up. Then a couple at church said, “We believe in what you are doing,” and invested money from a retirement fund. His parents took a second mortgage. He bought a $75,000 computer and plunged into creating “Where’s God When I’m S-Scared?”
With ads in Christian magazines promising delivery before Christmas, Vischer barely made it, selling 500 copies in 1993. By 1996, his company, Big Idea Productions, had sold 700,000 copies. That figure climbed to 1.8 million last year and has now reached an astonishing 4.5 million.
Big Idea’s vision: “It is our goal to markedly enhance the moral and spiritual fabric of our culture through creative media.”
The Chicago-based company has a Web site, www.bigidea.com, and can be reached at 800-229-1002.