VeggieTales Review: Bumblyburg Superhero Value 4-Pack

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Three great discs combine entertainment and a good moral

Cons: The last disc isn't up to par

The Bottom Line: 

Four disc set that is

Great way for Larry-Boy fans

To own his stories

"I Am That Hero!"

Over the years that VeggieTales has been around, they've have their characters take on personas that live beyond one or two DVD's.  The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything comes to mind.  Another popular character is the subject of The Bumblyburg Superhero Value 4-Pack.

In the videos in this series, co-host Larry the Cucumber takes on the identity of Larry-Boy a superhero based loosely on Batman.  By day he is a millionaire living with his butler Alfred.  But at night he becomes a daring crime fighter.  Being VeggieTales, these stories do have good morals in with the fun.  As the title of the set implies, there are four difference DVD's in this set.

Disc one is Larry-Boy's first ful adventure.  Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space finds Junior Asparagus lying about what happened to his father's collectable plate.  Each time he has to lie, the space alien encouraging him to lie grows bigger, too.  Will Larry-Boy be able to save Junior?

The second disc is Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed.  This adventure finds Larry-Boy's faithful butler the subject of a vicious rumor.  The story that Alfred is a robot is spreading through Bumblyburg like weeds, who just happen to pop up and tell the story to the next person.  Watching these weeds do their dirty work is actually rather funny.

Both of these half hour shows are a good mix of humor and a lesson that applies to life.  In fact, Larry-Boy actually does very little to solve the problem since he's not the one who created it in the first place.  The lesson can be heavy handed at times, but it isn't so bad that it takes away from the fun.  The computer animation is low budget and dated (these are from the late 1990's and early 2000's after all), but is certainly still watchable.

Disc three is different.  It's Dave and the Giant Pickle.  Now what is their take on the Biblical story of David and Goliath doing here?  It introduced Larry-Boy.  During the countertop wrap around, Larry is trying on the costume and pretending to be Larry-Boy because he's tired of being a nobody.  Of course, the theme of the episode, that God is our real source of power, helps Larry realize he doesn't need to be a superhero, although it can still be fun to pretend.  In between all that, we get Junior Asparagus fighting off a giant pickle through God's strength and the silly song "I Love My Lips."

The fourth disc is where things get interesting.  During the early 2000's, they tried to do a hand drawn spin off of Larry-Boy called The Cartoon Adventures of Larry-Boy.  Those discs didn't go over so well, and only four episodes were ever produced.  But all four of them are on this "bonus" disc.  Each episode is half an hour long and includes the main title story and an 8 minute short.  The episodes are "The Angry Eyebrows," "The Yodelnapper," "Leggo My Ego," and "The Good, the Bad, and the Eggly."

With these shows, they were trying to put out something a little cheaper that still had great values and would still entertain kids.  Even with only four episodes, there is evidence that they were going to create some recurring villains for Larry-Boy to fight.  It is interesting that Larry-Boy had to overcome the issue involved in that episode's theme instead of just trying to save someone else.  However, these don't have the humor of the regular VeggieTales segments, and they are way too heavy handed when it comes to the moral.

There is one big omission from this set, but it makes perfect sense.  Larry-Boy and the Bad Apple, the newest computer animated adventure, isn't included in this set.  That's my favorite Larry-Boy adventure, but it was released in 2006, while this set was released in 2004.  You can see why it isn't included, although I'm a little surprised they haven't updated the set since then.

Even without that one episode, this set is well worth getting.  You get three regular VeggieTales DVD's plus all four of the cartoon episodes for a suggested price of $24.95.  Regular price on each disc would be $14.95.  Buying these shows by themselves, you would need to buy 7 discs to get what's in this set.  And that's before you factor in that you can usually pick up this set for less than retail price.  It's really a no brainer.

The first three discs are the identical to discs you'd buy individually, too.  That means you get an audio commentary, additional games, and other fun activities on each disc.  Disc four is just the four cartoon episodes, but this is the only way to get them.  They aren't worth spending much money on by themselves.

So if you or your kid is a Larry-Boy fan, The Bumblyburg Superhero Value 4-Pack is the way to get these shows.  There's plenty of entertainment for a low price.