How Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie DOOMED the Series 

Those impressions were one heck of a wave of nostalgia

You are the best at doing impressions of different VeggieTales characters

Yeah, even for somebody who grew up watching VeggieTales, it is stil pretty sad that this is where Big Idea met their downfall after almost a full decade at the time.

It's essentially a Greek tragedy

@@CJBStudios it wasn’t just the movie itself

As much of a masterpiece as I think JAVTM is (even by the high standards of the franchise not counting the 2010s thanks to DreamWorks having done so much wrong (with VeggieTales and their late 2010s (2015-2021) animated features), even I gotta admit, these are very valid points to keep a (charming yet) frail company like Big Idea afloat.

I honestly think it's fine at it's length. I think they should have waited until they had enough money.... it's sad to think that my favorite VT episode was essentially the Thomas and the Magic Railroad of VT....

...that makes sense.

thats dumb and fucking sad really

Woah......

Respect

"I will succeed with God's aid!" *FAIL* "God did not want me to succeed."

may that legend rest in peace

It kind of plays into the amount of money they spent making the movie when they straight up get him for a trailer. He must’ve been worth a lot.

Isn't that the guy who sometimes used to fill in for Casey Kasem?

I don't recall Powerpuff girls the movie damaging the company. It broke even.

@@icecreamhero2375 maybe not but the problem was that the Powerpuff girls movie was little bit too dark

@@animezilla4486 No darker than a typical episode of the show. Heck Speed Demon is darker.

@@icecreamhero2375 it did managed to kill off cartoon network future plans to put their animated shows on the big screen and instead made them into direct to TV films

Not nearly

It was my very first theatrical experience of my entire childhood for me back when this came out.

The Digitial Dalies short on the DVD is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

I know what you mean about the spooky thing. It's been a while since I saw it but I remember how they broke down and got stranded at that arcade diner late at night (already a classic horror trope). Even once they got into the story, the pacing was just a little.. *off* throughout the movie. When Jonah would go into that weird all-white dimension - "Jonaahh..." And ofc, Nineveh was creepy. And then the cutoff ending which I can't blame them for since it's straight from the Bible lol. The music number at the end helped take the edge off though. So yeah, it was just a little off. Tldr; Fib fro Outer Space was scary, but Jonah was just weird.

I mean, the dirty secret is basically every production company especially companies like disney and nickeloden. Disney has zero problem taking taxpayer money to help them out and then turning around and ripping everyone off with their products.

Even I loved this movie from my childhood, it is still an acclaimed flop

Not gonna lie, I didn't even know this happened or even aware of it until now. Sometimes Life can be a very crazy thing, huh?

And it wasn't that good of a movie. Jonah was the better one in comparison.

The only thing I remember about that movie is that cave full of those fake Cheeto things that almost gave me nightmares

@@Harudodo that scene confused me so much as a kid

It was a replacement for another project called “the Bob and Larry movie” where it was basically the origin of how Bob and Larry met and how they’re sentient veggies, and the movie was supposed to release on 2005. But the movie was canceled after the Big Idea’s bankruptcy and also animating humans would’ve been hard since there were supposed to be humans. I’d honestly love to see a movie about that. But what we got was a mediocre non-Christian based spin-off

@@silashurd3597 I've heard of that cancelled Bob and Larry movie. Too bad Big Idea's bankruptcy caused that project's cancellation. Oh, what could have been.

Judeo-Christian*

*Christian Tragedy, Yea*

The Bible stories are the significantly less cynical cautionary tales of hubris, but pious or not the ascent of Icarus and Tower of Babel are heralded examples of the human tendency of getting far too high on their horses.

I actually went to see the show when it came to my town as a kid. I remember having an absolute blast.

*Karens

LarryBoy was kinda adorable.

the larry-boy show theme song is forever engrained into my memory so those soccer moms clearly have zero taste when it comes to quality children's television

It was hard for me to believe it, too

Same happened when "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" showed up and destroyed "Thomas the Tank Engine '.

