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Is too much VeggieTales a bad thing? My 2½-year-old daughter doesn't think so. She struts around the house with her Junior Asparagus plush toy in hand, joyfully screaming the theme song from the popular video series, butchering every lyric except the climactic "There's never ever, ever, ever, ever been a show like VeggieTales!" Which, of course, is true.

Before the singing vegetables of VeggieTales hit the scene in 1993, there had never been a Christian video series that sold 25 million copies. There had never ever been a fully computer-animated feature (Pixar's Toy Story was still two years away). And there had never ever, ever been Christian-produced entertainment so funny and smart that viewers did not realize they were receiving moral instruction.

And so my little girl pleads for more Veggies: a morning screening of Madame Blueberry, an afternoon jam session with the VeggieTunes 2 CD, a bedtime reading of her VeggieTales storybooks. She's not alone in her appetite for more. In fact, the 2½-year-old demographic is only one sliver of a wide-ranging Veggie fan base. Watching VeggieTales videos has become a favorite pastime of church youth groups, the raison d'être for numerous parties on college campuses, and a not entirely unpleasant experience for that huge captive audience known as Mom and Dad. (Indeed, many parents can recite the words to Silly Songs like "His Cheeseburger" and "The Hairbrush Song" as well as their offspring.)

Phil Vischer certainly isn't worried about Veggie overexposure. He's the creator of the VeggieTales series, the voice of Bob the Tomato and other characters, and the mastermind behind Big Idea Productions, which produces VeggieTales and another hit video series, 3-2-1 Penguins! "Our mission is to improve people's lives by spreading God's truth," he says. And that means getting the Big Idea brand out into the world in as many forms as possible—toys, T-shirts, key rings, interactive games, vacation Bible school curriculum, and this month, in the company's most ambitious undertaking yet, a full-length feature film based on the Old Testament story of Jonah (see "Runaway Aspargus," p. 110).

By now, everyone is at least remotely familiar with VeggieTales. The red and green mugs of Bob the Tomato (VeggieTales' straight man and conscience) and Larry the Cucumber (his dull-witted but lovable sidekick) have become celebrated symbols of evangelical ingenuity in popular entertainment—a realm in which Christians have typically struggled to be taken seriously.

Jim Hill, a columnist for the online publication Digital Media FX, recently gushed about the sophistication and humor of Big Idea's productions. "So what is it that makes the programs that Big Idea puts out so entertaining to right-minded religious folks as well as heathens like myself?" he wrote. "It's simple, really. Not since the late Charles Schulz was working at the top of his game while drawing his acclaimed 'Peanuts' comic strip has there been something that was this silly but profound."

Vischer says he expects 2002 to be the year his company "explodes" into the marketplace. With the release of new video titles, a live stage show, and now Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (a $14 million production that is scheduled to open in 1,200 theaters on October 4), it's hard to doubt him. Big Idea has never been secretive about its ultimate aim: "To markedly enhance the moral and spiritual fabric of our society through creative media" and ultimately to become "the most trusted of the top four family media brands." When speaking to Christian audiences, Vischer sounds even more ambitious: "We want to change the world."

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October 7 2002, Vol. 46, No. 11