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doakish
Reviews
Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002)
Amazing animation, flat story
As a die-hard Veggie fan, it's a bit difficult to give an unbiased opinion of the film. My wife and I left the theater with our three-year-old son in silence. We weren't impressed. I can't really tell you how my son felt, but his interest level did sway from time to time during the film. Jonah simply didn't have enough of the wit, the `silly songs,' or craziness we're used to. We all left disappointed.
For those who don't know the franchise, Veggie tales are wholesome children's stories with a `God' theme. I personally like my son learning about God. The videos don't come off as preachy, they teach positive models on friendship, lying, sharing, and forgiveness (to name a couple). The binder to the stories is that `God wants us.' or `God teaches us.' that as people we should treat ourselves and others with love.
Jonah, in a nutshell, was a long telling of Jonah and the Whale, the Bible story. Characters like `The Pirates who don't do Anything' are fun to watch, as is the amazing rendering of the animation (earlier videos showed major polygons in the curves of the eyes, as an example), but the movie was preachy, plain and simple. I could only think leaving the theater that BigIdea (production company) just limited their future films to a major target audience. A lot of my friends don't want religious films for their children, and prior to the film, VeggieTales really walked the fine line. It was fun, educational, good life lessons, and happened to reference God.
In the series, BigIdea spun off a character into his own series: Larry-Boy. Battles evil, saves the day kind of stuff. Lot of fun. I honestly think that BigIdea could have introduced a less `God' film as their first film effort, like Larry-Boy, to capture the interests of those who simply thought VeggieTales was a kids series. I just think they excluded themselves from a major audience, and that saddens me, because I love the series and tell everyone I know about it.
Last thing, if they had stopped the film half way, done an `intermission' and spat out a Silly-Song, I think the laughs would have been there in spades. I just didn't laugh, and neither did most the people in the audience.
Love BigIdea, love the Veggies, love Bob and Larry, love Mike and Phil, this is just our least favorite effort of the series.
5 out of 10
Congo (1995)
The worst movie I have ever seen.
Congo is the only movie that I have almost walked out on. It was horrible. The special effects were embarrassing, and those ape suits looked like they bought them from a bargain-basement costume shop. This movie should have stayed a book. Read the book, and avoid the movie like the plague.