This is Mike Nawrocki, Leslie Ferrell, and Mark Steele talking about Twas The Night Before Easter.
Transcript
Mike: Hello, everybody. This is Mike Nawrocki, director of uh... the Easter show, 'Twas The Night Before Easter and we also have here Leslie Farell.
Leslie: Hi! Hi Mike!
Mike: Hi Leslie. Leslie is the executive producer and Mr. Mark Steele.
Mark: Hello Mike, hello Leslie.
Mike: Hello. Mark is a, uh, writer and a, uh, uh, uh, member of the development team and helped to shape the story as well. So we're gonna talk about the show!
Mark: That made me feel good, what you just said about me. Yes.
Leslie: And Mike, I don't know that I heard you say anything about me.
Mike: I did, I said that you were the executive producer, you are the one who executive produces, and helps us to put all this... all the pieces together to uh... help us to make the shows.
Leslie: I mean, I prefer Queen Bee.
Mike: Queen Bee? That works too. Or Queen Ant. Or ant... ant queen. Oh.
Mark: Or ant bee!
Mike: Or ant bee!
Leslie: Or ant bee!
Mark: Or main berry.
Mike: Remember when ant bee went away and uh, they had to make believe like they uh, the order to make her feel better.
Mark: Is that a Veggietale?
Mike: No but we should do that, that would be a good one.
Leslie: We should do a Veggietales!
Mike: Alright, so here is the opening song, which we've talked over many times, so... okay... searching for easter eggs. Bob is uh, not very good at finding easter eggs so his basket is empty.
Mark: It's a nice little turn, you know it's usually Larry who's not good at things and Bob who is driven crazy by them.
Mike: That's right.
Leslie: You know what's really timeless? It's about, you know, Bob and Larry's friendship and journey through their lives is... it's timeless. Just how they are together.
Mike: It's always... I mean, it's always so fun just watching them together and just writing for them has become so second nature because you know, we know them so well and you know, just how they interact, so... it's always, it's always fun to watch them.
Mark: They're kind of our Andy Griffith and our Barney Frye.
Mike: Yeah that's true!
Mark: Andy was more curmudgeonly.
Leslie: Yeah.
Mike: In some ways, they're kind of Archie and Edith too.
Mark: In some ways, they're kind of Phil and Mike.
Leslie: Yeah, just in a slight way. Yep. Uh huh.
Mike: And this is uh, you know I tell a story about Logan here. Um, he's the little boy who did the, the voice over here, the video mail. He's a friend of my son's and a few months ago, he was over playing with Michael, my son, and he was, Logan was just telling me a story about something, I forget what he was telling me a story about, but he was so animated, and uh... just so precocious and just the light went off and I was like, wow he would be so good at doing this. And um, he was just such a natural for the camera and he just came in and did a wonderful job on it. He really is so charming.
Leslie: What's in the golden egg?
Mark: It's another egg. A matryoshka doll.
Mike: It's a russian easter. We find that out at the end.
Mark: I love that they found the company that makes the wicker easter baskets the size for little vegetables.
Mike: Yeah, that's good. Those were hard to find.
Leslie: Yeah, that was a new licensing deal that we just signed.
Mark: Was it?
Leslie: Yeah.
Mark: Wait, you can find the most unexpected things.
Leslie: Yes.
Mike: This is Petunia as Marlee Meade, and Cydney Trent is her voice actress for this and this is our... she's becoming a bigger and bigger character in the Veggietales universe after our princess, the princess story we did.
Mark: Well, you know, you kind of need that straight woman after you got Bob so high strung and Larry so childlike.
Mike: Yeah, yeah. She's a great character.
Mark: And her hairstyle keeps changing.
Mike: No, she always has that scorpion hair. You kind of have to watch out, looks like she's gonna sting you with it.
Mark: It looks like she wears those scrunchies where it helps you tie it up quicker?
Mike: What do they call those? Not Bedazzlers.
Mark: Not Bedazzlers! Or how you punch the sequins on the blue jean jackets.
Mike: What do you call those things?
Mark: If she had one of those, it'd be a totally different episode.
Mike: Yeah, and she was a reporter in Bad Apple as well. So this is her second term as a reporter.
Mark: But it wasn't Marlee Meade.
Mike: No, no, it was just a regular reporter. I forget what we called her in Bad Apple.
