REVIEW: Veggie Tales, Lord of the Beans

RATING (out of 5, 5=best): 3.5

STORY: Common "Flobbit", Todo Baggy-Pants is given the gift of a magic bean by his rich uncle Billboy. Todo sets off on a whimsical adventure with a cast of Tolkien-esque Veggie Tales characters to find out why he was given this gift, and what it was intended to be used for. Along the way, we faced sinister sporks, raspberry trees, and a a mysterious figure that has been ravished by the power of the bean.

THE SHORT REVIEW: Good film, but definitely not one of the best Veggie Tales stories. Suffers from weak writing.

THE LONG REVIEW: "Lord of the Beans" is a shameless parody/homage/ripoff of the current Lord of the Rings mania generated by the recent movies, and attempts to simplify the story into a form that is accessible even to young children. Somewhat comparable to the Muppet attempts to retell classic stories in such movies as "Muppet Christmas Carol" and "Muppet Treasure Island", it maintains the same strengths as other VT stories - fun stories kids will love with just enough inside jokes to keep parents/adults/teenage siblings entertained. The one-joke "Elvish Impersonator" silly song in the middle is the most blatant example of this.

The strengths of this VT story are (1) the careful Tolkien references and (2) the fact that only 1 scene (the birthday party) really depends on having seen/read the Lord of the Rings story beforehand to get the jokes. There are weaknesses, as well, unfortunately. The story is uneven, with some scenes being extreme parodies of the original, right down to line-by-line take-offs, while other scenes are such complete departures from the original that it feels like you are in a completely unrelated world. It can be confusing, especially if you are doing something else while watching the DVD or have short attention spans (which probably covers most of the potential viewers). Another rewrite to avoid both extremes would have been very helpful.

Still, a mediocre Veggie Tales is still better than most of the rest of the stuff out there. It is a good story, and worth your time. But if you can borrow a friend's copy, you probably don't need to own it yourself.