VeggieTales (partially found widescreen versions of animated children's series episodes; 2003-2004)

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LittleJoeEasterCarol.png

DVD covers for The Ballad of Little Joe and An Easter Carol.

Status: Partially Found

VeggieTales is a 3D-animated Christian children's series created by Big Idea Productions in 1993. The original series ran from 1993 to 2015, although several spin-offs and reboots have been created since its inception.

The Ballad of Little Joe is the 20th episode of VeggieTales, released on August 5, 2003.[1] It is a retelling of the Biblical story of Joseph with a Western twist.

An Easter Carol is the 21st episode of VeggieTales, released on February 10, 2004.[2] It is a retelling of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" that is set during Easter instead of Christmas, while also being the sequel to the 2002 episode, The Star of Christmas.

Background

Prior to 2002, all of Big Idea's projects were animated in 4:3 fullscreen, the standard aspect ratio for home video and TV at the time. Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, their first theatrical film, was also their first project rendered in a 16:9 widescreen ratio.[3][4][5] Because of this, mainline VeggieTales episodes produced after Jonah would also be animated in this same format. This applied to The Ballad of Little Joe and An Easter Carol, which were both fully animated in a 16:9 aspect ratio. When released on video, however, both episodes were cropped to the standard 4:3 ratio.

Similarly, these two would also be the final episodes animated in-house by Big Idea due to the company going bankrupt in 2003.[6] The following episode, A Snoodle's Tale, was also to be animated in widescreen, and began production with Big Idea's in-house team. However, animation was instead outsourced to DKP Studios, after Big Idea had already completed the layout stages.[7] This resulted in the episode being rendered in fullscreen instead, albeit with the frame extended instead of cropping the original widescreen files.[8]

Big Idea would not produce their episodes in widescreen again until Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue, released 4 years later in 2008.

Availability

The uncropped widescreen versions of both episodes have never been released in full, although the Silly Song in The Ballad of Little Joe, "Belly Button", was intentionally letterboxed to fullscreen to mimic the music videos of the time. Outside of this, the only proof of the widescreen cuts can be found on animation reels, trailers, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and a flashback seen at the beginning of the 2007 episode Moe and the Big Exit, the sequel to Little Joe.

While the likelihood of the widescreen versions being fully released is incredibly slim, NBCUniversal, the current owners of VeggieTales, have shown to have access to the Big Idea archives. This is evidenced by several previously unseen/VHS-exclusive bonus features included in the 20th anniversary DVD/Blu-Ray of Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie,[9] meaning that the chances of the widescreen versions seeing the light of day are not entirely impossible.

Videos

Demo reel containing clips from the widescreen versions from 1:54 to 2:15.

Compilation of clips edited together with audio from the original episodes.

Studio tour of Big Idea that shows unfinished widescreen footage of An Easter Carol (at 4:43).

Trailer for The Ballad of Little Joe that contains unfinished widescreen footage (at 2:10).

Belly Button, the only part of The Ballad of Little Joe to be officially released in widescreen.

Song from the episode Moe and the Big Exit, which uses widescreen footage of Little Joe from 0:52 to 1:43.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Official press release for The Ballad of Little Joe. Retrieved 02 Feb '24
  2. ↑ Official press release for An Easter Carol. Retrieved 02 Feb '24
  3. ↑ Radio interview soundbites from Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki. Retrieved 30 Jan '24
  4. ↑ VeggieSins: Everything Wrong With The Star of Christmas Retrieved 30 Jan '24
  5. ↑ VeggieSins: Everything Wrong With Lyle the Kindly Viking Retrieved 30 Jan '24
  6. ↑ Page from Phil Vischer's autobiography, Me, Myself & Bob detailing the in-house animation crew's firing. Retrieved 30 Jan '24
  7. ↑ A Snoodle's Tale DVD commentary with Mike Nawrocki and David Pitts Retrieved 30 Jan '24
  8. ↑ A Snoodle's Tale progression reel. Retrieved 30 Jan '24
  9. ↑ UPHE page for their releases of Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie. Retrieved 30 Jan '24
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