We are the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything!

When we first moved to Syracuse two and a half years ago (geez, it still feels a lot more recent than that), I took the Daughter one day to our new local library, where she picked out a video that was apparently about a group of animated vegetables that told Bible stories. It was called "VeggieTales", and the hosts were a cucumber named Larry and a tomato named Bob. I wasn't too thrilled, since I tend to hate heavy-handed religious stuff for kids, but I quickly discovered that VeggieTales is not heavy-handed at all -- it's more good-natured than anything, the "message" part of the show is always nicely crafted, and it's always loaded with jokes that only adults are going to get. The nearest analogy I can think of is the film Wayne's World, which is actually a very good-natured comedy loaded with jokes that will sail over the head of all those thirteen-year-olds who were in the audience. Anyway, we've been really big fans of VeggieTales ever since. (The big factor for me, aside from the humor and the incredibly clever songs, is the fact that VeggieTales generally eschews the creepier aspects of Evangelism.)

So I was stunned to read this account of how Big Idea Productions (the makers of VeggieTales) went belly-up, and how they were well on the way to being belly-up before the strains of "Oh Where Is My Hairbrush?" ever played in our Syracuse living room. It's not "the death of VeggieTales", by any means, but it's still a fairly surprising and sad account of what happens when one person combines good intentions with bad business sense.

UPDATE: Here's a third-person account of the collapse of Big Idea Productions.

(Link via MeFi.)