VeggieTales (Netflix era, 2014-2017)

VeggieTales (Netflix era, 2014-2017) VeggieTales gotta be OUT of this house! (And out of this city, as well.) Genre: Comedy Christian Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United States Canada (Animation production) Release Date: November 26, 2014 – September 23, 2016 (VTITH) February 24 - September 15, 2017 (VTITC) Network(s): Netflix (International) Piwi+, France 4 (Okoo) (France) MiniMini+ (Poland) Created by: Phil Vischer Mike Nawrocki Distributed by: Netflix NBCUniversal Television Distribution Starring: Phil Vischer Mike Nawrocki Tress MacNeille Rob Paulsen Kel Mitchell China Anne McClain Maurice LaMarche Tony Hale Jason Ritter Jon Heder Seasons: 4 (VTITH) 2 (VTITC) Episodes: 52 (104 segments) (VTITH) 26 (52 segments) (VTITC) Next show: The VeggieTales Show (2019)

VeggieTales is a children's religious animated series that began in 1993.

In 2014, DreamWorks and Netflix picked it up for two series titled VeggieTales in the House and VeggieTales in the City. The plot revolves around Bob and Larry (with revamped visuals) through their home teaching life lessons and good manners through their adventures there.

Why God Is Upset With This Era

1. The redesigns are not very good, especially Larry, as they try too hard to be anime-esque, but fail. Also, most of them look too different from the original designs, giving you an "it's just not the same" kind of vibe.
   • In fact, the redesigns were later used in the series finale of the original series.
2. The show does not bring anything interesting to the episodes, with many episodes and/or morals being overly predictable.
3. The concept of the characters leaving the countertop and exploring other areas of the house is poorly executed, as most of the show instead takes place in a city located inside the house.
4. Many of the characters are flanderized:
   • Bob the Tomato, while still the leader of the gang, is not as smart as he once was as. This is proven in "Bob and the Awesome Frosty Mustache", where he assumes he can overcome his stage fright just by wearing a mustache rather than having confidence.
   • Larry the Cucumber went from being Bob's silly, funny, yet helpful companion into an annoying, dumb, lazy, and jerk-like moron with an equally-annoying obsession for sardines and junk food.
     • Granted, Larry wasn’t a bright character since the original series, though he was shown to know some other things very well, meaning that didn’t mean he was a complete idiot. In fact, this goes to show that the writers took it as if Larry’s character was intended to be entirely bumbling and mindless when it’s not likely that he is.
   • Laura Carrot and Junior Asparagus went from kind and well-mannered children who learn the right things from the other vegetables into unsympathetic brats who learn wrong things from their naive parents.
   • Petunia went from the voice of reason for the veggies to a generic and unintelligent woman.
   • Madame Blueberry became selfish again, undoing all character development from the original series.
     • This slight switch in Madame Blueberry's character completely messes up the events in her debut appearance in the original series, making the episode all for nothing. It doesn't even match what was in the episode nor the rest of the series.
     • Her accent also changed as well. Instead of being a French-accented blueberry (making her the third French-based character in the franchise following the French Peas Philipe and Jean-Claude), she in this version speaking in what seems to be a British-American accent.
   • Pretty much every other character has been regulated to one personality. For instance, Jimmy and Jerry are Bob and Larry's idiotic neighbors, Pa Grape is the owner of Pa's Corner Store, Archibald Asparagus is portrayed as the mayor of the town for an unexplained reason as if it happened out of nowhere, and the French Peas are just used to say French phrases and jokes.
5. Like Dorbees: Making Decisions, God (or anything religious) is either rarely mentioned, or removed entirely. The same thing goes for the biblical lessons.
6. Many of the episodes are the same, and do not change in almost any detail.
7. The title sounds pandering and tries too hard to be cool for kids. Also, the 2 extended seasons, VeggieTales in the City, obviously has NO effect as it just comes off weird.
8. Due to DreamWorks assuming that he's African-American, Mr. Nezzer, a dynamic character who could play numerous roles, was replaced by a supposedly similar character named Ichabeezer, who's a generic grumpy bear.
