VeggieTales Review: Holiday Double Feature

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Two great episodes for the price of one.

Cons: Nothing new if you already own the episodes.

The Bottom Line:

Twice the Christmas cheer

With two VeggieTales stories

Your family will love

Twice the Veggies, Three Times the Fun

This Christmas, Big Idea has released their two Christmas episodes on one DVD with the Holiday Double Feature. This is great for those just finding the series since it will save them money.

First up is "The Toy That Saved Christmas" from 1996. In it, Mr. Nezzer has convinced Dinkletown that they need to buy lots of his toys to make the season a happy one. But one of his toys isn't buying it and sets out to prove that there's more to Christmas.

Being 9 years old, the animation is rather poor, but this is my favorite of the two on the disc. It's a fun little story with catchy songs that clearly presents what Christmas is all about. And anything with the "Oh, Santa" silly song is OK by me. This release does include the extra animation they did to turn it into a full hour special for PAX TV.

Next up is 2002's "The Star of Christmas." This episode finds the gang in Victorian England. While Calvin and Millward (Bob and Larry) are planning a Christmas spectacular, across town a humble little church is putting on a Christmas pageant. When the two shows collide, watch out!

I'm not as big a fan of this episode in the series. It was their first longer episode, and I think it tries to stretch too short a story into 45 minutes. Also, the company was focusing on Jonah at the time, so this didn't get as much attention as they needed. Still, it is VeggieTales and does have it's entertaining moments, including the exciting climax with another great message about love and Christmas.

Between the two shows, this DVD has 90 minutes of entertainment on it. And that's not counting the 2 hours of bonus features. The bonus material on this disc contains all the features from the original two releases. Basically, you're getting the features and extras of two DVDs for the price of one.

There's no new material for anyone who already owns these two specials on DVD. But if you've missed them, the Holiday Double Feature is the way to buy them.