I walked into the corporate office and immediately knew it was the home of Bob and Larry. Veggie Tales paraphernalia dripped from the walls-banners, posters, the platinum awards for various videos, even concept drawings for upcoming videos. For a moment I thought I had stepped into a seven-year-old’s fantasy. But it was only the headquarters of Big Idea Productions, makers of the wildly successful, computer animated children’s video series, Veggie Tales.

Big Idea has over 80 employees, who all work on some aspect of the Veggie Tales project, including animation, music, web page design, marketing, and more. It takes all of these people six months to produce a thirty minute video. Four guys work an eight hour day just to produce six seconds of animation. That means each one works eight hours to produce a second and a half of motion! I saw sound proof rooms for recording the voices, millions of dollars worth of cutting edge computer equipment, and a large collection of instruments for the music.

The combined resources of Big Idea have managed to turn out a dozen videos that entertain kids, as well as adults. On several occasions I’ve seen more teenagers gathered in front of the TV watching Veggie Tales at the Christian bookstore than little kids. With Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber, Big Idea is teaching Biblical standards to kids, and not boring their parents. Big Idea has followed the pattern that made some of the best children’s shows-give the parents something to laugh at while keeping the kids smiling. Whether it’s Larry shouting, “Dyno-Mite!” decked out as J.J. from ‘Good Times,’ or a French Pea reminiscent of Monty Python, Veggie Tales is drawing laughs from kids and their parents.

Phil Visher, president of Big Idea, wants to be the next Disney. Phil has always been a story teller, and began with puppets at the age of five and six. He worked with his first animated film at eight, and moved to computers when he was 12. He went to film school, and then on to Bible college, where he met his partner Mike Nawrocki. A self proclaimed, “Bible College dropout,” Visher got the idea for Veggie Tales, and went to the Christian industry seeking monetary support.

Everyone told him it was a good idea, but nobody was willing to give up any money, so Visher’s parents took out a second mortgage, his sister tapped into her toddler’s college fund, and a couple in his Bible study took money from their retirement fund. The first run of videos came out in time for Christmas of ‘94 and 500 were shipped. By the end of 1999, Big Idea will have shipped more than 15 million videos. Not bad for a company that started with one computer in a spare bedroom.

The milestones don’t end there either. “Where’s God When I’m S-Scared” was completed in 1993 and became the first fully animated home video ever made. In March of 1998 Veggie Tales became available to the general market and now can be found in every major retail chain from K-Mart to Target, and some videos are even available for rental at Blockbuster Video and other video rental stores. Vischer says that while the Christian sub-culture is where he got started, it is not where he wants to end up. He believes as Christians, we must take our message to the world, rather than hiding from it.

“Our goal,” Visher explained, “is to make a show that will teach kids, but still be entertaining enough that kids will prefer it over the Power Rangers.” Visher wants to declare war on media as we know it. He says that the current problem with children’s television today is parents need to switch between shows because there is no telling what is wholesome. He wants to see something like the Big Idea Saturday Morning where parents could trust a two or three hour block of television.

“That’s the way it was with Disney. People knew they could trust anything put out by Uncle Walt.” Visher says there is a “Walt shaped hole” in the media today that he hopes to fill. Visher’s dreams for the future include TV, music, retail, and something location based, like a theme park. He wants Big Idea to, “blow people away with creativity and bring them closer to God. I want Big Idea to be looked at in the same light as Disney or Henson.” The 20 year goal of Big Idea is to be one of the top five family media brands-rivaling Disney, Henson, and the other big names out there. That’s certainly no small goal. It’s more of a big idea-and an idea that’s catching on.