   • Not to mention, other characters such as Scooter Carrot, The Scallions, Khalil the Caterpillar, and Qwerty were eliminated as well.
9. Silly Songs with Larry was removed, despite being well received in the original series.
10. The new characters are annoying:
    • Bacon Bill, the first sentient meat character in the series, has been described by Phil Vischer as the "Jar-Jar Binks of the franchise". Fortunately, the very last episode of the spinoff, "Bye Bye Bacon Bill!", had him leaving. The fact he's voiced by Rob Paulsen using a voice eerily close to Bubsy and Coconut Fred makes it even worse.
    • Tina Celerina is just horrible. With each season, Tina's voice goes up in pitch each season. She's also way too hyperactive.
    • Motato, LarryBoy's nemesis, is essentially a discount version of Awful Alvin from The Cartoon Adventures of LarryBoy!.
11. The episode "Bob's Bad Breath", despite handing out a moral about having a bad attitude, has an incorrect title. Bob wasn't the one who got bad breath, Larry got it from consuming various snacks and beverages that are most likely to cause bad breath. Nevertheless, it was meant to serve as a nod to the lecture Pa Grape gave Bob about "having a bad attitude is like having bad breath" (meaning nobody would most likely be around you if you have a bad attitude).
    • The title card is also gross to look at as it depicts bad breath floating out of Bob's mouth from each and every direction.
    • It was also technically Larry's fault Bob had a bad attitude. Thanks to Larry's terrible hygienes, it kept waking up poor Bob up from his sleep each an every time Bob caught a whiff of his bad breath, causing him to eventually grow cranky from not catching enough sleep.
    • There is even a plot hole to how the problem regarding Larry's awful breath was solved. Although the closest solution to curing Larry's bad breath was of course brushing his teeth, which isn't a bad idea, why couldn't Larry just order mouthwash or even a pack of breath mints to help kill the bad breath, as that's what those two things are made for to begin with.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The CGI animation is incredible and vivid since these shows were animated by Bardel Entertainment. It's a massive step up from the original show, but it is onset by the mediocre character designs.
   • Mr. Lunt's redesign is passable. It somewhat matches his original design in a way and remains mostly accurate.
   • At least the designs look like actual vegetables and fruits, which solves the problem from the original series with certain characters not looking like the vegetables they're implied to be.
2. Some funny moments here and there.
3. Still teaches morals based on christianity every now and then.
4. The later seasons of VITH and VeggieTales in the City is a slight improvement.
5. Decent voice acting, mostly due to some of the original voice actors returning (except for Rob Paulsen as Bacon Bill).
6. Despite many characters being flanderized in this series, there are some decent characters such as Bob The Tomato (despite being flanderized a bit) and Pa Grape.
7. Despite the removal of Silly Songs with Larry, there are a few good songs. Like the theme song which is very catchy, making it one of the few memorable songs in these shows.
8. There's some good/decent episodes such as:
   • "Bye Bye Bacon Bill!" (which surprisingly ended this era on a high note).
9. Clever easter eggs to the original series, such as Pizza Angel boxes in "Sorry, We're Closed Today" and Larry singing a bit of the original theme song in "Bob's Bad Breath".
10. DreamWorks eventually learned from their mistakes from this era as the next show All Hail King Julien is a improvement.

Episodes With Their Own Pages

• Bob's Bad Breath

Trivia

• Many VeggieTales fans blamed DreamWorks for the redesigns when it was actually Big Idea Entertainment's decision to redesign them for a better look since the original was based off of designs via temporary animation software in the 90s.

Reception

These shows weren't received well by critics. VeggieTales in the House received a 4.4/10 on IMDb, while on the other hand, VeggieTales in the City received a 5.9/10 on IMDb.

PhantomStrider placed these shows at #6 on his Top 6 Worst Netflix Originals video. It was received worse by classic VeggieTales fans and DreamWorks Animation Television fans until 'Megamind Rules!

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