Big Idea Entertainment, LLC (formerly known as Big Idea Productions, Inc. and Big Idea, Inc.; also simply as Big Idea) is an American Christian animation company, best known for its computer-animated ''

VeggieTales ''VeggieTales'' is an American Christian media, computer generated musical children's animation, and book franchise created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki under Big Idea Entertainment. The series sees fruit and vegetable characters retell ...

'' series of Christian-themed home videos. Founded in February 1989 as GRAFx Studios by

Phil Vischer Phillip Roger Vischer (born June 16, 1966) is an American filmmaker, author, speaker, podcast host, animator, musician, puppeteer, and voice actor who created the computer-animated video series ''VeggieTales'' alongside Mike Nawrocki. He provid ...

, the company was renamed as Big Idea Productions in August 1993 and it released its first direct-to-video ''VeggieTales'' program in December. In 2002, Big Idea adapted the Biblical story of

Jonah Jonah or Jonas, ''Yōnā'', "dove"; gr, Ἰωνᾶς ''Iōnâs''; ar, يونس ' or '; Latin: ''Ionas'' Ben (Hebrew), son of Amittai, is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran, from Gath-hepher of the northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria ...

for its first theatrical feature film, '' Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie'', which was co-produced with FHE Pictures. Its second theatrical film, '' The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie'', was co-produced with

Starz Animation Jam Filled Entertainment is a Canadian animation studio based in Ottawa, Ontario with additional facilities in Toronto and Halifax and is a division of Boat Rocker Media. It is best known for animating ''Thomas & Friends'' between 2013 and 2020, ...

and released in 2008. From 1999 to 2004, headquarters of Big Idea Entertainment was in

Lombard, Illinois Lombard is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of Chicago. The population was 43,165 at the 2010 census. The United States Census Bureau estimated the population in 2019 to be 44,303. History Originally part of ...

, a suburb outside of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. After Big Idea Entertainment declared bankruptcy in 2003 and the company was sold to

Classic Media Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Media ...

, headquarters was moved in 2004 to

Franklin, Tennessee Franklin is a city in and county seat of Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. About south of Nashville, it is one of the principal cities of the Nashville metropolitan area and Middle Tennessee. As of 2020, its population was 83,454 ...

, a suburb outside of Nashville. In 2012, DreamWorks Animation purchased Classic Media. In 2013, DreamWorks began to oversee productions of Big Idea Entertainment and launched the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

series

VeggieTales in the House ''VeggieTales in the House'' is an American computer animation, computer-animated children's comedy streaming television series developed by Doug TenNapel (of ''Earthworm Jim'' fame) and produced by Big Idea Entertainment (owned by DreamWorks Cla ...

. After production of ''VeggieTales in the House's'' sequel series entitled

VeggieTales in the City ''VeggieTales in the City'' is an American computer-animated children's comedy streaming television series produced by Big Idea Entertainment. The series is a sequel to ''VeggieTales in the House''. It premiered on Netflix on February 24, 2017 w ...

wrapped in 2017, DreamWorks sold the Franklin headquarters to

Kingdom Story Company Kingdom Story Company (formerly known as Kingdom Studios), is an American film and television studio in partnership with Lionsgate specializing in the production of Christian films. It was founded in 2018 by the Erwin Brothers (Jon and Andrew Er ...

. Big Idea continues to operate as an in-name-only company and a unit of DreamWorks Animation; with

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

handling distribution and licensing rights for the company.

Bob the Tomato This is a list of characters that appear in the ''VeggieTales'' franchise. Primary characters Bob the Tomato Bob the Tomato (introduced 1993) is the friendly but slightly high-strung host of ''VeggieTales''. Creator Phil Vischer has often cite ...

and

Larry the Cucumber This is a list of characters that appear in the ''VeggieTales'' franchise. Primary characters Bob the Tomato Bob the Tomato (introduced 1993) is the friendly but slightly high-strung host of ''VeggieTales''. Creator Phil Vischer has often cite ...

, characters from VeggieTales, serve as the company's mascots.

