Review: VeggieTales: Abe & the Amazing Promise

I think that my family has watched most of the common ‘kid fare’ out there, in terms of cartoons. And while my girls have their favorites, I can’t help but wish that there were a few that they didn’t like – and a few that they would. One of the ones that they just seem to have no interest in is VeggieTales – which confounds me because I’ve seen a few of them and love both the way in which they take familiar Bible stories and make them fun and interesting for kids, and also how hilarious Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato are. We do own a few VeggieTales DVDs that I’ve bought over the years and the girls also see them fairly often at church. So when I had the opportunity to review the new DVD, “Abe and the Amazing Promise”, for the Family Review Network, I saw another chance to try again and see what the girls would think.

Unfortunately, when the DVD arrived my girls had absolutely no interest whatsoever in watching it. But I wanted to give it a fair review, so I asked my friend Kristi (whose two boys love VeggieTales) to do a guest review of it. Her family’s take on this DVD is below. 

What it is:

VeggieTales: Abe & the Amazing Promise takes the Bible story of Abraham and Sarah and brings it to life as only VeggieTales can. The DVD is subtitled “A Lesson in Patience” and that’s the lesson being taught – through the always zany antics of these vegetables come to life. Here’s a description of the story:

While on set filming, Bob the Tomato decides to respond to a fan’s letter about "waiting", meanwhile everyone’s patience is tested by spitting camels, a confused nurse, an easily distracted film crew, and a host of other laughable filming disasters! Join the comical chaos and calamity in Abe and the Amazing Promise that reminds kids that God always keeps his promises . . . even if we have to wait a while!

The DVD will be released on February 10th and has a running time of 55 minutes.

Here’s their take on it:

We watch a lot of VeggieTales in our home. We like some much better than others, but when a new one comes out, we love to watch them. We love the “Silly Songs” that come half way through that break up the story and it is fun to see how they modernize bible stories to make them more understandable for young people and still keep the adults entertained as well. Through each bible story, they teach about a biblical principle and when a particular issue has come up in our household, we have often referred back to certain VeggieTales episodes.

Deb gave us ‘Abe & the Amazing Promise’ to review. Through the story of Abraham and Sarah and their wait to have a child, the talking vegetables share about the virtue of patience and how rushing through things can cause big problems. I liked that while Pa was telling the story of Abraham and Sarah, Junior was trying to rush him through the story, further adding to the point.

I don’t know if all kids struggle with this trait, or just my kids, but watching this movie was very timely for my first grader. He does extremely well in school when he takes his time, but he often just rushes through his work to get it done, resulting in very sloppy work. We had just finished yet another discussion on the reasons he should slow down and then we put this movie on. It was perfect timing and we have watched it many times.

The “Silly Song” was entertaining and a catchy tune, sure to join the classics of “The Hairbrush Song” and”Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything”.

One of the things that makes this DVD different from the others is the way they deliver the message. Usually, the VeggieTales movies have one story that is “interrupted” in the middle by the silly song to break it up. This one was different. They got through the story of Abe, then did the silly song, and then had a different story that also illustrated the point of patience.

The bottom line:

In summary, we liked this one better than some of the other VeggieTales recently. My 4-year-old, who rarely sits still for television programs of any sort, has sat through this one numerous times and asked for it when he got up Saturday morning. I’d say, that gives it a two thumbs up.

Where can you find it?:

You can purchase VeggieTales: Abe & the Amazing Promise wherever other VeggieTales DVDs are sold, as well as on Amazon. The list price for the DVD is $14.95.

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