VeggieTales Review: Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Good lesson on lies; fun spoofs

Cons: Story a bit simple and obvious

The Bottom Line: 

Dangers of lying

Larry-boy is on the job

Good lesson to learn

"A Little Fib Couldn't Hurt Anybody."

Hi, my name is Mark.  I'm a VeggieTales fan.  But I've never been super crazy about the Larry-Boy episodes.  I know, I know, I just spoke heresy to many a devoted fan out there.  I've decided to give them another look, starting with the first one.  And I've got to admit that Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space wasn't as bad as I remembered.

VeggieTales uses computer animated vegetables to teach Biblical truth in fun, humorous stories.  While the target audience is pre-school and early elementary kids, these shows are filled with humor that adults will love as well.  Larry-Boy is their spoof of Batman specifically and superheroes in general.  This one even includes monster and alien movies in the mix.

Our story opens in the small town of Bumblyburg where something has just crashed to the ground from outer space.  While Larry-Boy is out trying to track down this visitor, Junior Asparagus accidentally breaks one of his father's collectable plates.  Rather than own up to it, a strange little creature calling himself Fib convinces Junior to lie about how the plate broke.  But Junior soon discovers that one lie leads to another and another.  Meanwhile, Fib continues to grow.  Will he become too powerful for Junior to handle?  Can Larry-Boy save the day?

Before we go any further, I should mention that when Fib grows bigger, he turns into a monster that threatens Junior.  I could see him in this form scaring some young kids.  Others will be fine with it.  Parents will probably want to screen this one first to judge it for their kids themselves.

Since Larry-Boy is the alter ego of regular character Larry the Cucumber, portrayed as a rich man with a butler named Alfred (Archibald), it's easy to see how this is a spoof of Batman.  Fib is an alien, so alien invasion is covered.  Finally, the climax takes place on the top of the town's water tower.  It reminded me of King Kong.

The story is rather simple and outside the obvious spoofs, there weren't as many jokes as I am used to from the older school VeggieTales.  (This was originally released in 1998.)  I think that's what turned me off to it originally.  Watching it again I found that it wasn't that bad.  The story was very predictable to this adult, but I'm sure the target audience won't see it that way.  And just because it was predictable doesn't make the point of the show any less true.  Actually, I am reminded just how effective they could be with only 30 minutes to tell a story.

I'm also reminded how low quality the animation could be.  The budgets for VeggieTales have never been at blockbuster levels.  You'll definitely notice a difference, although it's still good enough to get the story told.  And kids won't notice or care in the slightest.  It's also fun to go back to a time when the creators didn't try to pretend that their characters had hands by floating objects in front of them.  The only one with hands here is Fib.

While there is no silly song during the story, we do get a music video for the Larry-Boy theme song at the end of the show before the closing credits.

So maybe I'm finally seeing why everyone loves Larry-Boy.  I'm certainly looking forward to seeing his next adventure after enjoying Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space.