@@supermariof0521 I believe TATMR gave people the wrong message while Jonah made the franchise fall down because of its production problems.

@@ElliottEntertainmentChannel Really?

@@thefantasticretroreviewer3941 TATMR made people believe that Thomas was a kids show and that’s why the film doesn’t really have a place in the Thomas community. However Jonah made VeggieTales fall down because of the film being a “financial failure” and the Lyrick lawsuit.

Prince is Egypt is a fucking masterpiece. Not religious but easily my top 3 animated movies. But I think the reason Prince of Egypt worked while Veggietales lost its identity the second Dreamworks got ahold of it is that Veggietales was an animated ministry that managed to be entertaining enough for atheists to enjoy, despite the religious aspects. Prince of Egypt is an amazing story that happened to include religious aspects. Take a second to imagine Prince of Egypt without God, replacing the plagues with an escalating slave revolt. We can debate on whether or not it would be better, but we can all agree it would still be good. You would still have a heart wrenching drama about two brothers who used to be thick as thieves being forced to be enemies because one grew and now wants to end a great evil (Let my people go!) and the other can’t escape the pressure put on him by his father even though he’s dead (I will not be the weak link!). You would still have Aaron resenting Moses for not caring about them until he realized he was only a basket ride away from the wrong end of a whip, contrasted by Miriam ready to put the past aside because he’s doing good now. You would still have Moses torn by the added suffering of innocents, particularly children, who had no control over the situation, ending in the death of his own nephew. The list goes on. Veggietales without religion would be like Sesame Street without the education. An empty shell.

Lol. I owned the Jonah Movie when I was eight on VHS.

I agree. In fact, I think Thomas and VeggieTales take the exact same track in terms of their histories.

@@danielfoster3642 The same “track” eh?

@@sandy_shark Oh. I meant how both of those franchises were kind of in similar paths. Now, even Thomas is in trouble thanks to that poorly done 2D cartoon.

It's like poetry sorta, they ryhme

I saw it in theaters. We were late and made it just in time to only miss the opening credits.

Yeah I like the movie as well I was quite surprised it didn't do that well and you know something I really did like the Netflix version

Too late.

@@nyanpirethecat2257 What do you mean “too late”?!!! It’s not too late! Not if we think of a plan to get them back to work!

@@camdenspencer-thomas8800 they stopped working on veggietales and actually Mike Nawrocki is working on another show which is also about religion

@@JunaidWolf3 🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭😭I don’t want VeggieTales to get canceled!!!!! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!!?!!

@@camdenspencer-thomas8800 with the way cgi is now I feel like veggietales should be one of those shows that shouldn’t continue unless Dreamworks decides to make it like how it used to be

😂😂😂😂

The VeggieTales merchandise I have are a great spot on. As of today some of the merchandise in the some mid 2000s and 2010s are terrible.

It's like poetry sorta, they rhyme

That's pretty wholesome

I hope you went out for Seafoo afterwards

@@JadeyCatgirl99 No, we didn't. :P

@LC_Games Nice

so are y’all inviting us over for a watch party or…?

@@caseyhamm4292 What do you mean?

@@thefantasticretroreviewer3941 i’m saying mass invite everyone in this comments section to your house so we can watch veggietales together the way God intended

@@caseyhamm4292 Oh, that

I still think its to Far-Fetched for the film to somewhat doom VeggieTales. I know he technically already explained why it happened 21 Years ago, but still.

Yep.

No idea what you mean, but I'll go along with it and say pretty much

Most likely the first option, Jonah is really good and I don't think it started the downfall of this company

@@B3fromYT But Jonah gets too much blame- it's the faulty Lyrick lawsuit that took them down.

@@VeggieTalesUnofficial Really?

@The Ultimate Unofficial VeggieTales Channel! Yeah, that is true

@@B3fromYT Yep

That was something I didn't think about.

I bet a Larry Boy movie would've done a little better.

