My So-Called Homeschool

I just turned on NBC this morning, Veggie Tales are now truly “Sunday morning values, Saturday morning fun!”. I wonder if they’re going to water it down for TV like they did Jay Jay the Jet Plane for PBS.

Live blogging Veggies (a first for me!):

So far, silliness but no Biblical application. The Asparagus of LaMancha, that’s funny though. Alfred Archibald (He played Alfred in The Rumor Weed!) the Asparagus is dreaming he’s Don Quixote — waking up and realizing he just had the Impossible Dream. Dream or no dream, it’s time to get to work, at The Cafe La Mancha. Pancho is serving in the cafe, Don working in the kitchen. Jean-Claude the pea comes in, “A new restaurant is in town!” The patrons laugh at the idea that anyone could put their cafe out of business. But oh my gosh, it’s not any restaurant, it’s The Food Factory, the biggest food franchise in the world! Across the street! And opening right now! “I wonder how long it will take for them to attract a new crowd” “Perish the thought, our customers will never desert us . . . (trampling sounds)”

It’s his Impossible Dream coming true!

I love the way they play checkers and eat chips-n-salsa without hands.

How will we get our customers back? They do everything — they have food as big as your head!

Alfred Archibald heads to bed saying “What will I do?” Dream sequence.

So far, literary but no Biblical allusions.

Weird funhouse mirror sequence.

Pancho wakes him up with some ideas but Don starts explaining that the mirrors in his dream mean he should change the way he and the restaurant look. Pancho’s not so sure.

Ooooh — off topic, but cool Girl Scout ad about math (click See The World under PSA Material). It’s a neat application of math to everyday activities (kinetic energy, sound waves, stuff like that). “Once you see the world through math and science, you’ll never see anything the same way again.”

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. . .

LOL! They changed the cafe to Donny Ha-Ha, Joppa Java, and one I missed. Oh, now Cheese Rodent Pizza. Nothing’s working. Back to the checker board. Oh, no, the manager of the Food Factory came to hire Pancho away!!! That villain! (miscellaneous crashing sounds from the kitchen). The FF guy tells Pancho that “This restaurant and this Don fellow are failures”. Pancho tells him off — Don has been his friend for years and he won’t let him down. “Let me show you the door. Look, there’s the door.” . .. .”It’s the wooden thing with the knob!”. I love Veggie humor (it loses something in the telling, though).

Pancho leaves, tells Don to get some sleep. New dream, with of course a Windmill Monster. He now knows what to do to rescue the cafe — attack the FF and vanquish the foe. OH, Impossible Dream lyrics now.

Off to attack the Food Factory, Pancho repeating his misgivings. Pancho announces a battle of honor, the patrons of FF laugh and tell him to come join them. The sherrif says he’ll have to arrest Don if he attacks the Food Factory, but it’s a point of honor now. With his colander helmet and stringmop spear, he bounces into the FF. Next scene, Don behind bars.

Pancho brings his nighty-night hat, and his chips and salsa — which gives him an idea — the extra-hot salsa is giving Don his bad dreams, maybe without it, he’ll stop dreaming up weird things to do! Bright and cheery morning, no dreams. If he agrees to stop eating the salsa, he’s free to go, the FF manager drops the charges.

New scene, the Cafe LaMancha with customers lined up around the block — they’re open for breakfast and the FF doesn’t open til lunch! Pancho has always told him, find something they don’t do and do that.

Friends stick by each other — OK, I see it now, not Biblical, just good morals. It’s not bad, it’s just not Veggies, you know? That’s what I figured they’d do. Since Big Idea went bankrupt and had to sell after the unrepentently Biblical (ok, well based on a Biblical story) feature film Jonah, I figured the new owners would water it down even more to keep it afloat so to speak. All in all, much better than the ‘educational’ crap that was on last season, but not as good as the original Veggies.

Update:  I was surfing the blogworld to see if anyone else was writing about it, and I found Phil Vischer’s take on it!  I was thinking it was watered down and he wasn’t involved anymore, but looks like he’s right there writing the stories!  I can see his point — may as well be there controlling input, even if it’s not as Christian as the videos perhaps kids will go get the videos after seeing it on TV and be introduced to the ‘real’ Veggies.