VeggieTales: God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!

While this episode may have low quality, this show will stay good for its tales of grumpy grapes, forgive-o-matics, and a cucumber Gillian on the island. I like this episode as it teaches a very important lesson, and tells it through a pretty hilarious Gillian's Island parody. I recommend this episode to families that need to teach their children to forgive each other.

Of all the Veggie Tales shows out there(about 50 if you don't count their compilations like God Made You Special), this is one of the weakest. It's not bad, but it's disappointing once you have seen an episode like Rack, Shack, and Benny. I'll dig into that into a moment.

God Wants Me to Forgive Them? tells 2 stories about forgiveness-the first being The Grapes of Wrath. No, not the John Steinbeck novel/1940 movie, though the characters share similar names.

No, this story is about 4 grapes who tease Junior, a 5 year old for how he looks and then for his name. With the help of Junior's dad and the narrator, they find out that no one should be mean to others, and we should forgive each other countless times since God never stops forgiving us.

Veggie Tales videos usually have a "Silly Song", but this one actually has a mini-segment about a product that supposedly can forgive sins, called the Forgive-O-Matic.

The last story-Larry's Lagoon-is a parody of Gilligan's Island. Bob and Larry in this story take a millionaire and his wife and a professor on a 3 hour tour, but Larry daydreams and crashes the boat. Will the others forgive him for this blunder? Why should they?

All of this is fun that is worth your time. However, like I said in the opening of my review, this episode is a disappointment compared to other episodes. Why? 2 main reasons:

1. It's not as fun. Watch Rack Shack and Benny, Josh and the Big Wall, or even it's predecessor, Where's God When I'm S-Scared,the first show, and this will be a minor disappointment.

2. It teaches the lesson without explaining what it is. "Forgive, Forgive, Forgive" you hear for a half hour, but never "Forgiveness is when you..." If you are watching this with a child, make sure you explain what forgiveness is before you play it for them.

For entertainment value, this is a 10/10. But For it's comparative blandness and poor lesson teaching it drops to an 8. 10/10 + 8/10 = 18/20 which =9/10.

PS, The animation is poor too but fair for a small company using CGI a year before Toy Story's release.

One of the "jokes" in this film is just a guy saying "bamboo bamboo bamboo," over and over. If you find that unfunny, then I consider skipping this. But apart from that it's great!

It has a funny scenario with the characters the Grapes of Wrath (monotone "ha") who with Junior learn to be nice and not bully others. Chichéd moral, but a good one, with some good 90's era "blursed" cgi.

It also has a Gilligans Island parody with a Jamacian coconut tree. That is all I will say.

I got this one recently (2002) because it was one of the few Veggie Tale videos we hadn't seen and it is nowhere as good as the current ones on the market. The stories are not as funny. I think the other comments are a little harsh. Sure they spoof Gilligans Island and the Grapes of Wrath, but I don't see that as a negative. I just think they could have done a better job doing it.

I guess I must be a simple person because I love this video! It makes my whole family laugh out loud, and my husband and I LOVE the spoofs. I'm pretty sure they got permission do the spoofs. Saturday Night Live, Mad Magazine/TV, and Weird Al do it all the time and rarely (if at all) get sued over copyright infringement. Anyway, I love the song that Palmy sings about forgiveness. It gets stuck in your head all day, but what better moral to get stuck in your head??? As a Christian parent, I am glad to have this alternative. It's nice to give the kids a break from the "rude" cartoons that they show on TV these days. Also, this one is the second story that Mike Nawrocki and Phil Vischer did in the Veggie Tales Series, which makes for a great collector's item. If you get the DVD, it contains lots of cool special features and quite a few easter eggs (hidden special features within the different menus). My kids want to watch this one over and over, and I never get tired of it!!