Customer Reviews

VeggieTales - The Wonderful World of Auto-tainment

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This DVD reminds me a lot of the Ultimate Silly Songs DVD -- there are a lot of great songs (and this time they're NEW), but not much in the way of a plot or a message. It starts with a silly (of course) view of the future, where Larry is convinced that randomly-generated programming is the wave of the future. So we get a randomly-selected Veggie singing a randomly-selected song topic in a randomly-selected genre. The results are...well...random, with some hits and some misses.

The song list includes:
There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea (French Peas)
Zacchaeus (Pa Grape)
Modern Major General (Archie)
You are My Sunshine (Larry)
Erie Canal (Pa Grape)
My Day (Junior)

Some of these aren't original...well, other than My Day, none of them are original (and My Day was on a VeggieTales CD last year -- Junior's Bedtime Songs). But they're well-executed, with visual and aural humor throughout. The between-songs shtick is a little annoying, but delights our girls (ages 3 and 1.5).

There aren't any Bible stories (though the Zacchaeus song is itself a short one), and not a huge message (My Day is what passes for that -- God loves us even when things go bad), and not even all the traditional trappings of a VeggieTale (no visit to QWERTY at the end). Still, it's cute -- and it's a lot better entertainment for kids than some of what's out there! The songs are memorable and fun to sing(though Modern Major General may be more for listening to than singing...but the tune is stuck in my head after hearing it just a couple times).

Not a bad purchase, all considered, but I wish they'd let themselves stick with the formula that worked. I'm sure they get bored with it, but the kids don't seem to!

To a degree I can understand the ire of some of the reviewers' postings here. This video is definitely a stylistic departure from the more story-driven VT productions. It took me some getting used to (I'm slower to adapt than my twin three-year-olds, who requested it every night for a week), but I am glad I gave it a few views before making up my mind on it. It has become one of my favorites.

Although the content draws less from biblical content than many VT videos, I think the headline lesson (unconditional love) warranted this approach. I also found the satirical elements (lost on me in the first several viewings but more apparent thereafter) made this video stand up well to the kind of repetitive viewing my household demographic seems to demand.
I found the production quality of this video truly stunning; all of the songs are also terrific. Junior Asparagus' "My Day" alone is well worth the admission price.

I'm giving it 5 stars, and also recommending that you view it a couple of times before making up your mind on it.

So laments Bob the Tomato at one point in this dvd. The problem is that he's absolutely correct. Never before in the history of the Veggietales series have they produced a complete bomb...until now. There's no plot to speak of, most of the between-songs moments are just plain dumb, and the entirety of the Bible lesson normally so prevelant in other entries in the series is summed up in the final song. This is absolutely nothing like any of the other dvds in the series (with the possible exception of the Silly Songs one...and even that one had a lot of funny moments in it). The only redeeming thing in this dvd is the shorts shown during the show. The "Lunch" short and the aardvark singing opera were hilarious, and I would have loved to have seen more of them. Don't judge the whole series by this one episode. Hey, they've been doing this for 10 years...they're bound to get bored and want to try something new every now and then, right?

"Eh, it coulda been woise." "Larry's World of Auto-tainment" is a different sort of a veggie-tales video. It doesn't present a story, but rather an over-plot of Larry's view of the future, where humor is generated randomly for maximum suprise value (and minimum logic). Being Larry's vision, it naturally goes screwy, with humorous results.

The main thrust of the show is songs done by "randomly selected" characters on "randomly selected" topics. As a result, we get to hear the French peas singing "There's a hole in the Bottom of the Sea," and Pa Grape singing, "Erie Canal" among others. One gets the sense that the video was made purely for entertainment purposes. Now, a veggie tales that just tries to entertain isn't necessarily a bad thing (my family has practically worn out our copy of "Ultimate Silly Songs Countdown.")

Unfortunately, the writers try to stick in lessons that just don't work. For example there is a short called "Lunch" that illustrates a lesson against greed in a way kids can relate to. They also include a quote from "John," the only scripture in the episode. Unfortunately, "Lunch" is a silent short with non-veggie characters. It seems so out of place it is jarring rather than enlightening.

At the end, Junior Asparagas sings a song about God loving him no matter what. This is a good lesson, one that deserves to be the subject of a full video. As it is in "Auto-tainment," it feels tacked on as an afterthought.

In short, buy this video expecting to be entertained with a good presentation of kid songs. There may not be a proper lesson to discuss with your kids, but hey, there are lots of veggie-tales videos that provide that.

We've been big fans of Veggie Tales and 3-2-1 Penguins, so we got this as soon as it came out. However, we didn't find it as funny, and unlike most of their shows, after one viewing we soon grew tired of it.
Music collections such as "The End of Silliness?" and the "Ultimate Silly Song Countdown " are still favorites of ours.
You may want to rent this before deciding to buy it.

Our three year old daughter adores Veggie Tales, so we were intrigued by one of the latest installments from the amazing team at Big Idea Productions. After so many offerings, this presentation is a nice, lightweight change of pace - lots of silliness and music! Hannah sits through the entire show, singing along at the top of her lungs!

There are some unique and comical interpretations on such classic children's tunes as "Zaccheus" and "Hole in the Bottom of the Sea," and a kooky, breathless rendering of "Modern Major General," made famous by Gilbert and Sullivan. And for those who desire original tunes, Lisa Vischer's "My Day," sung by Junior Asparagus, is a pure-hearted tribute to God's eternal love.

In between the songs, there are cartoon shorts such as "Lunch" and "Binky the Opera Singer," and they are all just as entertaining as the musical numbers.

Once again, Veggie Tales has achieved the delicate balance of delivering the message of faith with a gentle touch. "The Wonderful World of Auto-tainment" has proven that children's viewing can be both charming and edifying at the same time.

Larry is sure that he and Bob will soon be passed over as children's show hosts because they are too low tech. So, he works to create the future of entertainment. Looks like the future involves robots telling randomly generated jokes and punch lines and random characters singing songs on random subjects. Throw in a couple of random animated shorts, and you've got a show. But is the future really going to hold together the way that real hosts do?

Adult fans of the series will be disappointed with the video. While some of the dialog is funny, the majority of the program is animated songs from several of the CD's that the veggies have released over the last year or so. Kids, on the other hand, will love having another sing-a-long video with the vegetables they actually like. The only funny thing is, if they were going to do a sing-a-long, why not include the words? Of course, for most kids that won't be a problem after a few viewings.

Anyone with kids will want to get this fun DVD with familiar songs because their kids will enjoy it. And they'll get a chuckle or two from it themselves. Adult fans may want to rent or borrow it since it won't hold up to repeated viewings for them like other releases from Big Idea.

I was a bit disappointed with this episode. It is just several music videos with Bob and Larry as M.C.'s presenting the videos. Kids may like it though.

My family loves the veggies, but this movie was a little disappointing. It wasn't as funny and not as God-focused as some of the other titles. But I still give it four stars because the songs are entertaining, like "Modern Major General."

This is a pretty fun video! I absolutley LOVED,"Hole in the Bottom of the Sea"!( I liked that there was a pic of Jonah) The jokes were definetley not as funny--thats why i'm giving it 4 stars ( I was hoping for an appearence by Khalil). "My Day" was SO CUTE! I don't know why people are so mad because it's different- like another reveiwer said, they can't do da same thing every time! the shorts were funny--I liked da opera singer better. About it being different, I noticed that happened with "Esther". People got all sore because it wasn't "normal" And I don't think that's FAIR!