Leslie: You know our fans, we let them vote. We create an opportunity where they can vote and have fun with the characters, and it's interesting we just did a poll on, you know, what were their favourite characters, and Petunia came in number four. Right behind Bob, Larry, and Junior.
Mike: Cool! Alright!
Leslie: And number five were the French Peas.
Mike: Oh cool.
Mark: That's kind of cheating, that's more than one character.
Leslie: That's right, that's right.
Mike: Do they add up together? Are they classified as one character?
Leslie: They were classified as one.
Mark: I would love to see who came in last, but we probably shouldn't discuss that on the air.
Leslie: Exactly. Because no.
Mike: It would be sad.
Leslie: It would be very sad.
Mike: Be very sad, poor Scallion #2. Okay there we go.
Mark: It's Scallion #2.
Leslie: It slipped. Oops.
Mark: Has a very important role in this show.
Mike: I did not see that poll, so I do not know.
Mark: I'm the voice of Scallion #2.
Mike: Okay so this is the uh... we've used this set quite a few times. We've used this set on Saint Nicholas, and we used it again in another show that I can't remember. The nice thing about this set, it's very much like Franklin, Tennessee, which is where we're based out of. So we're kind of going out of experience. It's also very similar to Lombard, Illinois, which is where we were at our last iteration of Big Idea. So uh, small town USA just captures that feeling very nicely. And there's actually a theatre in Franklin right now that's closed down that's being rehabilitated as we speak.
Mark: And was that going on when you were plotting this story?
Mike: Yeah, it's been going on quite a few years. So, it's been taking a long time.
Mark: What does it say that you can produce and animate an episode in shorter time that they can actually restore the theatre?
Leslie: Twas The Night Before Easter...
Mike: Kurt Heinecke once again on the score here did a wonderful job. And uh, so this is Marlee moving in. She's now moved in to the theater, moving boxes into here. We kind of insinuate that she lives upstairs in theater, they've been kind of moving her stuff upstairs and Mr. Lunt is up there fixing the electric, but this is her new home, and it's a better job than the TV station. And Larry lives with his mother.
Leslie: There you go!
Mike: This is your guys' first time watching this in animation, right?
Mark: Oh fully!
Mike: Yeah, so that's why there's so much silence. Usually when everybody's seen it a few times, we kind of just talk over it.
Mark: We don't want to say things too generic, oh look at the green!
(side note: tell that to Leslie, God I can't stand her)
Leslie: It's beautiful!
Mark: It really did turn out well. Up with bunnies! I love the bunnies.
Leslie: Love the bunnies.
Mike: Up with people...
Mark: Yeah, yeah, the 70s.
Leslie: What happened to his hair?
Mark: He's going retro punk.
Mike: He was dangerous with the electricity, with the sparks flying through it. And the static. (mumbles further)
Mark: You know, I have a proclevity for Lunt, I think Lunt should be the comic relief for every show.
Mike: He's a great character. A really good character. So Marlee, her character wants to do big and important things, and she feels her job at the TV station isn't living up to that. So now she's going to put on a show that's going to help people through the power of musical theatre. And this is fun. Through our script development process, we go through many ideas, sometimes many scripts. On this particular show, we changed directions completely about half way through, more than halfway through. But one thing we were able to keep is, a lot of the music and this song is one that Mark wrote for the previous version of this script. It worked in really well into this new story.
Mark: It's interesting how some of these come to be, this was a whole lot of plot that we got to unfold in about three and a half pages. So turning the audition into a song was a fun way to get all of these character's motivations past very, very swiftly.
Mike: Very quickly, yeah, exactly.
Leslie: Now, I take it there is no mistake here with the three judges.
Mark: No, that is paralleling what was once a pop culture touchstone that now has very different judges.
Leslie: Yes, very different.
Mike: They'll always be in our hearts, they'll always be the three that we remember.
Mark: Would she be our Paula?
Leslie: Well... not really.
Mike: Larry's more of a Paula, really.
Leslie: Yeah, Larry just pretty much says "Yes" to everything.
Mark: Yep, that's Paula.
Leslie: Yeah.
Mike: Although, her line coming up here is very Paula-esque.
Mark: Most people don't know this, but the scallion to the far right is modelled after my body frame.
Mike: The red looks fantastic on you.
