Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie

**Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie** (also known as **Big Idea's Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie** or simply as **Jonah**) is a 2002 American computer-animated Christian musical comedy adventure film produced by Big Idea Productions and released by Artisan Entertainment through its F·H·E Pictures label. 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 linked by the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, who were first seen in the Silly Song of the same name in Very Silly Songs!. The first story 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 times, is based directly on the biblical story of Jonah. Through both stories, compassion and mercy play a role in giving people a second chance.
Jonah: A VeggieTales Moviepremiered on August 14, 2002, and came out as a regular release two months later on October 4. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the humor and narrative style. The film grossed $25.6 million against a $14 million production budget, making it the highest-grossing film released by Big Idea Productions.
The film 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 Blu-ray in 2011 by Lionsgate (Artisan's successor).

## Plot

Bob the Tomato and Dad Asparagus are driving Veggie children to see the popular singer "Twippo" in concert. During the drive, Laura taunts the other children because she won a backstage pass, which particularly annoys Junior. Bob briefly loses control of the van after being hit in the back of the head by a guitar, and Laura loses her pass in the chaos. To make matters worse, soon afterwards a porcupine shoots out two of the van's tires, and the van veers off the road and careens down a hill, stopping short of a river.
At a nearby restaurant, Bob blames Dad Asparagus for the crash and Junior argues with Laura about losing her pass. Junior is met by The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, who tell Junior he was being rather tough on his friend and encourage him to show some compassion. To illustrate their point, they tell all the Veggies a story about a man of God named Jonah.
Jonah is a Prophet of ancient Israel who goes from town to town delivering God's messages. One night, God asks him to deliver a message to the people of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire (in what is now Mosul, Iraq); however, Jonah is unwilling to preach a word of repentance to the Ninevites since they are people of corruption and instead tries to flee from the Lord by running to the port city of Jaffa (which has since been merged with the nearby city of Tel Aviv in 1949 to form the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa) to have The Pirates sail him to Tarshish (beloved to be in what is now Spain). After leaving port, a guilt-stricken Jonah goes below deck to rest where he meets Khalil.
After experiencing a nightmare, Jonah awakens to find the ship beset by a great storm. Captain Pa Grape concludes the storm has been sent because God is angry at someone on the ship. The group decides to play Go Fish to divine who is at fault. Jonah loses the game and is forced to walk the plank and as soon as Jonah is off the ship, the skies clear. The Pirates attempt to reel Jonah back in, but before they can do so, Jonah is swallowed by a giant whale. The pirates attack the whale using a cannon with a bowling ball as ammo. The whale swallows the ball, disgorges Jonah's lifebelt, and swims away.
Inside the belly of the whale, Khalil finds Jonah, who realizes that he disobeyed God in trying to run from Him and is certain that his death is near. The pair are soon visited by a host of God's angels, who explain if Jonah repents, God will grant him a second chance. Jonah gladly repents, and after spending three days and nights in the belly of the whale, he and Khalil are spat up onto the shore, where they ride Reginald to Nineveh.
After Jonah is denied entrance to the city, the Pirates appear, explaining they won the Mr. Twisty's Twisted Cheese Curls sweepstakes which grants them free access to Nineveh where they are produced. The group is soon arrested after Larry accidentally steals several bags of Cheese Curls thinking they were free samples, and they are sentenced to death. As a last request, they are granted an audience with King Twistomer. Jonah then delivers the message given to him by God and tells the Ninevites that they should immediately repent of their sins or Nineveh will be destroyed; King Twistomer and the Ninevites listen to Jonah's message and repent.
Still expecting God to destroy Nineveh for their past sins, Jonah watches and waits from a distance in the hot sun. God provides a plant to shade Jonah, only for Khalil to eat a single leaf off the plant, which kills it. Jonah laments the dead plant, and Khalil is disappointed Jonah shows compassion for a plant, but not the Ninevites. Khalil then tries to explain God is compassionate and merciful and that he wants to give everyone, both Israelites and non-Israelites, a second chance. Jonah refuses to accept this and states it would be better if he was dead. The story ends with Khalil and Reginald leaving Jonah to his sulking.
Back in the present day, the Veggies are disappointed in the anticlimactic ending, but come to understand the point of the story: God wants everybody to show compassion and mercy, even to those that do not seem to deserve it. Twippo then 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 a song and the arrival of a tow truck driver, who is none other than Khalil.

## Why It's A Message From The Lord

1. The film is incredibly faithful to the show it was based on as it still teaches biblical morals and even has the humor and heart of the show, along with what made the characters good.
2. Great animation for 2002 standards, just like the show. In fact, it’s worth stating that the animation in this movie looks even better than the show itself and is arguably said to have the best animation due to the fact that it has a movie sized budget.
3. The characters from the series are still lovable and funny.
4. Just like the show, the movie tries never to get too preachy when teaching lessons and still did a good job at it instead of jamming it down your throat, like compassion and mercy.
5. Catchy songs, like Jonah Was a Prophet, Message from the Lord, and In the Belly of the Whale.
6. For the most part, despite taking some liberties from it, the film is pretty respectful to the actual Jonah story, since Jonah (Archibald) actually did get swallowed by a whale, even if some extra material was added to make it have the title of a feature film.
7. The movie's sense of humor is very entertaining and funny.
8. Great voice acting, since a lot of the actors from the show returned to reprise their roles for this movie.
9. It was very nice to see Larry, Pa Grape, and Mr. Lunt as pirates again after the Ultimate Silly Song Countdown.
10. It did a great job at being the first CGI movie to be a musical, since all other animated musicals around at the time were only traditionally animated, especially Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Swan Princess, Pocahontas, Anastasia, Mulan, and The Prince of Egypt, the last of which was made by DreamWorks Animation, the very studio that ended up acquiring the rights to VeggieTales in 2012.
11. Khalil is a great new character who serves as a good companion to Jonah. He would later go on to be in the actual show starting with The Ballad of Little Joe.

## Bad Qualities

1. **Geographical inaccuracy**; in the scene where Jonah realizes God has ordered him to to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria (in modern day Iraq), he lists a number of cities in Israel including Jerusalem, Damascus, Shiloh, Gilgal, Jericho, Joppa (present day Tel Aviv), Afek and Jezreel, all of which are indeed located in the modern day nations of Israel and Palestine, except for Damascus, which is not located in Israel, but Syria, and is also the capital of Syria.
2. Despite the humor being hilarious, it can be overly cheesy at times.
3. It portrays drugs, obedience, Rules, Laughing, violence and Disobedience as automatically bad or automatic good life choices, when really, all five are ambiguous choices in life, though drugs could be justified since taking too many drugs can be bad for you.