History

Big Idea was founded in February 1989 under the name GRAFx Studios by

to create graphics in television commercials. In 1991, Vischer created a 12-second short film called ''Mr. Cuke's Screen Test''. This short inspired him and

Mike Nawrocki Michael Lewis Nawrocki (born July 8, 1966) is an American director, animator, writer, lyricist, and voice actor best known as the co-creator of the long-running, Christian video series, ''VeggieTales'' where he voiced Larry the Cucumber. He voic ...

to create ''

'', with Nawrocki coming up with the name. Vischer thought the name "GRAFx" no longer suited a company about to create children's videos, so he renamed it as Big Idea Productions, Inc. on August 6, 1993. The company released its first video, ''

Where's God When I'm S-Scared? This is a list of VHS and DVD releases of the animated children's television series ''VeggieTales''. Videos Original videos (1993–2015) Theatrical films Compilation videos Collections # ''Lessons From The Sock Drawer'' ...

'' in December of the same year. Rapidly running out of office space, Big Idea relocated to the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

suburbs in 1997 with the purchase of the DuPage Theater in

. However, renovation delays, unforeseen building conditions, and lengthy zoning battles resulted. In the interim, the company was guided by Lombard City officials to rent space at the

Yorktown Center Yorktown Center is a shopping mall located in the village of Lombard, Illinois, Lombard, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The mall's anchor stores are JCPenney, Marshalls, and Von Maur, with one vacant anchor store that was once Car ...

, a local mall. In a co-production with FHE Pictures, Big Idea released its first theatrical feature film, '' Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie'' on October 4, 2002. On September 2, 2003, Big Idea declared bankruptcy after encountering management and financial issues and a lawsuit by

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (commonly written as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Sop ...

in 2001. By the end of the year, it was auctioned off to Classic Media for $19.3 million. After its purchase, the company relocated to Nashville in 2004. Big Idea partnered with Toronto-based

to produce its second theatrical feature film, '' The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie'', which was released on January 11, 2008 by

. In April 2009, Entertainment Rights fell into voluntary

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...

and sold its UK- and US-based subsidiaries, including Big Idea and its parent company, Classic Media, to

Boomerang Media Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Media ...

. As of 2011 Big Idea, Inc. has been repackaged officially as Big Idea Entertainment, LLC. In July 2012, Big Idea's parent company, Classic Media, was acquired by DreamWorks Animation and renamed

DreamWorks Classics Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Media ...

. On April 28, 2016,

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primaril ...

announced that it would be acquiring DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion. The sale was completed on August 22, 2016. On July 3, 2018, Vischer confirmed that Big Idea's offices in Franklin were shut down. While marketing employees continued to work for Big Idea during this time, DreamWorks sold the

studio in late 2017. In 2018, NBCUniversal licensed the properties of the studio to The Trinity Broadcasting Network. They launched the production of a new series entitled ''

The VeggieTales Show ''The VeggieTales Show'' (often marketed as simply ''VeggieTales'') is an American Christian computer-animated television series created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki. The series served as a revival and sequel of the American Christian comp ...

'' in 2019 through a collaboration between NBCUniversal and Trilogy Animation Group. Vischer confirmed on Twitter that he and Nawrocki were both returning to work as head writers for the new series.

''VeggieTales'' history

''VeggieTales'' is a series of children's computer animated films featuring anthropomorphic

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

s and conveying moral themes based on

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, spliced with joking references to pop culture and current events. ''VeggieTales'' was created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki, who also provide many of the voices. ''VeggieTales'' has also been released as books, games, and many other branded items such as toys and clothing. Additionally, the series has been adapted for television broadcast on

Qubo Qubo ( ; stylized as qubo) was an American television network for children between the ages of 5 and 14. Owned by Ion Media, it consisted of a 24-hour free-to-air television network often mentioned as the "Qubo channel" (available as a digital ...

(where it aired from September 9, 2006, to September 5, 2009) and on

where DreamWorks Animation Television produced two series, ''

'' (which ran from November 26, 2014 to September 23, 2016) and ''

'' (which ran from February 24 to September 15, 2017).

Filmography

Direct-to-video/television series

Television specials

Feature films

References

External links

Official siteWhat Happened To Big Idea?
article by Phil Vischer {{Comcast 2003 mergers and acquisitions American animation studios American companies established in 1989 Christian film production companies Christian mass media companies Christian animation Companies based in Nashville, Tennessee DreamWorks Classics Entertainment companies established in 1989 Lombard, Illinois Mass media companies established in 1989 Tustin, California VeggieTales Universal Pictures subsidiaries NBCUniversal