Mark: Doesn't it? Thank you. I'm all about the peppermint stripes, they're slimming.
Leslie: Now Mike, how many total voices do you voice, and how many total voices does Phil voice?
Mike: You know, I do about a half a dozen, and Phil does about a dozen as far as regular characters go? So uh, you know, um... from the characters standing on screen right now, Phil is three of their voices, so all but the carrot.
Mark: And you're Laura.
Mike: And he's Archie, I'm Larry, um... of course I'm Jean Claude, Phil's Phillipe. Uh, I'm Jerry, he's Jimmy. Uh, he's Scallion #1, I'm Scallion #2, that- that's my character right there, that's Scallion #2. Then one I alluded to earlier as the least popular character.
Mark: Not really, not really though, we were being facetious.
Mike: Oh, this theater has gotten a lot of uses, um, this particular theater I think was first used in... Minnesota Cuke. And then we also used it in the silly song "Where Have All The Staplers Gone?" and we may have even used it in "Esther", uh, parts of it from "Esther", of course, from where this is from! We borrowed this actual audio clip from "Esther", we didn't bring in Miss Achmetha to sing again, we just used the original clip from "Esther", because it was perfect. We couldn't have done any better.
Mark: I'm thrilled that she was able to play this cameo back.
Mike: And very interesting thing about Char Jackson, who does the voice for Miss Achmetha-
Mark: That is a note! That is a note.
Mike: That is an actual note, but she could not perform this without actually playing the accordion, so when we were recording for her, she had the accordion in the booth to do it with because she just couldn't quite get into it unless she was playing the accordion; which she plays, and she was amazing. So the accordion performance and the vocal performance were both simultaneous.
Mark: I need to use that excuse more often. I'm sorry, I can't write this without playing the accordion.
Leslie: And there he goes, holding that cell phone with no limbs.
Mark: Can I just say that I love "America's Got British Judges", I think that's a genius little joke there, and it was not mine.
Mike: Yes, it was um... you know, we're a fan of all of those reality shows at home, so we watch, you know, America's Got Talent and-
Mark: Is that what it is?
Mike: Yeah, and they're all British judges so it just makes sense.
Mark: America's Got British Judges. They've also got a purple tie.
Leslie: So we're soon gonna see, are we gonna meet here? Our new character?
Mike: And special guest?
Leslie: And special guest star!!
Mike: Yes, yes, we'll save the surprise.
Mark: What's that building behind them?
Mike: That is the homeless shelter.
Mark: Oh, I got it.
Leslie: You know it's got the big sign on it?
Mark: I got it now.
Mike: And we don't mention it, but it turns into be a very important part of the plot later on. But of course, we wanted to foreshadow it, so we show it quite a bit here at the beginning.
Mark: In many episodes, we would call that an easter egg but we don't want to call it that on this episode, 'cause there are actual easter eggs.
Mike: Now we see a bus coming up here, it's actually a white bus, but later, it turns into the yellow church bus. It's the same bus. The best thing about 3D is that you can just recolor stuff and it's all different.
Mark: So you're saying it was intentional. It was meant to be two busses of two different colors but you just maximize,,,
Mike: The bussage.
Mark: That's what I was going to say, the bussage.
Mike: And here's Pastor Irwin.
Leslie: Who's idea was it to put hair around the side of Bob's head?
Mike: That was a, uh... a pastorly look for Bob, you know in talking with- I forget, I forget where that idea first originated, I think, I can't remember if Brian came up with this design or um... Joe Spadaford, I can't remember who that came from.
Mark: And Leslie, we didn't want to tell you but Bob has been part of the hair club for tomatoes and he insisted that we feature.
Mike: That's right.
Mark: He's no longer follicular challenged. I think he looks good with it, he looks Martin Luther-esque.
Leslie: I think so too.
Mark: He pulled a Junior.
Leslie: I think so too.
Mark: Of his 95 species.
Mike: And um... this, this church was actually from the Star of Christmas. In fact, many of the elements from this show is Star of Christmas-esque. It's sort of the Star of Christmas story adapted for Easter. And so, uh... we actually had a uh, pastor played by Junior Asparagus' dad, Dad Asparagus, and he had the little clerical collar there, so we gave it to Bob. It didn't fit him though, because he is a much differeny shape.
