VeggieTales Creator Partners With Tyndale For New DVD Series

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Some exciting news about an upcoming project I’ll be working on:

Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales (the best-selling direct-to-video series of all time) and of the kids’ media website JellyTelly.com has just announced a partnership with Tyndale House Publishers to create a 13-volume educational DVD series called “What’s In The Bible?” The DVD’s will take kids through the Bible from cover to cover using a combination of puppets, animation, and live action to teach about the Bible and the Christian faith. The DVD’s will be released this coming Spring.

Announcement on Phil’s blog.

Press release from Tyndale

The best part (for me at least) is that I get to play a small role in the project. I’ve been hired to animate three segments, and if that goes well there will likely be more to come.

The DVDs are going to echo back to the spirit of the old Disney educational films from the 1960’s but with a modern, snappy sensibility. I’m a huge fan of the early Disney and UPA-style educational films (especially the work of Ward Kimball like the classic Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom – Amazon link). For years I’ve been thinking how cool it would be to use educational animation to teach the Bible and theology. Bible literacy is on the decline in America so this series will help fill a huge need. I’m thrilled to play a small part in it. Based on what I’ve seen so far, it’s going to be a very fun and quality product!

Look for the first two DVDs to be in stores in Spring of 2010. In the mean time, for samples of Phil’s latest offerings visit JellyTelly.com. Just what exactly is JellyTelly? Glad you asked.

Veggies In The Unemployment Line

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veggietales

Sad news. It appears that VeggieTales may soon be no more.

Big Idea, the studio that fifteen years ago gave us Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato, has recently laid off most of its staff and announced that the company’s owners are facing bankruptcy. Details are posted at Phil Vischer’s blog.

This isn’t the first time Bob and Larry have seen hard times. Phil Vischer founded the company in 1993 and VeggieTales became an overnight sensation in the Christian retail world. The company grew fast and furious but eventually overextended itself. Vischer was forced to lay off staff and in 2003 filed for bankruptcy. He’s written an excellent book about his rise and fall entitled Me, Myself, and Bob (Amazon.com link) in which he takes full responsibility for his mistakes and shares some valuable lessons that he learned. Terrific reading for anyone interested in Christian entertainment. For the abridged version, read Vischer’s 11-part blog post about his experiences entitled “What Happened To Big Idea?”.

After Vischer’s bankruptcy Big Idea was auctioned off to Classic media who eventually sold it to Entertainment Rights. Due to a number of factors (including a steady decline overall in the children’s video market) Entertainment Rights is now deeply in the red. Hence the massive layoffs. Like I said, Bob and Larry have been through tough times before but this appears to be the worst they’ve ever faced.

I know several Big Idea employees personally and worked with a few of them on the TV series 3-2-1 Penguins! (which was also a Big Idea property). They are all quality people, total professionals who were absolutely terrific to work with. My heart goes out to them and their families as they search for new employment in a less-than-stellar economy. If you think of it, remember them in your prayers.

And if you are looking to hire any animation artists/writers/directors let me know. I’ll be happy to give you some terrific referrals.

Tod Carter Interview

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Tod Carter is an uber-talented artist. He’s worn a lot of hats over the years from animator to story artist to director to illustrator. He’s worked on projects for companies such as Disney, DreamWorks, and Big Idea (VeggieTales) as well as several TV commercials. I had the privilege of working under him on 3-2-1 Penguins! (he directed several of the episodes I worked on) and he was always a terrific boss. I’ve also had fun inking Tod’s pencils for a couple of VeggieTales children’s books through Scholastic, such as the one pictured above.

Recently the website Animated Views posted a lengthy interview with Tod. Among other things he talks about what it’s like to work on a Disney “cheapquel”. Fascinating stuff.

While you’re at it, check out Tod’s blog (which I’ve added to my blogroll at left) and the website of his new company, Brain Freeze Entertainment. You’ll be glad you did.

“3-2-1 Penguins!” TV Series Now On DVD

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Last year I had the privilege of working as a character designer for 3-2-1 Penguins!, a Saturday morning animated series currently airing on NBC. Penguins began it’s life on VHS back in the 1990’s with several episodes being produced by Big Idea (the company that gave us VeggieTales). Last year NBC warmed up to the property and ordered an entire season of brand-new episodes for their Saturday morning TV block.

3-2-1 Penguins! could best be described as Star Trek meets Looney Tunes. Four zany penguins (Zidgel, Fidgel, Midgel, and Kevin) travel the universe in their space ship, taking along two kids (Jason and Michelle) to help them on their missions. Their main enemy is Cavitus, a melodramatic villain who is really just a hamster parading around inside of a giant robot suit. Each episode involves a run-in of some sort with aliens, robots, and other wacky interplanetary creatures (one episode takes place on a planet inhabited by lawn flamingos and garden gnomes). In the course of each episode Jason and Michelle learn a biblical lesson from the book of Proverbs.

