… because I spent four hours in a room with an 80 year-old Sunday School teacher. Well, okay, she's a puppet. Named Sunday School Lady. I'm filming scenes for the third "What's in the Bible?" DVD, and I had to cover about 20 pages of script with Sunday School Lady yesterday, which left me a little hoarse. (It'd be more fun if it left me with a little horse, but it never works out that way.)
The third DVD was a real challenge to write, because it covers Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Whee! What fun! No wonder we tend to skip those books when we write Sunday School lessons. ("Let's see… we're done with the exodus – what's next? Jesus!") But we managed to write through them, and it's interesting stuff! Three different animators are hard at work on the animated portions, and I'm locked away in the studio with the puppets. The original songs are produced and done, just waiting for the puppets to lip-sync their way through them like Milli Vanilli (who were also puppets, weren't they?).
When you start out by saying, "We're going to walk your kids ALL the way through the Bible!" it doesn't really dawn on you at the time that you've just committed to walking kids ALL the way through the Bible. Even the hard parts. Even Leviticus, for heaven sake! But so we are, and so we shall! And we'll all learn a thing or two in the process! (Yes, even me. I confess I hadn't spent a ton of time in the book of Leviticus – until now. Leviticus and I have become very well acquainted. First name basis.)
This third DVD will be in stores this summer, with the fourth coming in the Fall. We're flying!
Well, I need to drink some tea and get back in the studio… it's "Clive and Ian" day. (Ian is convinced the "Levites" are the folks who make his blue jeans. Clive has to set him straight on that one.)
Only 3 weeks until launch time! Stay tuned for more news…
Leviticus and Numbers ARE some of the hardest reads, I bet it’s horrible to have to teach them!
Can’t wait for the show Phil! Best wishes!
Woohoo! I can’t wait to see what you guys came up with for Leviticus. 🙂 I do like the bentley brother’s song for that book though.
Plus..I got my sample DVD yesterday and watched it!! Yay!! Keep up the good work!
I can’t wait to see the videos! I love Clive and Ian. And I totally understand what you’re saying about Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. I said I’d read the whole Old Testament, and well. I barely made it through those. The main thing I remember is, that a rebellious group of people got swallowed into the earth. Not that I don’t remember other stuff…
I just placed my order with Christian Books.com for a set of the first three dvds of the What’s In The Bible? series. The delivery date is June. Yeah! I am really excited about this new series.
Awesome.
Thanks and GREAT JOB JellyTelly Team and Phil, I got the What’s In The Bible Sample DVD today, and I’m overjoyed. It’s amazing. It’s exactly what the VeggieTales that we knew, that with your disappearance, sorta faded away slowly, and it’s great. I’ll admit, I definitely learned stuff I’ve never known before.
Lemon & Honey,That’s what you need to get you through Phil. I’m so thrilled to see the launch of such an awesome product for kids. Is it coming to Australia???
Your friends from Down Under.
I read the thing about Clive and the Levites and laughed pretty loudly. My youngest daughter came running up to me, “What’s Daddy? What’s so funny?” Too bad she doesn’t get it 🙂 I am looking so forward to seeing these as they come out!
Well done Phil, you have taken on a big challenge, God’s speed! Levites ^_^
We too got our DVD yesterday!!! My 5 yr daughter watched it all the way through with excitement and I learned things I didn’t know! My daughter says her favorite is sunday school lady so the hoarseness is worth it. Keep up the great work. We can wait to get them all to add to our Veggietales collection.
I hope you put in Bil’am and his amazing talking donkey (Numbers 22-24).
I look forward to seeing the DVDs when they’re available.
