NASHVILLE \u2014 VeggieTales fans know that strange things happen when the big green digital cucumber launches into one of his infamous \u201cSilly Songs with Larry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The new \u201cSchool House Polka\u201d salutes words that sound alike, with the chorus: \u201cHomophones, homophones, where the crews come cruising down the plane. Homophones, homophones, I need my kneaded biscuits plain!\u201d The twist is that Larry keels over on his back and delivers an accordion solo that fuses great moments in rock music history.<\/p>\n\n
Some nervous Christian consumers let Mike \u201cLarry the Cucumber\u201d Nawrocki know that (a) Jimi Hendrix was not a Christian musician, (b) \u201cSmoke on the Water\u201d was not a Christian song and (c) \u201cSchool of Rock\u201d was not a Christian movie.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThere are always people who are going to say, \u2018We don\u2019t think rock \u2018n\u2019 roll like that is appropriate for our kids,\u2019 \u201d he said. \u201cYou just have to be funny anyway, even if that bugs them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Nawrocki pondered this artistic dilemma, then continued: \u201cThe whole key to humor is to be able to criticize the authorities and make fun of the powers that be. But that\u2019s hard for some Christians to do. \u2026 That may even mean criticizing the church, in particular. But how are we supposed to do humor if we can\u2019t do that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
It isn\u2019t easy to write computer-animated comedies that are safe enough for Sunday school, yet hip enough for media-soaked youngsters and their parents. Yet this high-wire act has made VeggieTales one of the most recognized brands in family entertainment.<\/p>\n\n
These days, even loyal customers are scrutinizing new products from Big Idea, Inc., the reorganized company that replaced Big Idea Productions. Phil \u201cBob the Tomato\u201d Vischer created the original company in 1993, but it slid into bankruptcy in 2003 after losing an $11 million federal lawsuit about a verbal contract with a video distributor.<\/p>\n\n
The new owner is Classic Media, which owns Rocky & Bullwinkle, Lassie, the Lone Ranger and a flock of family franchises. Nawrocki, musician Kurt Heinecke and a small team of other Big Idea veterans moved from greater Chicago to join a cluster of entertainment companies in Franklin, just outside Nashville. Vischer will continue to do the voices of his many digital characters, while writing one Veggie script a year and consulting on others.<\/p>\n\n
The key is that the VeggieTales brand is still healthy, said Terry Pefanis, the new chief operating officer. During the bankruptcy proceedings, bidders put Big Idea under a microscope and found that it was selling 5 million home video products a year, with about $50 million a year in total product sales.<\/p>\n\n
No one doubted the future of the Veggies \u2014 if they remained hip and wholesome. But Pefanis said executives from one or two entertainment giants still thought that Big Idea needed to stop quoting the Bible so much.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThey kept saying that VeggieTales needed less God so that we could make it big on mainstream television,\u201d said Pefanis. \u201cBut the problem is that if we stop talking about God, what use are we? What are we going to tell stories about? \u2026 On top of that, if we start leaving out the Bible, we\u2019re going to lose our core audience and we\u2019re dead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
As entertainment entrepreneurs, the new Big Idea leaders know they have to do what they have done in the past \u2014 dominate the Christian market, while reaching out to suburban superstores that hail from Arkansas. While the Christian retail industry claimed $4.2 billion in sales in 2003, the Big Idea team keeps talking about two bigger ideas in the marketplace. Forty percent or more of all Americans say they go to church and 80 percent or more say they believe in God.<\/p>\n\n
Thus, the new \u201cSumo of the Opera\u201d ends with a bite of St. Paul\u2019s Letter to the Hebrews, but gets to its lesson on perseverance via Gilbert and Sullivan, professional wrestling, ESPN and \u201cRocky.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t just haul off and hit people in the nose,\u201d said Nawrocki. \u201cIf you do, you\u2019ve started selling a sermon and that doesn\u2019t work. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NASHVILLE \u2014 VeggieTales fans know that strange things happen when the big green digital cucumber launches into one of his infamous \u201cSilly Songs with Larry.\u201d The new \u201cSchool House Polka\u201d salutes words that sound alike, with the chorus: \u201cHomophones, homophones, where the crews come cruising down the plane. Homophones, homophones, I need my kneaded biscuits […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[116,187,324,830,905],"class_list":["post-1302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-big-idea","tag-christian-bookstores","tag-entertainment","tag-storytelling","tag-veggietales"],"yoast_head":"\n