Hermie and Friends

Hermie and Friends
The real Gaither's Pond's heir!
Genre: Comedy Christian Country: United States Release Date: January 4, 2003 – May 1, 2010 Created by: Max Lucado Starring: Tim Conway Don Knotts Melissa Disney Sam Mercurio Vicki Lawrence Frank Peretti Third Day Tahj Mowry Dan Lynch Rick Burgess Bill Bussey Judge Reinhold Richard Kind John Causby Seasons: 2 Episodes: 15

Hermie and Friends is an American Christian video series for preschoolers which ran from 2003 to 2010. The show is 3D animated and stars two caterpillars named Hermie and Wormie.

The show started with a 40-minute Max Lucado video special called Hermie: A Common Caterpillar, based on his book of the same name. The show was turned into a video series that takes place before Hermie became a butterfly. Licensed products include Christian video games, which loosely follow the videos. It was also broadcast on the Australian Christian Channel in Australia.

"Oh Boy, Here We Go Again" Qualities

1. The concept is rather unoriginal and poorly executed, as it's a rip-off version of DreamWorks' Antz and Disney/Pixar's A Bug's Life, considering it's based on books.
2. The CGI animation (while okay) can look incredibly horrific, with ugly character designs (with Buzby's design being the ugliest), poorly polished and blurry textures, and poorly-made backdrops, especially in the first episode Hermie: A Common Caterpillar. This series lasted for seven years and hardly had much animation improvement.
3. Some characters (while not unlikable) can be quite annoying most of the time, including Buzby, and sometimes even Hermie himself.
4. As anyone would expect from a series focused on bugs, the main antagonist is a common frog, who doesn't even have a personality.
5. This series tends to be full of episodes with disgusting scenes.
6. Several failed comedy attempts, with some boring and repetitive jokes, especially for the episode where Buzby is spelling out everything he says.
7. The song is sung in the episode "Milo the Mantis Who Wouldn't Pray" has a tune that sounds pretty much like that of the song "God is Bigger" from VeggieTales. Imagine what would Phil Vischer think of this if he would be able to check this out for himself, listen closely to how the tune sounded, and most importantly, interpret the distinct similarities to each song!
   • Speaking of the episode where the song is from, the title is almost misleading as it states that Milo was a mantis who "wouldn't pray" (keyword: wouldn't), when in the episode, the general topic was that Milo admits he didn't know how to pray. Viewers would assume the episode would have been about Milo refusing to pray as it had the aforementioned keyword "wouldn't" when he didn't know how to the whole time as presented in the episode although the episode's main lesson to children was that God can answer prayers in any form or way.
8. While the voice acting is good, the screaming and yelling feel kinda weak and poorly done, mainly Hermie's.

Good Qualities

1. There are some nice and likable characters like Wormie. Hermie can be nice and likable too most of the time.
2. As this is a series for preschoolers, many of the episodes have a good moral lessons, like always telling the truth, always following the rules, to accept people for who they are.
3. As horrific as it looks, the CGI animation is pretty much okay, and it's not nearly as horrific as the CGI animation is in Dorbees: Making Decisions, especially in the last 14 episodes.
   • Additionally, the backdrop designs can be nice to look at.
4. Good voice acting, mainly from Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Melissa Disney, Sam Mercurio, and even Richard Kind.
5. It does have some funny moments here and there.
6. It can be nostalgic for everyone.

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