Big Idea Productions has jumped the shark.
An article at Christianity Today makes a compelling case that the company overextended itself with its new "Jonah" movie, forcing themselves to lay off staff and make across-the-board pay cuts. They apparently even couldn't afford the wide distribution they've been touting for weeks on their web site. I was annoyed after all the hype about how Jonah was opening at theaters everywhere on Oct. 4, to find that it isn't opening here for another two weeks.
The article, which draws on interviews with former Big Idea staff, includes a comment about a policy shift away from high quality video to "make money quickly through inferior merchandise." That echoes my own thoughts rather eerily. The most recent "Larry Boy" cartoon we have stinks.
The concept started on a high note and went downhill fast. As tremendous as "The Fib from Outer Space" was -- it was one of the high-water marks of the entire Veggie Tales series -- "Rumor Weed" was a disappointment, and "Angry Eyebrows" was just awful.
By the end, the animation quality was substandard, and in writing the story, they tossed out what until then had been a defining characteristic of Big Idea products: that you can have children's videos with Christian themes that don't hit you on the head with their message.
I have two nephews in the "Angry Eyebrows"-targeted age group, and they both thought it was pathetic, even though they've loved just about every Veggie Tales tape they've seen.
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