This week the series began its rollout onto DVD. “Save the Planets!” (Amazon.com link) is a one-disc DVD containing three episodes from the TV version of the series:

  • The Green-Eyed Monster
  • More is More
  • Give and Let Give

Special features include:

  • Audio Commentary on all three episodes
  • How to Draw Kevin and Chancellor Gutt (one of the character’s I designed)
  • Animation Progression Reel
  • Pearls of Wisdom
  • Make Your Own Planet
  • Video Trivia
  • Discussion Guide
  • DVD-Rom Fun!

As I mentioned above, I designed misc. characters (and a few props) for about half of the episodes in the series. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that all three episodes chosen for this DVD were episodes I worked on. Hopefully more episodes will make it onto DVD in the near future.

3-2-1 Penguins!: Save The Planets! is available at your local Wal-Mart, in Christian bookstores, or on Amazon.com.

EDIT: Here’s a review of the DVD from Past The Popcorn.

Jelly Telly

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Yikes! It’s been almost a week since my last post. My apologies. Things have been pretty crazy here. Earlier this week I even had to pull an all-nighter to meet a big deadline. (I must be getting older. Those all-nighters are getting a lot more grueling than they used to be.)

Fans of VeggieTales might appreciate this: Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales, is starting a new venture called Jelly Telly. The ground work is still being laid, but the plan is to create a launching pad for quality Christian entertainment for kids. You can read all about it on Vischer’s blog. Click on the “What is Jelly Telly?” button and you can read a fascinating 5-part post about the current state of children’s entertainment and specifically Christian media. It’s long but well worth the read.

To get things rolling, Jelly Telly is looking for Flash animators and motion graphic artists to create bumpers using the Jelly Telly logo. They can’t pay for the work, so you’d be signing away all rights for nothing but a little exposure. Still, if you are excited about the possibilities Jelly Telly could provide you might want to take part.

Or, if you just want to share artwork and ideas or follow the goings-on, join the Jellyfish Labs online community site. Here’s my page. However, before contributing be sure to read the Terms of Use. They basically state that any artwork and ideas you submit become the property of Jelly Telly. I wish that wasn’t the case but I suppose that’s the only way they can effectively prevent themselves from getting sued down the line.

Normally I strongly urge artists to avoid contests, promotions, and other gimmicks that require them to give away their work and ideas for nothing. However, I really believe in what Jelly Telly is trying to do. Besides, this is not the normal “give me artwork for free and maybe you’ll get some (worthless) exposure” scenario. Usually when someone wants free artwork it’s because they are looking to take advantage of young up-and-comers who are desperate for a chance to get a little experience. Vischer is different. He acknowledges that there’s a lot of poor-to-mediocre Christian media out there and he’s looking to raise the bar. The sense I get is that he is primarily interested in contributors who have a lot of talent/experience and who can afford to give a little free work because they are already established. So as distasteful as it is to me in this case I’d say if you want to give it a try, go for it.  I enjoy dabbling in Flash and might even try to develop a bumper myself, under two conditions:

1. I come up with a simple but clever idea.

2. I find a little free time.

Right now it would take a minor miracle for the second one to happen, but here’s hoping. In any case, I’ll be watching the progress at Jelly Telly closely and hoping it takes off.

“The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” Opens Today!

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After 28 episodes on DVD those crazy veggies from VeggieTales are starring in their second big-screen feature film, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything (official site).

“The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” started out as a Silly Song on VHS way back in 1997 (every VeggieTales episode has at least one Silly Song). The song became so popular that the Pirates eventually hosted a DVD countdown of Silly Song fan favorites in which they took second place. Later they were given large supporting roles in the first VeggieTales theatrical release, Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie. Now they’re starring in their very own big screen adventure.

Here’s the Silly Song that started it all. The 3D rendering looks a little rough by today’s standards, but remember it was made over ten years ago:

For the new Pirates movie some of the character designs and storyboards were provided by Tom Bancroft and Rob Corely, two of the terrific directors I worked under on 3-2-1 Penguins!. Both are Disney animation veterans who now co-run their own studio, FunnyPages Productions. Check out their blog over the next few days to see some of their work for the film.

Tom emailed me the following about Pirates:

This is Rob and my 9 or 10th feature film to be involved in and while it is the lowest budget of them all, it really turned out nice! We went to the premiere last night and were very impressed by the strong art direction (by our friend Chuck Vollmer at Big Idea), good modeling and animation (provided by Starz Animation in Canada) as well as entertaining story that kids will love.

Our company provided most all of the character designs (including the show stealers- The Rock Monsters, Cheese Curls, and the evil Pirate Robert!), as well as storyboarding the opening, ending, and sections in the middle, creating the opening title artwork (with Monika Brozda, thanks) and layouts for the cave section! Whew, it was a busy time last summer. If anyone wants to see how far under 10 million can go, this is it! So, go THIS WEEKEND and support our friends at Big Idea Productions (and Funnypages Productions indirectly), you’ll be happy you did!

Here’s the trailer:

Check out the offical site for more info about The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.