Mark: Hey, we love all shapes. There's blueberry.
Leslie: Madame Blue, her hair is a different color. She's blonde.
Mike: Yes, Mrs. B.
Mark: I'm kind of uncomfortable with how she lets her strands of pearls just drag on the ground like that.
Mike: In the script she's actually married to Bob, but we would never spell that out actually in dialogue.
Mark: Does she play the organ?
Mike: Yes she does! She does; and the piano. She does. She does all of the things a pastor's wife does. Right Leslie? You should know, you're a pastor's wife.
Leslie: Yes... yes, yes. Yes. Okay... he's suspicious... why's he suspicious, Mike?
Mike: Well, because he wants Cassie all to himself. And we sort of- you know, Bob's character is a lot like Marlee's; or Irwin and Marlee are a lot alike because Irwin, um, wants to put on a big show to increase church attendance um, you know, to help people. And Cassie wants to put on a big show to help people through the power of musical theater. So, they have a lot in common even though they don't see it yet.
Mark: I have to say, I do love the title, "'Twas The Night Before Easter". It's darling!
Mike: It's a really nice title.
Mark: Yes, and was that you Leslie? I thought it was.
Leslie: I'm sure it was.
Mark: Top ten ideas this episode, we don't know what they are, but we know who did them.
Leslie: It was actually Shannon Kozee.
Mark: I thought it was you, actually.
Leslie: No; in a brainstorm it came out, and we loved it because you know, it's not too, you know, of course, you know, a very famous poem. But also it also does describe the show!
Mike: Yeah, yeah, you know it originally it was "Easter in Crisper County" or uh...
Mark: What was it? Crisper County's Easter Pageant.
Leslie: The Seventh Annual...
Mark: It changed many times.
Leslie: Easter Crispy County Pageant.
Mike: That's right. And that went along with the original script, which then changed. We're still in Crisper County, but.
Mark: Which I believe there is still a trailer for that never produced episode on a previous VeggieTale.
Mike: That's right, yeah. So it's all very fluid.
Leslie: It's just a teaser, it kind of, you know, teases people to look at the show differently.
Mike: Yeah there really was an actual easter egg. And that's happened a couple of times where we've changed titles of shows after the trailers have gone out. That happened with Moe And The Big Exit, which was originally The Lone Stranger. But uh, it's just fun to go back all these years and watch the old trailers and go "Oh yeah, I remember that!"
Mark: For instance, this was going to be Twas The Night Before Arbor Day.
Leslie: I mean it might be fun for fans to realize oh you know, we've been talking about script development here... you know, you know, each of our shows are in and of themselves a mini, you know, feature film. That makes your stand alone stories unique, it's not like we're building on a TV series that has the same storyline, like plotline, week to week. So, there is quite a lot of effort and talent that is put into writing each of these stories and you know, what Veggietales is committed to, um, telling hilarious stories, you know, fun stories, filled with music. But also stories that you know, teach a lesson. A lesson about God, a lesson about, you know, God's values, you know, ways that we can live that please him, that you know, have us live our best lives. So you know, that is something that we work very hard on and Mark and Mike spend a lot of time on writing these scripts. Each of them stand alone!
Mike: Yeah and then, you know, we talk about even titling and what to call the shows. I mean, so much thought is put into um, you know, how to present each of these stories and make them the most interesting to people, to have the most effect, so you know, it's just a, you know, w-we hope it all looks easy by the time it gets to the screen, but there's so much that goes into each episode. Some times there are two years invested in an idea before it gets on screen.
Leslie: We sometimes chuckle around the table as we look at scripts, you know, it might be kind of funny to stick your head in and listen to people saying, "Well would Laura the Carrot really feel that way?"
Mike: We're that invested!
Leslie: How does that make me feel?
Mike: I gotta- I gotta interrupt here! Here's our cameo, you might recognize this voice right here.
Leslie: Two of the most important- here we go.
Mike: It's Leslie Ferrell, yours truly right here, and then Greg Fritz who is our-
Leslie: Passerby #1!
Mike: Passerby #1, and Passerby #2 who is Greg Fritz-
Leslie: Who is a far more minor role.
Mark: But not at the bottom of the favourite characters list.
Mike: That's right.
