VeggieTales is back, this time putting a vegetable spin on the American big river classic Huckleberry Finn.
It's 1904, the year of the St. Louis World's Fair. Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry (a.k.a. Tom and Huck) are homesteading along the banks of the mighty Mississippi River and are within days of owning their own land. As they dream of opening a theme park and starting a tax preparation business, they meet a mysterious stranger who is on the run and trying to find his mama. If they help him, they risk losing all they’ve worked for. If they don't, he will be returned, unfairly, to a life of involuntary servitude. What should they do? That's the moral dilemma at the heart of this new VeggieTale that teaches kids the importance of helping others.
So does this new Veggie disc deliver on what fans expect of the series?
For Parents of Children Under 10
Unless your kids are way too old for their age, they are almost sure to love this DVD. The stranger, Big Jim (a.k.a. "Little Jimmy"), is endearingly innocent. Larry the Cucumber (okay... Huck) is at his best, steadfastly sticking to Little Jimmy's side, until he sees him safely down the river to the St. Louis World's Fair. The recurring gag with the logger who likes to bark like a dog is designed to get them giggling. And who knows? You may even be able to refer back to this disc someday when your child has to write a paper about the Homestead Act or needs help understanding Huckleberry Finn. (After all, it's not that big a leap from helping a slave escape to helping an involuntary indentured servant get away.)
For its mandatory dose of didacticism, this VeggieTale takes its inspiration from Bible verse James 4:17. Or as Phil Vischer (VeggieTales co-creator and writer of this story) says: “Sometimes not helping someone can be just as bad as actually hurting them.”
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