A lesson in courage

Reviewed by Matthew Cordle

This DVD is a reissue of the talking veggie' take on the story of Esther. The animation is excellent, the screenplay has been well thought out and the DVD is professionally put together. These films appeal to a wide range of age groups - my 32-month old daughters enjoyed it as much as I did! There is less obvious hilarity than on many of the other VeggieTales DVDs, but my children found the story particularly engaging and the songs help to punctuate it. I was wondering how they would deal with the concept of Haman building gallows to hang the Jews on in a film aimed at young children (others may disagree but I feel the longer one can keep these sorts of things from very young children, the better!) and this is one of my favourite adaptations - the introduction of banishment to IPT, the Island of Perpetual Tickling by a Grim Reaper-type character with a giant feather! What with the plot Mordecai saved the king from being to drop a grand piano on his head while he tasted a birthday cake baked by an imposter baker, you get the drift. The intended messages all come through loud and clear. The DVD contains other extras including a behind-the-scenes documentary, sing-along versions of the songs and video demonstrations of how to draw two of the main characters. I would thoroughly recommend it.