Many years ago, _VeggieTales_ made its theatrical debut with _Jonah_, where the various fruits and vegetables retold the story of the prophet who went the other way when God told him what to do, only to be swallowed by a whale (or big fish, depending on who you ask). In the special features on the DVD release of _Jonah_, one of the producers or directors mentioned that they had considered doing a Noah's Ark movie, but decided not to, saying that "the fur would kill us." I have no experience with doing computer animation, but, from what I've heard, that's one of the hardest things to animate realistically. Even secular studios have trouble with that; remember how fake Scooby-Doo looked in his first two live-action flicks?

Since then, there have been plenty more Veggie episodes...but, this one takes a different tack. Not only is the animation style upgraded--for good or for ill--but mainstream stars Wayne Brady (_Whose Line Is It Anyway?_) and Tress MacNeille lend their voices to this project, alongside CCM singer Jaci Velasquez and the usual cast. As usual, Big Idea makes the Bible story kid-friendly, and there were plenty of cute moments alongside an inspiring story of faith.

Unfortunately, what ruins this episode is the new animation. While technically superior, it loses the charm of the original episodes. The first time I saw the cover for this DVD in a LifeWay catalog, Larry's appearance reminded me of that dumb purple dinosaur. Your kids may not care that much about the graphics, but, for longtime fans like me who grew up on the old-school releases, that's a deal-breaker. Online research shows that Big Idea eventually went back to the original character designs; while that's good, it may be hard for the franchise to recover from such a big shark-jumping moment.