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Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie is a 2002 American computer-animated Christian musical comedy adventure film produced by Big Idea Productions and Nickelodeon Movies and released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first feature-length film in the VeggieTales series. The themes for the film are compassion and mercy, using two stories as illustrations. The first takes place in the current day and concerns a mishap with Bob the Tomato and Dad Asparagus on the way to a concert; the second, set in ancient Israel, is based directly on the biblical story of Jonah. Through both stories, compassion and mercy play a role in giving people a second chance. The film also features the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything in both segments who were first seen in the Silly Song of the same name in Very Silly Songs!.

Most of the animation was done in house by Big Idea Productions, with additional animation being provided by Calabash Animation. Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie premiered on August 14, 2002, at a Hollywood movie theater and came out as a regular release two months later on October 4, 2002. The film also came out on VHS and DVD on March 4, 2003, as a worldwide home video release in both full-screen and anamorphic widescreen formats with a two-disc collector's edition. A DVD reprint with the feature and bonus features was released on January 29, 2008, by Word Entertainment and on Blu-ray in 2011 by Lionsgate (Artisan's successor), another reprint was released in 2018 by Universal Pictures (Big Idea's current parent company). It received mixed to positive reviews from critics and grossed $25.6 million against a $14 million production budget.

Plot[]

Bob the Tomato and Dad Asparagus are driving Junior Asparagus, Laura Carrot, Annie, and Percy Pea to a concert hosted by the kids' singer, Twippo. Laura, who has won a contest to see Twippo backstage, keeps taunting her friends about it, particularly annoying Junior. Meanwhile, Bob is frustrated with Dad Asparagus due to him singing songs and playing his guitar instead of helping him with the map. Despite Dad Asparagus telling her not to tease her friends about her ticket, Laura continues to taunt Junior, waving her ticket around in his face. Dad Asparagus accidentally hits Bob and Laura then loses her ticket, after which the group runs into a family of porcupines in which they pop out the tires. They crash at the bottom of a hill and become lost. Luckily, as everyone gets out of the van, they see a seafood restaurant.

They head to the restaurant to call a tow truck and grab a bite to eat. Upon entering, arguments break out: Bob angrily berates Dad Asparagus for hitting him with his guitar and making the van lose control in the forest (for which it just an accident), and Junior also berates Laura for taunting him about her ticket. As he sits down, he is greeted by The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, who tell him that what he said was merciless. They emphasize on their stance by telling him the story of Jonah.

Jonah (played by Archibald Asparagus) is a Prophet from Israel who goes from town to town delivering God's messages. But when God asks him to deliver a message to Nineveh, he resents Him and runs away to Tarshish with the Pirates, who reluctantly agree to take him on their ship when he pays them. Below deck, he meets Khalil the Caterpillar, a traveling Persian rug salesman, who rants about how great Jonah is and decides to travel with him.

After waking up from a nightmare, Jonah finds the ship beset by a really big bad violent storm! After a losing game of Go Fish, he admits to fleeing from God and is forced to walk the plank when Khalil sends their outboard motor overboard. With Jonah off the ship, the skies clear immediately. The Pirates attempt to reel him back in, but a whale swallows him (with the lifebelt attached to him). The Pirates fire their cannon at the whale but are forced to use a bowling ball (with Khalil inside it) as ammo. The whale merely swallows the ball, disgorges the lifebelt, and swims away.

Inside the whale, Khalil finds Jonah saddened that he is going to die for disobeying God, but they are visited by a host of God's messengers. They explain that if Jonah repents, then God will grant him a second chance too. He and Khalil are spit up onto the shore and are met by Jonah's camel Reginald. Together, they ride to Nineveh.

After Jonah is denied entrance to the city, the Pirates appear. They explain that they spent all the money Jonah gave them on Mr. Twisty's Twisted Cheese Curls and won a sweepstakes, giving them free access to Nineveh where the Cheese Curls are produced. They sneak Jonah into the city disguised as winners of the sweepstakes, thought they are all promptly arrested for Larry's theft of the King's personal Cheese Twists. After being sentenced to death by "the Fish Slap of No Return", they are granted an audience with King Twistomer (played by Apollo Gourd). When King Twistomer hears that Jonah has survived inside a whale, he reluctantly agrees to listen to his message. Jonah delivers the message given to him by God. He tells them they should repent and amend their ways, or Nineveh will be destroyed. King Twistomer and the Ninevites quickly repent.

Still expecting the Ninevites to be destroyed, Jonah watches and waits from a distance. Khalil is disappointed in Jonah, and tries to explain to him that God is compassionate and merciful. But Jonah, feeling pathetic and self-important, can't accept that. The story ends with Khalil and Reginald leaving Jonah alone on a cliff overlooking the city.

