Veggie Tales: The Little House That Stood

Mixed feelings about this new DVD
We enjoyed the first movie selection of the DVD, a combination of The Three Little Pigs nursery rhyme from Mother Goose and the parable Jesus told in the Bible about the builders that built houses on solid rock and on sand. It was typical VeggieTales style, all the way.

The "Silly Song with Larry", one of the pieces you can count on while viewing a VeggieTales DVD, didn't disappoint us, although it might have been a bit odder than normal. :)

The last piece of the video was all about selfishness and helping and serving others. It combined pieces of many Mother Goose nursery rhymes and poems into the video, which could have been very confusing to many children who haven't been read the nursery rhymes.

My girls, however, were not happy about one very obvious part of this movie. The mayor, whom we don't know if he is a paid government employee or an unpaid volunteer, is getting tired of serving his community and dealing with their problems and...

Another family favorite for my 2-8 year old crowd!
My family have been fans of the Veggie Tales movies ever since my oldest daughter was a preschooler. We enjoy the fun twist they take on Bible stories and other stories, to teach Christian values to children. The humor always captures the interest of our children, as well as tickling the adults' funny bones with a few little gems (like references to other movies and books) that the children may not catch. Best of all, they are completely safe and family friendly. As my 2 year old says, "I dub Veg Tades!" (translation: "I love Veggie Tales!")

The latest movie, The Little House That Stood, did not disappoint us at all. It held up to all our expectations of a Veggie Tales movie. It uses two different fairy tales to teach two different lessons. The first story uses the Story of the Three Little Pigs to help illustrate Jesus' parable of the wise and foolish builders from Matthew 7. This town has three builders, who each build a house for one of the three little pigs...

The Little House That Stood --but kind of wavers
Veggie Tales has built a solid reputation of using Bible stories or moral themes inspired by scripture to set the stage for whatever lesson the video has set out to teach. Do the creators of Veggie Tales use straight up Bible stories all the time? No. Do they use other types of story telling to get these themes across? Yes. They've used a variety of scenarios, superheroes, and all while weaving in Biblical principles.

Even so, The Little House That Stood crosses into territory which I find uncomfortable.

As a former teacher (and mother), I value the use of Mother Goose nursery rhymes, Aesop's fables, and fairy tales as a method of teaching moral life lessons (because that's their nature and origin of these stories). However, in the case of The Little House That Stood, what I see happening is a combining of these stories with scripture.

As a Christian, I cannot find this method of weaving fable with Biblical parables to be effective, useful, or helpful...

Click to Editorial Reviews