Interview: Phil Vischer of VeggieTales in the House

Posted on September 25, 2015 at 7:00 am

Phil Vischer is co-creator of the popular VeggieTales characters and videos and still provides the voice of Bob the Tomato. It was a lot of fun to talk to him about the characters and their new series, VeggieTales in the House. The new season premieres on Netflix this week.

“This is the second season of Veggietales in the House so it’s not any different than the first season — it’s just more of it. On Netflix there were 26 half hours in the first season and there will be 26 half hours in this season so it’s a whole lot of vegetable content.” The dramatic changes in technology for creating and viewing the content have made a difference, though. “When I started, it was VHS cassettes that were the revolutionary technology that was transforming America. So I wrote and directed the first ten years of VeggieTales. We did about 20 different films in only two years. Moms would go to stores and then buy them and stick them in their VHS players. That’s completely changed now. It’s kids with Netflix and it’s kids with streaming on demand on their phones and on their iPods. So with the new Veggietales In The House which was created by Duncan Abel, he has really found the format to match the new technology with short little eleven minute clips and beautiful songs and lessons and they’re just much easier for kids to carry with them. So Mike and I are, we are voices now. We are not into writing or directing anymore but it’s fun to see what new generations of guys are doing with the old characters.”

Vischer told me a new generation of kids is watching VeggieTales with parents who grew up on the original series. “I do a lot of speaking on college campuses. Everywhere from big places like Baylor to little tiny Christian colleges. It’s about the same thing everywhere because I come out and the first thing I say is, ‘Hi kids I’m Bob the Tomato, and these college kids just flip out. It always amazes me because I don’t feel like I’m very cool. I get a lot of kids who come up to me and acknowledge that they are starting to have their own kids. They say, ‘We are introducing our kids to Bob and Larry. Thank you for making my childhood.”

He gave the new guys some advice about the characters. “OK, this is who Bob and Larry are; this is what makes them tick. Basically Bob wants to help kids and Larry wants to help Bob. You know, he is the sidekick and Bob, I’ve always described him as a frustrated Mr. Rogers. In the original shows he wants to be teaching, he wants everything to go smoothly and he wants to make it look effortless like Mr. Rogers always made it look but it always goes wrong and part of why it always goes wrong is because sidekick Larry is just so gosh darn silly that he can’t quite follow the directions.” He compares them to classic comedy duos like Abbott and Costello, with “a clear straight guy and then more of a goofy character or just a childlike character. A character who has the innocence and just not know what you should do not out of mischievousness but just out of innocence. Bob will start to put on a show and it can be frustrating to put on a show if you’ve got Mr.Goofball next to you who doesn’t take it as seriously as you do.” He admits that “I really am much closer to Bob the tomato in my temperament. I want to be teaching things and my buddy Mike is really much closer to Larry the Cucumber in temperament.”

And he says that teaching children the lessons about character, integrity, and faith affected him as well. “The best lessons are ones that change you while you are presenting them and while you are researching them. And the best way to learn something is to try to teach it to a four year old. If you don’t understand it well enough to articulate it clearly for a four year old you don’t understand it. And so it has been great for me for the last 25 years for all the projects I have worked on to have to bury myself in the Bible and reading commentaries and trying to figure out what is Biblical forgiveness? What is sanctification? And to understand it well enough that you can turn it around and explain it to a four year old.”

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The Intern

Posted on September 24, 2015 at 5:55 pm

Oh, to live in Nancy Meyers-land, where the 60’s and 70’s really are a golden age, where AARP-eligible Oscar winners go to be universally adored by bright young people, and where every sumptuously spacious but cozy home has the kitchen of your dreams. It’s not a coincidence that more than once in the movie one character compliments another on the decor. Or that you can now buy it all yourself to collect your own accolades, making the movie into an infomercial. It’s soft-focus, feel-good, female empowerment. So of course it’s all to a soundtrack of Pottery Barn-like upscale easy listening songs like “All About That Bass (No Treble).”

Following in the beautifully shod footsteps of Eli Wallach (“The Holiday”), Diane Keaton (“Something’s Gotta Give”), and Meryl Streep (“It’s Complicated”) comes Robert De Niro, with infinite charm and grace in a role he seldom gets to take: an ordinary guy.

