Park Alumni: Veggietales Creators January 10, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , trackbackThis weekend, the Veggietales “Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” opens nationwide. The creators of Veggie Tales, Phil Vischer, Kurt Heinecke and Mike Nawrocki attended Park in the early 1990’s and many of the early character voices are played by Park people, including Kristin Blegen, Dan Anderson, Mike Sage, and Jim Poole, who is a co-founder of Steep Theater in Chicago. Park has had a long history of excellence in the arts and we are glad to see our alumni creating such excellent work! Get out there and check this movie out this weekend.
Besides its spiritual content, Nawrocki believes the Pirates film has a great deal to offer audiences. It’s based on some of the most popular VeggieTales characters — three wannabe pirates who are finally forced to become heroes. He described the film as part Pirates of the Caribbean, part Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and part Three Amigos.
Unlike many VeggieTales stories, the Pirates film isn’t based on a Bible story, Nawrocki said. There’s not an altar call at the end, and little mention of God. Instead, there is an Aslan-like king, who helps the pirates along their way.
The film is more of a parable. And while viewers will get a lesson about what it means to be a hero, Nawrocki says they’ll also have a good time along the way.”I love this story,” he said. “It’s well paced, and it’s a really funny piece of entertainment.”
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Many of you know that VeggieTales has had a roller-coaster history, one full of ups and downs and enveloped in God’s grace as the company had a big movie, yet succumbed to bankruptcy after selling more than 40 million kid’s videos. Vischer told that Big Idea’s past struggles were a lesson in faith. He, Heineke and Nawrocki made the first VeggieTales episode, Where is God When I Am S-Scared?, for about $60,000, working out of an unheated storefront in Chicago in the early 1990s. By 2003, Big Idea had sold more than 25 million videos and had more than 200 employees. The company had experienced one miracle after another, Vischer said.
Then everything crashed.
Sales flattened out, causing the company to struggle to make payroll. Instead of cutting staff, Vischer held out hope that God would save the company. If the Jonah film, released in 2002, had been a blockbuster success, all the company’s worries would have been over. While Jonah did well, grossing more than $26 million despite being made on a shoestring budget for a computer-generated imagery film, it didn’t save Big Idea. The company eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2003 and was bought by Classic Media LLC.
Vischer, who had been Big Idea’s sole owner, lost everything in the company’s struggles. Yet he seems remarkably content. He told a writer “Back then, my whole identity was wrapped up in 80 minutes of celluloid,” he said. “You don’t want to be in a place where a single project can destroy your identity.” If the Pirates film is a success, Vischer said, he’ll be glad for it. If not, “then I’ll move on to what God has in store next.”
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