VeggieTales: Esther, the Girl Who Became Queen

I was rather disappointed with this one. By the time this came out we had watched almost all 13 of the Veggie videos which had already been released by Big IDea, and it was a good thing, since we knew that they were capable of far better things. We thought hard about what made Esther less appealing than the rest of the series, and finally hit on it: the veggies were taking themselves too seriously. The silliness was gone (no Silly Song, even), the wackiness was gone, the Monty-Pythonesque humor was gone, and all we were left with was a beautiful young scallion with hair (but no limbs) and a serious dramatic difficulty before her. Which sounds stupid, and, well, it did kind of come across that way without the zaniness to buoy it. We own it, and we let the kids watch it because there's nothing really *wrong* with it, but we don't enjoy it while it's on.

I was stunned by the graphics in this one. They did an excellent job. The story is well told and moves along at a great pace. I did feel the character who leads the Peas to the Island of perpetual tickling is a little to scary looking for the youngest ones in the audience. Aside, from that this video is awesome.

If someone asked me for recommendations on which VeggieTales episode to watch first, I would suggest Dave and the Giant Pickle, Madame Blueberry, and the Jonah movie. That being said, Esther definitely wouldn't be on my list for first-timers to the franchise. It is drastically different than most VeggieTales in that it is more dramatic than humorous (though still featuring some hilarious dialogue), does not feature the countertops, lacks a Silly Song, and barely uses Bob and Larry at all. However, these differences don't taint the entertainment this episode offers at all, and on the contrary, it is filled to the brim with VeggieTales charm. The story of this episode is based on the book of Esther from the Bible, and Mike Narwocki does an incredible job fleshing out these characters' personalities while mostly managing to stay true to the Biblical text. Esther and Mordecai, though not particularly funny characters, are easy to sympathize with, and Esther's growth and maturity throughout this episode is a great example to girls (and boys). Unfortunately, though, there are a few inaccuracies present between this episode and the Biblical account. Some of them were taken to censor the story for young children, which I understand entirely, but others, like Esther's initial tenacity to be queen and Haman's lashing out at Mordecai after the banquet, are either not quite provable or entirely inaccurate, which made my rating slightly lower. Overall, though, this is an underrated but excellent episode of VeggieTales which longtime fans of the series should check out.

(And by the way, Haman, the youngest Jackson wasn't Tito. It was Janet.)

My children loved Esther. The format was slightly different; it didn't include a "Silly Song" segment, but there was a very silly song about puppies. And my children absolutely loved Esther's song. They got the message about being courageous and trusting God during difficult situations. It was a serious story, but they handled the touchy topics in a way that got the basic idea across without making it too serious, gruesome, or graphic for kids...the usual VeggieTales way. For example instead of being executed, criminals were sent to the Isle of Perpetual Tickling. My children and I highly recommend Esther; they learned a lot, laughed a lot, and sang a lot.