@@JadenVonBat I personally liked the way they introduced LarryBoy in Dave and the Giant Pickle, because Larry has to wear the superhero costume to make himself think that being a superhero would make him special, only for him to learn and realize that his normal self is more special, but that he can always dress up as a superhero whenever he feels like it. As much as I enjoy The Fib from Outer Space and Rumor Weed, I sometimes feel like they should have added another 30 minutes to both of those episodes. Or maybe they should have waited on working on anything LarryBoy related until the right time to make a feature film or TV series was there.

@@JadenVonBat this is what I’ve always been saying. I would’ve much preferred a Larryboy movie to a Bible role play one.

They actually made Lord of the Rings. It's called "Lord of the Beans."

@@danielfoster3642 Awesome!!

Sweatpea Beauty was garbage. The animation was atrocious and the writing was mediocre.

@@cordyceps7531 I grew out of VeggieTales by that point, so I really can't say for sure.

You're missing the extre "E"

Qubo was in danger? How?

@@cleverhilarious20 I'm talking about the Saturday morning block they aired the show on NBC. It being a time when saturday morning was pretty much dead in favor of cable kids channels.

Personally, Big Idea went downhill after 2002. Even if they did create The VeggieTales Show, which did get alot of respect from fans, it unfortunately didn't save the company much.

@@arc8216Oh. I see.

321 Penguins should have been a 4Kids show

Neither did I, I was 3 when I had a VHS of this movie and I had no idea about all that

hey. There were some episodes that were pretty good, and The Veggietales Show is good return to form as well, while also taking the series in a new direction.

@@chiebukachibee-zoraedu Lol. I just said until the 2019 reboot (which was The VeggieTales Show). That show was a great return. Even if it didn't fix Big Idea much.

@@kootunesscrewy oh, sorry.

2019 was good, but finding out what happened behind the scenes kinda ruined for me.

That movie seemed better than anyone expected

The issue is mainly from an economic point of view.

If they did

Imagine if that were the case

But the Black Cauldron nearly did

Also The Rescuers Down Under, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Home on the Range and Meet the Robinsons

One of the many reasons to get the DVD. I personally like the outtakes bonus feature.

Mr. Krabs: Money!

Same year as Ice Age

Prince of Egypt was made back when DreamWorks was great. When DreamWorks bought Big Idea, they were already on a huge decline in film quality.

@@danielfoster3642 Prince of Egypt's creators were also very respectful to the source materials and asked religious experts from Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, the result is all three religious groups were pretty happy with the movie. But Islamic countries banned the movie for a while because of their portrayal of prophets' rule.

@@danielfoster3642 back when dreamworks was great? They're still great now. Did you not even see Puss In Boots The Last Wish?

@@rommix0 Yeah. You've got masterpieces like Prince of Egypt, Road to El Dorado, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon. But you've also got duds like SharkTale and The Boss Baby.

@@danielfoster3642 Yeah and Boss Baby was in the 2010s, the nadir era of DreamWorks which is thankfully long gone.

I agree. The LarryBoy cartoon is definitely an underrated show. Too bad it came out at the wrong possible time.

LarryBoy the cartoon adventures was VeggieTales's equivelant of Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

@@abrahamcortina6322 I can definitely agree with that.

Just like Treasure Planet

@@abrahamcortina6322 I hadn't thought of that.

I had lost track of VeggieTales as an adult but I knew something was going on when they turned into a pop culture parody rather than Bible stories.

Nobody cared on 321 Penguins that much

@@abrahamcortina6322 I love it personally

@@zombiegamercat777 good for you than

@@abrahamcortina6322 Me too. I wasn't a huge fan of 321 Penguins that much for whatever reason.

Nobody cared about that movie anyway

Neither are true. The group that did the 2D LarryBoy animation were responsible for several of Disney's direct-to-video films. Phil only said it was _like_ Dexter's Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls

@@321Blender I see

Yeah, Cornerstone Animation had nothing to do with Cartoon Network. I don’t know why Phil thought they did.

@@LeafRazorStorm hmmm it sounds to me like Phil blindly allowed them to work on the show thinking they were involved with Dexter’s laboratory