I just finished Leviticus last night in my one-year Bible reading plan! WHEW that’s some stuff! It always feels very disjointed and non-relevant to me, although the notes in my ESV Study Bible do help to put it in historical context a little better. Now those pages don’t stick together in my Bible any more! 😉
The fact that you all are tackling books like Leviticus is one of the things that most excites me about Jelly Telly/WITB. I love that my 2 year-old marches around the house and sings the Bentley Brother’s songs about Leviticus and Deuteronomy. When I tell people about Jelly Telly it’s usually one of the first things I share. It amazes me that you all can get a 2 year-old excited about a book that few adults read! I can wait to see the DVDs!
Oh my goodness…I am SO guilty of skipping Leviticus (and a few others between Moses, King David and Jonah). If they aren’t part of the flannel-graph set, then I sort of move ahead! I can hardly wait to see what you’ve done with these books. 🙂
Phil Vischer!
I just found your blog! how fun. I took my picture with you in a Qdoba in Wheaton a few weeks ago because I was so excited to see you and your daughter in person so randomly! That picture actually my facebook profile right now.
I didn’t know you were working on a different project. It sounds awesome. I have sisters who are 9 and 6 years old, so I am sure that your next DVDs will soon be in house 🙂
Anna
Yeah… J. Vernon McGee’s radio commentaries were the only thing that finally made me see how these old obscure books point to Christ.
Hey, that’s it!! A new cartoon series! “J. Vernon McGee & Me”!
Back to the main topic, though:
Hang in there, Phil. We’re praying that He’ll give strength to you (the weary).
And maybe a pony…
Hey Phil,
Any updates on The Bob and Larry Movie, or is that just a unproduced dream at this time?
Have you thought about how you’re going to do Song of Songs?
“Hello God? This is your publisher. We are loving this ‘Bible’ of yours! Great action, great characters, plagues, chases – just amazing. But….there was some concern that the story bogs down a little right in the middle of Exodus, and doesn’t really pick up again until Joshua…”
Easily the dryest, toughest, most difficult part of the Bible, and I don’t envy you the task of making it interesting to anyone, much less kids. I did want to mention, however, one thought that occurred to me when I did the one-year bible thing a couple years ago. If, as many will contend, the Bible is fiction, why include these books? Why bog down the story like this? No one who was trying to invent a history would go into this much detail (not even JRR Tolkein). The only reason someone would be this meticulous about recording all this is because it’s what actually happened. The reason the description of the construction of the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant read like an instruction manual, is because it is an instruction manual. You really can build a copy of the tabernacle and the ark from the directions in the Bible, and they work out. If someone was just inventing the story, the measurements wouldn’t work.
The other fun part of Leviticus was discussing the kosher rules with a Jewish co-worker of mine: “So…lobster and shrimp are bad, but grasshoppers are ok?”
Phil,
Got to preview the first 2 videos and …they are awesome!!!! Can’t wait to send my review to Tyndale.
I didn’t know about the new series until I saw it in the bookstore. I had just finished reading “Me, Myself and Bob” the week before, so when I saw the series, I knew I wanted to start my kids on it and hope they liked it. So far, so good! Looking forward to the next one.
youtube.com“Oh, no what we gonna do?” (Video)
Bible Bowl Promo (Video)
Hi Phil,
I read all 500 pages of your what happened to big idea and it made me want to cry. Oh well. Like Don Moen says, “God will make a way.” Just wanted to comment that it’s great to see you getting into puppets as I’ve recently discovered their potential and I’m going to try to do some stuff with them. Here are two videos of mine that I want you to see. The first one is to show you how loyal my brothers and I have been to Veggie Tales as we convinced our mom to buy each VHS as they came out. The second is just when I got my friend to help with a short puppet promotional video. I just thought that might be appropriate for this blog post. Anyway, have a nice day. It’d be nice to hear what you think of the videos!
a little horse
You mean PONIES!
I LOVE Sunday School Lady! She’s hilarious! And I’m hoping at some point, there will be some WITB apparel – and a Sunday School Lady shirt. Good job, Phil. My 3 year old, my husband, and I all love these DVDs. Can’t wait for the next one!