Bob (right) and Larry (left).

Status: Lost

Before the release of their feature film, Jonah: a VeggieTales Movie, Big Idea made plans to create another feature film called The Bob & Larry Movie. The film was planned for a 2005 theatrical release, however, it was soon scrapped due to Big Idea going bankrupt in mid-2003. The Bob & Larry Movie would have been distributed by Artisan Entertainment, the distributor of Jonah. According to Big Idea founder and writer, Phil Vischer, they had about 10 people working on the film before cancelling it.

Around 2004, Phil Vischer stated on his website that both The Bob & Larry Movie and another script that he wrote at the time, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: a VeggieTales Movie, were being considered for relaunch.^[1] Eventually, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything was put into production, and was released in January 2008. Phil had also stated that The Bob & Larry Movie would have been put back into production, had The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything performed well at the box office.^[2] However, the film made about $13 million off of its $15 million budget.^[3]

Plot

The film would have begun with a brief synopsis of how talking vegetables were involved in world history, these events being described as a "rare, but recurring phenomenon". One example shown would have been tomb paintings of a pharaoh consulting with a leek.^[4]

Before they met and developed VeggieTales together, Bob the Tomato would be working in local TV news hosting a segment called "Farm Report", while Larry the Cucumber would work as a tester at a factory that makes hats for chickens (on account of the fact that his head was chicken-sized).^[5] Bob would make a report on the chicken hat factory, and both would meet up after Bob noticed another talking vegetable working there.^[6]

The film also would have featured human characters. The film starred a boy named Dexter, and Bob and Larry would have lived in his nightstand.^[7] The relationship between Dexter and his father would mirror Bob's own moral dilemma between relationships (being a good friend to Larry) and accomplishments (his dream of becoming a TV newsman).^[8]

The villain would have been the head of a soup factory, Hagenmeier Soup. Cranky that kids are more interested in French fries than soup, he would kidnap Larry after seeing Bob's news report on the chicken hat factory. He would then experiment on Larry to learn how vegetables talk so he could create vegetable spokespeople for his soup, all while the other veggies mount a rescue from the factory.^[9]^[10]

Aside from these details, not much else is known about the plot.

Known People Who Worked on the Film

Tod Carter - Story Supervision

Philip Dimitriadis - Concept Art

Michael Spooner - Concept Art

Joe Spadaford - Concept Art

Chuck Volmer - Concept art

Daniel López Muñoz - Concept art

Keith Lango - CG Supervisor ^[11]

Ameake Owens - Producer

Marc Vulcano

Luis Contreras

Availability

Although no video footage of the movie, if any, has been released, former Big Idea director Brian K. Roberts confirmed that the 3D model for the villain was re-used in Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly, a segment in the 2004 VeggieTales episode A Snoodle's Tale.^[12]

Several pieces of concept art and a color script have been leaked online. Phil Vischer has stated that he still has the full script for the movie, but has no plans on releasing it to the public as the script currently belongs to NBCUniversal.^[13]

On March 28th, 2019, it was announced that Universal was in discussions about possibly doing another VeggieTales movie. Before April 23rd, it was unknown if this was a revival of The Bob & Larry Movie or a completely new film.^[14] On April 23, 2019, Phil Vischer confirmed that the new VeggieTales movie was not The Bob & Larry Movie and that he will be going with another idea if the film does get greenlit.^[15]

On March 21st, 2021, Joe Spadaford uploaded more pieces of concept art on his ArtStation portfolio.^[16]

Since May 29th, 2021, Phil Vischer has revealed several plot details about the film on his Twitter account.

Gallery

Videos

Video by Mr. Cow on the film.

Snippet from an interview with Keith Lango talking about the film.

Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly, a VeggieTales segment that features a model of the villain at 5:16 and 6:51.

Concept Art

Part of the color script, and the script itself.
Part of the color script (1/3).
Part of the color script (2/3).
Part of the color script (3/3).
Several pieces of concept art for the soup factory being shown to Big Idea employees.
Several pieces of concept art by Joe Spadaford.
Concept art by Philip Dimitriadis (1/4).
Concept art by Philip Dimitriadis (2/4).
Concept art by Philip Dimitriadis (3/4).
Concept art by Philip Dimitriadis (4/4).
Concept art by Joe Spadaford (1/6).
Concept art by Joe Spadaford (2/6).
Concept art by Joe Spadaford (3/6).
Concept art by Joe Spadaford (4/6).
Concept art by Joe Spadaford (5/6).
Concept art by Joe Spadaford (6/6).
Concept art by Michael Spooner (1/2).
Concept art by Michael Spooner (2/2).