User Reviews

The title "VeggieTales: God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!" already gives away what you are about to see here. It is another animated short film with many religious references and the focus is on forgiveness this time. At over 32 minutes, it is one of the longer VeggieTales, so it is not surprising that they included two stories here. It is also one of the earliest and if we are honest here, then the animation really isn't too good, even for the early 90s as this one is indeed approaching its 25th anniversary. The ones who made this are the usual names you also find as part of the crew for many other VeggieTales and several voice actors in here also have a long history with VeggieTales. But the deficits in looks are more than made up by the charme I would say. The characters are all interesting enough, even the minor characters and their actions made you curious about what would happen next. And the music is also solid as always. It was a close call eventually if I recommend it or not as there isn't one single great or memorable aspect in here and the plot is also not among my very favorites from the series, but I will still be generous and forgive Vischer and Nawrocki for their flaws this time and emphasize the great quantity of solid production values. It was an okay watch and it is worth seeing. Also for those with no religious background at all as it's funny and entertaining enough to deliver simply from the movie making perspective without its subtext. Check out this half hour. I'm positive you won't regret it.

First off, many of us already know that this 1994 installment of the VeggieTales franchise is aesthetically rough looking quality-wise. However, it's important to note that the staff of Big Idea Productions experienced extreme burnout after the painful but worthwhile experience making the first video "Where's God When I'm S-Scared?" in 1993. On top of that, they were starting a deal with distributors and had deadlines. With that being said, this video was simpler in its theme, but suffered from TONS of animation errors. But these can be forgiven since Phil Vischer and Co. Were still "babies" in the business.

The biblically based lesson on forgiveness is made simple for kids but it's missing a few layers, which Big Idea somewhat made up for in later videos that touch on the topic. One thing that modern Christian discourse often forgets about is the difference between forgiveness and condoning. With children, many of them often times have simple forgiveness issues with peers that may hurt their feelings (like how Larry was offended by Bob saying Larry's apology wasn't good enough). But with other children they may have to deal with a peer who has hurt them repeatedly (like when the Grape kids insulted Junior twice). Unlike Junior's story, though, some kids repeat offenses towards their peers and don't stop or have no sense of remorse. This is one thing the video could have addressed without making things too complicated for young children. It's important we teach kids that forgiveness means we are not going to let what someone has done to us tear us down forever. Forgiveness does not mean that one is obligated to trust the person that has hurt them. It's honorable that Junior forgave the Grapes, but he wasn't obligated to trust them to not make fun of people. One reason bullying still continues among kids is because there are too many adults that expect them to always make up with each other after a spat (only for the kid to get hurt by the same person again and again). Despite this, I applaud the message that forgiveness is important because God forgive us and when we don't forgive, we're not punishing the ones who hurt us, we are punishing ourselves (this is illustrated in the Gilligan's Island spoof "Larry's Lagoon", just without my wording).

Definitely a classic to share with kids, especially ones that fight with their siblings and neighbors often. Additionally, it's still a nice watch just to appreciate some super-early VT goodness. This video doesn't have a lot of songs like the others, but still entertaining nonetheless. Side note: "Forgive-O-Matic" is a cute segment in place of the beloved "Silly Songs with Larry" but I'm glad more Silly Songs came along because they only meant to do it one time (shocker)!