Mark: That belongs to Scallion #2. A couple of things we missed while we were talking about our writing process, uh, RoboBunny. I love our RoboBunny. And our little Don't Cry For Me Argentina parody there.
Mike: Yeah, 'cause it was originally, what was? We had already from a...
Mark: A different musical! Actually, there was several iterations. We were trying to figure out what would be to tweak and parody, and the result was a little piece of Evita. Whereas, it would be in their world, Velveeta.
Mike: That's right.
Leslie: And I think that's still what we're known for. We have so many fans write us and tell us about you know, how much they chuckle at the nod to parody of you know, kind of iconic movies and plays and books and you know, we, um, that's what's so kind of inherent to VeggieTales.
Mark: And here comes the big plot. Here's the turn. Act 2 begins. But not before a silly song! We should end more of those moments with rrrun-tun-tun!
Mike: It's kind of run-tun-tunnish. It is.
Leslie: The number five favourite characters, right here on screen.
Mark: Why don't Jean Claude and Phillipe have more silly songs?
Mike: I know! I know, I'm telling you!
Mark: Those are so difficult to animate.
Mike: It's amazing how peas can have hips though, isn't it? How they can kind of jsut stand there and move their hips? So, they did a great job with the animation there.
Mark: Well, the Black Eyed Peas have hips. Hips don't lie!
Leslie: So Mike, where did your inspiration come from this silly song?
Mike: Well, again, you know, another parody song people might recognize.
Mark: From Evita?
Mike: From Evita! But um, well you know, I'm married to- my wife is Colombian, so you know, dancing has always been part of, you know, our marriage actually. You know, we met, um, by uh, dancing salsa.
Mark: You met my dancing salsa? That's how you and I met!
Leslie: He's the salsa king.
Mark: Well we were just eating salsa. But I was dancing.
Mike: We actually met on a white water rafting trip, and uh, afterwards we were talking, and we had gotten the folks who went on trip got together talking about the trip, and Lisa and I started talking, and she started talking about loving to dance salsa, and I said "Oh really? You love to dance salsa? How does that go?", so she went to her car and got out her little salsa tape and you know, showed me a few moves and we started going out and dancing salsa.
Mark: Smooth move, alright.
Mike: Thank you very much.
Leslie: To suddenly be very interested in salsa.
(all talk in a manner that cannot be deciphered)
Mike: And salsa, much like waltz, has its certain steps, and so this is sort of, you know, the anti salsa. All you have to do is hop back and forth, to the left and to the right, so it's just this ridiculous little dance that anybody could do, um, that Jean Claude and Phillipe are making you know, very complicated and very important and so Archibald is calling them on that.
Mark: Is this the first time- I'm thinking Veggie history here, is this the first time Archibald has ever let himself go in an episode?
Mike: You know? I think it might be. Um, of course he called off The Water Buffalo Song, you know, 'cause that was just way too silly.
Mark: That was a high strung explosion, not one to bend and enjoy.
Mike: Yeah, exactly, 'cause the Hopperena is so much fun that once you get into it, you can't help yourself. You just, you know.
Mark: Like that time I was having salsa with you. I just let myself go.
Mike: Those peas just look so adorable in their little bunny ears, their little bunny slippers.
Leslie: And now you know the many different uses for exercise balls.
Mark: We're hoping we taught your kids what to do with your exercise ball at home!
Mike: That becomes the Super Hopperena. Okay, and we're back.
Mark: Rrrun-tun-tun!
Mike: Wait, wait, here you are again Leslie!
Leslie: Now that last line was read a little bit unusually.
Mike: It was so fun to get Greg to say that.
Mark: Every once in a while, we'll pull people who don;t do that sort of thing regularly and it's fun to get them to uh, try new things. That's awesome, it's great.
Leslie: Now, Cassie Cassava is interesting too. She came on stage, really in our partnership with World Vision. You know, World Vision said it would be great if in doing a VeggieTales show, if you could think about introducing a vegetable that really would have meaning internationally. In particular, a lot of the countries where we work, third world nations, because cassava root is a main source of nutrition. Well, we took that little factoid and we started mulling around, and we started Googling to find what an actual cassava root looked like.
Mark: Made some modifications.
Leslie: Made some modifications, and we said, "Hey, let's introduce a new veggie character that is a cassava root!", which we did.
