Hey folks, Harry here.... OH MY GOD, it's JONAH: THE VEGGIE TALES MOVIE!!! I don't even think Quint knows he should be excited to see this. The only thing more terrifying to Quint than the Great White Shark is... Veggies! He hates em! In fact he'll never put in a Tomato again! I'm serious! And don't even get me started on... Cucumbers and Radishes... Wanna really put the fear of god into Quint... Throw SPROUTS at him! He'll recoil in terror! Now combine up his Veggie-phobia with the JAWS reference in this film, and you have a film that is rated PG-QUINT "May be too intense for some Quints" Here's a look...
Hey Harry-
I've been reading your site for years now... I can even reminisce about the glory days with your "Independence Day" background. Never had the chance to add much of value, being located in the middle of the midwest as I am.
But I hadn't seen much on the site about "Jonah- the Veggie Tales Movie." Saw one early review back in July of the not-yet-completed film. I figured with the kiddie media blitz starting this week (and if you haven't seen it, you don't watch enough Nickelodeon), folks might be curious about what the heck this is. So, being the loyal AICN-er that I am, and given the fact that I have a contact or two at this studio, I managed to get myself snuck into an advance screening.
If you're not familiar with Veggie Tales, they've been quietly pumping out half-hour videos out of the old Woolworth's at Yorktown Mall outside of Chicago (I kid you not). I think alot of people dismiss these out of hand because they've been labelled as Christian videos, and they tend to wind up between Barney and The Wiggles on video store racks. But if you give them a chance, you'll find some quality CGI animation, some great writing, and hysterical songs that will stick in your head for weeks. If you've ever heard grown men humming tunes about hairbrushes, they're probably Veggie fans.
OK, enough prelude and onto Jonah. The opening sequence is a Chuck Jones-y slapstick-y bit that winds up with a bunch of kids and their fathers (yes, they're all vegetables) stuck in an old seafood restaurant. They're fighting and crabbing at each other. Enter the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, some goofy characters from the video series, who tell the story of Jonah to teach a lesson.
Yes, Jonah is the guy who got stuck in a whale. But there's a lot more to his story... we find out how he wound up in the whale, and what happened afterwards. We learn that Jonah is a famous prophet who brings messages from God. There's a great musical number that spoofs the traditional Disney production numbers... imagine the cast of "Mary Poppins" singing a song about Talmudic law. These guys have a lot of guts to try to pull this off... but it works.
The whale sequence itself is only the second act of the film (and the whale looks great... it has awesome scale, and the scene where he swallows Jonah is pretty stunning). There's a showstopper gospel number inside the belly of the whale, when a bunch of angels show up to tell Jonah to get his act together. I was just starting to think how this was like James Brown's song in Blues Brothers, when the veggies started flying through the air off trampolines, just like in that movie. See above comment about guts!
The third act tells what happens after the whale. I won't spoil it here, but I will say that I had no idea how they were going to handle this in a kid's movie. If you've ever read Jonah, you know it doesn't really end... it kind of has a "Lady or the Tiger" finish. But lo and behold, they managed to bring a satisfying closure to the story while staying true to the original.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film, from start to finish. I say that as a 35-year-old movie geek and huge animation fan. The animation is solid, there are several laugh-out-loud moments, and the score and songs are great and catchy. The best way to describe the movie is a cross between "Shrek", "Animaniacs", and "The Prince of Egypt." Like the first two, it works on different levels for kids and adults. For example, about halfway through, I started jotting down all the movies I spotted that are spoofed in "Jonah"... I got:
• Field of Dreams
• Willy Wonka
• Blues Brothers
• Jaws
• Bond movies
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
and I'm sure I missed some. There are enough wink-wink nudge-nudges (even a reference to "ALF") to keep mom and dad happy through the hour-and-a-half. But more importantly, my five year old absolutely loved it, and he's a moderate Veggie fan at best. I've never heard him laugh through a film like he laughed through this one, and he's still talking about it.
So here's the final word. If you're an adult who likes goofy kid's humor and animation, Jonah is worth checking out. If you have kids who have seen the commercials and are interested, they'll be happy you took them. But whatever you do, stay through the credits. After the ubiquitous ready-to-be-a-single tune from the boy's band, they play "The Song that Goes Under The Credits" and it's completely worth the price of admission.
Hope you found that useful. If you print this, sign me "UproariousBob"
