Noah's Ark DVD by Veggietales

I'm a longtime fan of Veggietales.  Funny enough, I was introduced to Veggietales in college when a friend suggested I watch them because I was feeling far from God.  This was back in 1997.  I've been through many permutations of the Veggie-verse (get it?  Veggietales and universe...Veggie-verse!) watching Big Idea grow and technology change and through the ups and downs of corporate craziness.  I even spent several years as a Veggie ambassador, getting advanced copies of the videos and helping promote them.

It blows my mind that 22 years after the first video was made, through all the ups and down of the company and all the technological changes we've seen, Veggietales is still on message and delivering quality entertainment for the family.  Their new release, Noah's Ark:  A Lesson in Trusting God, is no exception.  Through a version of the Noah's Ark story that relies a bit on poetic license, we see that following God doesn't always make sense and that His plans for us are not always the same as our plans for us, but if we trust God and does what He tells us, His plans always turn out better.  I think this message is especially relevant for today's kids (and adults) because God's ways are sounding stranger and stranger to those who don't follow Him and we need to hear that it is okay for people to think that.  We should follow God's directions anyway.

There are the usual Veggietales songs and silliness, but one thing has changed in this DVD.  The Veggies have eye color!!!  I've seen a lot of visual changes throughout Veggietales' history and this was the most drastic by far.  At first, I did not like it at all.  I felt like it gave the characters a very pre-schoolish feeling.  One of the things I like about Veggietales is that my 8 and 10 year old children like them and I was afraid they would be put off by the new visuals, perhaps feeling like Veggietales was now for "babies".  By the end of the video, though, I was used to it and the counter scene at the end was not nearly as jarring as the counter scene at the beginning.  I still don't know if I like the visual change, but I'm used to it.

Overall, I recommend this movie to any family with elementary aged children or younger.  I'll even throw this out there...I had a blast in college being a Veggie Ambassador and throwing parties in my dorm room where we ordered pizza and had Veggietales marathons.  Maybe me and my nerdy marching band friends were the only college students ever who would think that was a good way to spend a Saturday night, but it was a blast!

I was provided this DVD free of charge in return for my honest review.