Back in the present day, the Veggies are disappointed in the anticlimactic ending but come to understand the point of the story - that God wants everybody to show compassion and mercy, even to those that don't seem to deserve it. Twippo (also played by Archibald Asparagus) appears in the restaurant unexpectedly and offers to give everybody a lift to the concert, while Bob forgives Dad Asparagus and Junior gives his Twippo ticket to Laura. The film ends with Twippo and the Pirates performing a musical number as well as the arrival of the tow truck driver (played by Khalil), whom Twippo and the Pirates seem to remember meeting during the Jonah story.

Characters[]

Voices[]

  • Bob, Pa Grape, Mr. Lunt, Archibald Asparagus, Mr. Nezzer - Phil Vischer
  • Mike Asparagus - Dan Anderson
  • Junior Asparagus - Lisa Vischer
  • Laura Carrot - Kristen Blegen
  • Larry the Cucumber - Jack Black
  • Khalil - Tim Hodge
  • King Twistomer - Michael Clarke Duncan

Songs[]

History and Production[]

Phil and Mike originally planned to do a 45-minute VeggieTales episode about Noah's Ark. But because animating animal fur is difficult, the story was switched over to Jonah due to water being easier to animate. They would eventually do an adaptation on Noah later. While Phil began writing the next Larry-Boy episode, Mike began writing the script for the 45-minute story. He came up with the idea of creating a modern-day framework with Bob and Mike Asparagus taking several kids to a concert. When Phil saw that Mike was on page 17, and still wasn't on the story of Jonah, he decided that the "episode" should be a feature-length film. The original script was completed in April 1999, but production didn't begin until a year later due to the lack of people at Big Idea. In order to get more funds for Jonah, Big Idea started creating several spin-off/live shows.

Because Big Idea had also started work on another VeggieTales episode, production on Jonah fell behind schedule. Towards the end of production, there were several issues when rendering and lighting the film, including certain shots being absorbed by the render farm. Because of this, Big Idea had to rent an extra room at the other end of Yorktown Center as a second render farm, causing the number of rendering computers to triple in size. Around 12 or 13 temporary lighting artists had to be hired, most of whom had just finished work on Ice Age or Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Both of these factors resulted in the budget increasing.

After the film's release, Big Idea filed for bankruptcy. One of the main reasons behind the decision was the film being considered a financial failure, as the company gained only $12-13,000,000 of the film's box office revenue, which wasn't enough to cover Artisan's distribution budget & their production budget. This led the company to be purchased by Classic Media.

After the company's bankruptcy and buyout, Phil Vischer stepped down as president of Big Idea. He continued his voice acting work for VeggieTales throughout the series' run, and worked as a writer for various episodes up until 2009, with the last script he helped write being Pistachio - The Little Boy That Woodn't. He later returned as a writer and executive producer for The VeggieTales Show in 2019.

Reception[]

Box Office[]

Jonah was released on October 4, 2002 in 940 theaters, debuting at sixth place with $6.2 million in its first weekend of release. It fell -40.9% in its second weekend, falling to eleventh place with $3.7 million.

At the end of its theatrical run, the film had grossed over $25.6 million worldwide. There was only one foreign market in Russia, which reportly earned $27,000.

Critical response[]

Based on 56 reviews collected by review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 66% of critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 5.86/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Jonah teaches wholesome messages to children in a funny, bouncy package." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Pete Croatto of the now-defunct Filmcritic.com praised the film as "a blast of educational energy", later citing it as an example of the surprises critics can find in viewing every film they can regardless of expected quality.

Home media[]

Main article: Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie/Home Video

It was released on DVD and VHS by Artisan Entertainment for the U.S. mass market, Alliance Atlantis for the Canadian mass market, and both Chordant Distribution Group and EMI Music Distribution for the Christian bookstore market on March 4th, 2003. The original English release had both fullscreen and widescreen versions. The Mexican Spanish dub is available on the DVD and was also released on VHS in the United States by Chordant Distribution Group on the same date. A second English release distributed by Word Entertainment came out in February of 2008, and contained the film and bonus features on one disc, except for the Widescreen option and easter eggs. Jonah was released on Blu-ray by Lionsgate Home Entertainment on March 8th, 2011, along with yet another DVD release from the same company. This DVD is identical to the 2003 release's first disc, save for the packaging and DVD label. A separate DVD release for the Mexican Spanish dub was also released on the same date.

The film would also be featured in various collections starting in 2010, including the Lessons for a Lifetime! triple feature, double features with An Easter Carol and The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, as well as being featured on the "Movies!" disc for the VeggieTales Library II.

On October 16, 2018, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment re-distributed the film on DVD. The contents on the disc are identical to the DVD produced by Word Entertainment. Universal had also included the film in the 25th Anniversary 10-Movie Collection.

DVD and Blu-ray re-releases for the film's 20th anniversary were released on November 8, 2022 and December 20, 2022 through Studio Distribution Services, including the entire episode of Jonah Sing-Along Songs and More! as a bonus feature, alongside a few new extras.

Fun Facts[]

Trivia[]

Transcript[]

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