De Niro plays Ben, 70 years old, living in Brooklyn, a widower after a long, happy marriage, retired, and looking for something to do. He has traveled, visited his grandchildren, taken classes. There is a single woman his age (Linda Lavin) who would love to date him. But he wants something more. “The nowhere to be thing hit me like a ton of bricks.”

And then he sees a flier. A local start-up is looking for “senior interns,” for no other reason than to make a cute movie plot, but okay. It’s an online sales company, selling fashion with some special ability to make sure the items fit properly), and he still uses a flip phone, but Ben decides to apply. And he is undaunted that applicants, instead of submitting a resume, are asked to upload a video about themselves. “I want to be challenged,” he explains, “and needed.”

He gets the job and is assigned to the start-up’s visionary but harried CEO, Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). Is the name supposed to make us think of Jane Austen? Could be. She has an only-in-movies adorably precocious moppet and a shaggy (in a cute, artisanal, Brooklyn way) devoted stay-at-home-dad of a husband. And, guess what? They live in an exquisitely decorated brownstone with a couple of legos and a backpack sprinkled around for relatability. Plus, she is played by Anne Hathaway, so she is stunningly beautiful in a we’d-totally-be-best-friends-if-she ever-met-me sort of way. She gets to channel her “Devil Wears Prada” co-star Meryl Streep as the boss who can be terrifying, but she knows and we know she’s there to be loveable, not scary. And he is endlessly calm and resourceful, whether cleaning up the office junk pile, crunching data, giving dating advice, or retrieving a disastrously mis-sent email.

In the normal world of movies, Jules would have a lot to teach Ben about being up with the times and there would be all kinds of cute/funny scenes with him learning what a hashtag is while imparting a few Yoda-like gems of wisdom. But this is Nancy Meyers-land, so the lessons all go the other way. And those lessons are not so much “why don’t you do it this way” as “you can do it!” It is undeniably refreshing, especially to those of us closer in age to Ben than Jules, but let’s face it. This is less a movie than it is comfort food and a glossy shelter magazine wishbook, sprinkled with fairy dust and truffle powder.

Meyers is all about you-go-girl empowerment, so her films are delectable visions of soft-focus fantasy, but there are some revealing moments of personal payback, too, as in her treatment of a wandering husband. It crosses the line from pleasant daydream to selfishness, entitlement, and denial. It’s one thing to create a fairy tale. It’s another to promote the idea that women can “have it all” without a lot of other people having a lot less. And maybe next time we could add some people of color to the cast. This is Brooklyn, for goodness’ sake. It’s practically a living version of “It’s a Small World.” How did the cast get so white?

But Ben’s handkerchief rule? That’s the real deal.

Parents should know that this film features adult themes including adultery and male sexual response. There are references to a sad death, drinking, including drinking and medication to deal with anxiety, and characters use some strong language. There is an awkward and unfunny joke about a child possibly having bipolar disorder.

Family discussion: What most surprises seniors and millennials about each other? What would you like to do when you retire? Do you agree with Jules’ decision?

If you like this, try: “It’s Complicated” and “The Holiday”

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Comedy Drama

Hotel Transylvania 2

Posted on September 24, 2015 at 5:35 pm

Vampire Mavis (Selena Gomez) and human Jonathan (Andy Samberg) fell in love in the first “Hotel Translyvania,” and in this sequel they get married and have a baby named Dennis. He has his father’s unruly red curls. But his grandfather Drac (Adam Sandler) wants to make sure he has inherited his mother’s vampire genes as well. “He’s a late fanger,” Drac tries to reassure everyone, especially himself.

“Hotel Transylvania 2” suffers from sequel-itis — not as fresh or imaginative as the original and it feels like it was made because they wanted to do a sequel and not because they had anything special to say. But it is still entertaining.

Even before the movie starts, the Columbia logo statue turns into a vampire bat and we know we’re off to a place where cute monsters rule. The wedding scene is a lot of fun as it re-introduces us to the characters, all played by wonderful comic voice actors including David Spade (Griffin, the invisible man, who keeps insisting that he has an invisible girlfriend), Kevin James as Frankenstein and Fran Drescher as his wife, Eunice, Keegan-Michael Key as Murray the mummy, Steve Buscemi as Wayne the very fecund wolfman, and Molly Shannon as his wife, Wanda. We skip ahead quickly to the arrival of Dennis, and then ahead again as he approaches his 5th birthday, and Drac is still waiting to see if he will become a vampire. (Maybe when he grows up, he could marry similarly mixed-race Renesmee from “Twilight”).