Mike: That's right. And Cassie Cassava was, was born. And um, you know, and of course, the voice for Cassie Cassava is the one and only Melinda Doolittle.
Mark: If you want to make something that looks like a cassava lovable, make the voice Melinda Doolittle.
Leslie: Yeah. Ugh, she's fantastic.
Mike: And it was so perfect because obviously she was on American Idol, uh but, the other interesting thing about her is that before she was on American Idol, she auditioned for the voice of the Bad Apple in Larryboy and the Bad Apple, and uh, it was before her season on Idol, and she's so sweet that she actually didn't fit the role. She was too generous to be the Bad Apple. Uh but, for this role, it was just so great to call her again, and to have her be so excited about doing the part and she just... it couldn't have been better that the recording session was fantastic. She has such an amazing voice, and she's such a great actress, and she was able to pull off the lines, really, really, smoothly.
Mark: She survived Simon Cowell.
Mike: That's right, that's right.
Mark: She's precious.
Mike: But you know, in our little vegetable world, we're so used to our own vegetable singing and you know, Bob- Bob can carry a tune, and Larry can carry a tune but when we get in a real singer, you know, it's just amazing to just sit back and listen to, to that. To say, "Wow, this person can really sing". I felt that way for when, you know, about Melinda, about when Matthew West worked with us, when Wynonna worked with us- it's just you know, vocals on a scale that just are so out there um, so gifted, and so much fun to work with.
Leslie: Here they meet!
Mike: That's right. Their trickery ensues.
Mark: I know we usually don't make Larry so intentionally deceptive.
Mike: Yeah, they kind of had to you know, trick her. You know, we did a- again, with The Star Of Christmas, a similar thing where Bob and Larry snuck into the church to steal the- what they thought was the Star of Christmas, that was actually the Turtle of Damascus.
Mark: Still it gets a laugh.
Mike: Yes, but uh, everybody gets their lesson in the end. And uh, you know, Marlee's trickery uh, really, you know, plays into her development as a character too because you know, her scheme that she rues up actually winds up in disaster, and uh, you know, helps her learn her lesson.
Mark: Now I hear that Melinda Doolittle can talk to the animals.
Mike: Maybe the vegetables.
Mark: Once she gets her doctorate she can talk to the vegetables.
Leslie: She can definitely. There she goes! Being swept away.
Mark: She's so easily deceived. I wonder if that's how they got her on American Idol. Oh no, the judges will be very kind to you, come this way! I know that she did a lot of background vocals for uh, Christian albums well before she was on American Idol. She was a big studio singer.
Mike: She had a good voice though.
Mark: Look on those liner notes, people. Watch your histories.
Leslie: Yeah, when she came into the office to record for some of the bonus features, it was like, everybody just couldn't stay in their offices, they all wanted to meet her and she heard a couple of our staff, it was near or on their birthday, so she belted into the most beautiful version of Happy Birthday. Sang Happy Birthday to the two birthday folks. It just brought the house down.
Mark: Which is why the next episode is 'Twas The Night Before My Birthday. Special Guest Theme Song by Cassie Cassava.
Mike: It was great, we got to pull back the uh, Bunny Song from Rack, Shack, and Benny, and again, we already had the song produced and it was our song so we just used the actual audio.
Mark: Nice!
Mike: Yep.
Mark: Nice to have more than one bunny themed song in an episode.
Mike: Well, it's called Up- well this, this particular theater show Up With Bunnies, has a lot of bunny songs. And of course, the finale, which is Up with Bunnies, goes horribly wrong.
Mark: Epic.
Mike: And this was great too because with Melinda, um, obviously, you know, the whole crowd is here to see her sing Up with Bunnies, and it's a fairly simple lyric that she sings, um, and he had her just do some adlibs just to kind of bring some more energy to it. Uh, in the little pauses here, my favorite. My favorite was "come on wichour bunnies". When she sang that we all just busted out.
Leslie: That was totally adlibbed.
Mike: Yeah. Yep, absolutely. Yeah, 'cause the original plan was to have her hear the announcer say, "Robot", you know, our voiceover guy was originally supposed to be her lines, but when she started singing her little riffs, they were so good that we were like, "No, you sing the riffs and we'll find another voiceover person". This is the supersized Gary that uh, Howard aka Mr. Lunt is, has built.
Mark: He looks like a Gary.
