My family and I are big VeggieTales fan from the UK. The movie wasn't released over here, so I had to get a Region 1 DVD and a Multi-region player just to see it.
To be honest, the film, while good, was slightly disappointing. However the DVD extras were fantastic and also explained the reason for my initial disappointment.
One of the DVD extras tries to justify what I consider the movies two biggest faults. These are the choice of story and the choice of characters from the VeggieTale universe.
The problem with the story is that they stick to the well-known Bible Story TOO WELL. They carry on past the 'famous bit' and show the end of the story, which shows that actually Jonah is a bit mean and was disappointed that God didn't kill everyone! This means the main story ends on a bit of a down, and the tacked on `big finale' seems out of place to me.
The fact that the main character turns out to be not so nice partially explains the "casting".
If you're a big VeggieTale fan, you'll be left wondering why both the stars `Bob and Larry' have such a small part. If you're not a fan, you'll be wondering who all these characters are, especially "The Pirates who don't do anything!"
As a VeggieTale fan, I was also disappointed by a) The introduction of a major non-vegetable character!!! b) The fact that they continue to move away from the original joke' that vegetables can't hold anything (due to lack of arms). The movie has object's being held by invisible' hands and that just doesn't seem right to me.
All that aside, the movie is pretty good. Bright, fun, silly, and a good `moral' Bible story without `morality' being laid on too thickly.
The DVD extras disk was full of VERY funny stuff, and made up for the aggravation of having to send across the pond for a DVD.
P.S. It took me a while to realise that while the Outtakes appear in Spanish (!?!) the English version is available as an alternative' language.
