Veggie Tales

I took the kids to see Veggie Tales in the theater this week. It was a boring 70 minutes and then a really thought-provoking tear session! First, I thought we were going to see Jonah and the Big Fish, so it took me a long time of confusion to catch on to what was happening in the story. More than half-way through, I realized this was not about Jonah, it was a different movie about pirates. The plot is long and drawn-out (and boring) but it ends very good and ties it all together. Basically the veggies were put on this quest, but they didn't know what they were doing or where they were going. They had no guidelines, no "life manual" if you will. There is a princess who needs to be saved and calls them heroes, and they say "No, we're not heroes, we're just lazy slobs who aren't good for anything." But they end up helping her anyway. There is a long quest to get this kidnapped princess back to her family.

So at the end of the movie, the veggies meet the King who set this all up. By this time, you've been sitting in a crowded, warm, dark theater for 70 minutes, with a squirmy baby on your lap and a 3-year-old who won't stop asking "Now is it over? Now is it over? When is it over?" You feel the end of the movie coming on so you're packing things up and looking forward to getting out of there. And then the veggies ask the king - "What was going on here? You got something wrong. We're not heroes. We're nobody." And the King tells them, "No, I didn't get anything wrong. This is exactly what I wanted to happen. I had you in the palm of my hand the whole time. I wouldn't ask you to do anything unless I knew you could do it. I was helping you the whole way. And you did it! You ARE heroes. You are very special to me."

Sniff Sniff...

Don't anybody look at me. Take your kids and leave the theater please. I am just going to sit here and feel this for a minute, while my kids crawl around the dirty floor.

Yes, Veggie Tales with important life lessons.