This is even more pressing because if he is human, Mavis wants to move to California, near Jonathan’s parents, so he can be around other humans. Even though Dennis loves monsters, she thinks he will be happier around his own kind of people. So, she and Jonathan fly to California to see whether it is right for them, leaving Dennis with his grandfather.

Big mistake.

Drac promises to keep Dennis at the castle/hotel but instead takes him on a journey to try to get his vampire side to come out. And of course he brings his pals along. They visit a monster summer camp and try to scare some humans, but find that their scare power is significantly diminished. Humans ask for selfies and one of them even compliments Drac on his chocolate cereal. Dennis may be a late-fanger but these cuddly monsters are no-fangers, and when you’re looking for silly fun with a hug at the end, that’s just fine.

Parents should know that this film’s themes include monsters and scariness but it is mostly for humor. There is some comic peril and violence with no one hurt, some potty humor, themes of family/culture difference, conflicts. and prejudice.

Family discussion: What are the biggest cultural or ethnic differences in your family? Which is your favorite monster and why?

If you like this, try: the first “Hotel Transylvania” and “Megamind”

Finders Keepers

Posted on September 24, 2015 at 5:27 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
Profanity:	Very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol and drug abuse
Violence/ Scariness:	Sad offscreen deaths, discussion of child abuse, some disturbing images of a severed limb
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	September 18, 2015

You might not think that a documentary about two men fighting over a severed leg would be funny, touching, and insightful, but it is. You might think that it would be a carnival freak show for the age of YouTube and Twitter, and it sort of is that, too, but mostly in the clips from the various television shows that got involved in this real-life gothic mashup of Southern culture, reality TV, dysfunctional families, substance abuse, money, tragedy, and two men, one plummeting from a life of wealth and privilege and one desperately aspiring for fame and fortune, both seeing the approval of fathers who are no longer here. And they became two men who fought each other for years over something the rest of us cannot imagine anyone would want.

Shannon Whisnant in a small-time operator in North Carolina, always up to some scheme or other. So of course he showed up to bid on items from a storage locker that were confiscated when the payments lapsed. He bought a small, rusty smoker and was surprised to open it and find inside a severed human leg, about mid-calf down, with the foot and toes. The film plays his 911 call. “I got a human foot.” “A what?” “A human left foot.” I love that he thinks that additional detail will somehow make a difference.

The foot belongs to John Wood, or at least it once did. It was amputated following a plane crash and he wanted to keep it. It seemed very reasonable to him once he heard that Whisnant had it that he would get it back. But Whisnant saw it as the golden ticket he always knew was coming to him, his chance for the big time. Oh, he had already appeared on “Jerry Springer,” but he had not achieved that level of fame he just knew in his heart was his destiny. He went on news shows to talk about his find. He started charging admission — $3 adults, $1 kids. He had t-shirts made. I would like to say they were tasteful but they were not. His twitter account is @fottmannc.

Whisnant met with Wood — at the parking lot of the Dollar General — to talk about the ownership of the foot. The details of the conversation are still disputed, but the next steps involved litigation. And more reality television.

The great gift of the film, which is at times hilarious and at times deeply moving, is that it takes this absurd dispute and humanizes the story so profoundly that by the end we are a part of it. It deals with the endearing and the obnoxious sides of American celebrity culture. It is abashing but also reassuring that the multi-year fight is finally resolved — with Solomonic jurisprudential nuance — by television’s Judge Mathis. But is is the almost unbearably intimate conversations with family members and the two men themselves that show us the inherent vulnerability of even those who at first seem cartoonish or grotesque.

Parents should know that this film includes very strong language, discussion of drug and alcohol abuse, discussion of tragic deaths and child abuse, and some grisly subject matter and disturbing images.

Family discussion: Why did both men want the foot? How did their relationships with their fathers affect their views of themselves?

If you like this, try: “Sherman’s March”

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Documentary Movies -- format

Yoko Ono Wants Us to Smile

Posted on September 24, 2015 at 3:02 pm

My ultimate goal in film-making
is to make a film which includes
a smiling face snap of every
single human being in the world.
yoko ono

Yoko Ono said that in 1967. Now she is trying to make it come true with her #smilesfilm.

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