Leslie: Is this the first time we've ever had a robot?
Mike: Um, in VeggieTales it might be. Yeah, yeah, we did the robot for 321 Penguins.
Mark: It's the first cyborg bunny robot.
Mike: It really is. You know, I was a continental singer.
Mark: Wait, let's back up there, you were what?
Mike: Yeah, I was in Continental Singers, so the whole "up with people" arm raise thing is character here.
Mark: The jazz hands?
Mike: Yeah, the jazz hands. That's right. I wasn't onstage, I was actually a sound tech. I witnessed from the board a lot of arm raising.
Mark: Speaking of hands, cyborg bunny's hands look like tambourines. Maybe they belonged in a gospel church.
Mike: That's right. Now this is a uh, matte painting right here, that destroyed top. We did a lockdown of that shot, and uh, what we see from above is the destroyed theater. But that was not actually a part- the 3D model, that was uh... done afterwards as an effect.
Mark: And now the learning. Rrrum-tum-tum! This is uh, Marlee's Oscar moment right here, she's learning her lesson.
Leslie: And Larry says, "I'm done"!
Mike: See you later!
Leslie: See you!
Mike: I quit my job!
Mark: I'm loyal to the end. The end! Bye!
Mike: And Archibald is is feeling a little uncomfortable, he doesn't know what to do.
Mark: See you later.
Mike: So she's you know, she's kind of, you know, she's tricked people, she's pushed to have her own way, and this is what she's got and she's homeless.
Mark: Yeah. That is a very nice sign for a homeless shelter. If they wouldn't spend so much money on the sign... it could go to better things. And we've seen this veggie before where?
Mike: Wha- she was in uh, Pistachio I think, at least and may have shown up before then. Uh, she, we didn't have a voice for her in Pistachio, but um, her voice is done by Keri Pisapia who also does the voice of the homeless mom coming up here. And Keri's been great. She's done uh, she first did the voice for Mr. Lunt's girlfriend in the Pirates movie. You know, and she did just such a great job and she sounds so natural, that we've used her on several things and she's a great actress.
Mark: I feel like we've seen Joshua before.
Mike: Yes, and Joshua is Junior Asparagus, which we actually had to, actually had to scale him down for this shot, because Junior had his actual scale and um uh, with mom sleeping in the same bed as mom; looked really odd when we first saw it. He just looked way too big. Yeah, he didn't, he didn't feel like Junior Asparagus. So we shrunk him, and we gave him a teddy bear, and he felt much more like a little boy.
Leslie: This was a really touching scene. We previewed this with a several of our retail partners and uh... we had a few tissues come out of pockets.
Mike: Aw nice.
Leslie: Which this is a really great tie in, really, with the whole lesson, with helping others uh, it just really ties it all together, that scene of Marlee with um, the mom and little Joshua.
Mike: She wanted so much to help people but kind of made a mess in the process and realizes that uh, she's being helped in a simple way. Yeah um, Kurt and I talked about that scene, just today you know we're just in the process of finishing up the show, and uh, Kurt just uh, let me hear the score for that section and it makes it even more touching. He did a really nice job, and the piano that he's playing in the background is really really sective.
Mark: Even our veggies are flawed. Just like real people.
Leslie: This is another thing that we often hear through customer service. You know, we'll hear about you know, churches that are doing premieres as part of their children's program, you know, homeschooling groups, families, that... they watch the show, and you know, it's really surprising, you know they'll say, "We watched the show and then afterwards just how much the kids really take in what's being taught here". You know, and I think that's part of you know, where parents just feel so great about having VeggieTales in the home is they know that this is going to, you know these stories are really going to reinforce. You know, values that they really want to have reinforced and the kids really take it in, and often the songs really compliment so they'll be singing songs... you know, they're complicating the lesson... and we just hear this time and time again, and we just hold it as a really, really important responsibility in our shows and stories.
Mike: Absolutely.
Mark: As long as they're not singing, "bunnies, bunnies, bunnies, bunnies, up, up, up, up, up with bunnies".
Leslie: I think they get both. You know, it's a bit like uh, making an apple taste like a twinkie.
Mark: You can do that too? You really are the executive producer.
Mike: Okay this is really fun coming up here, the big, the big bunny chase scene, and uh.
Leslie: There's the white bus turned yellow.
Mike: That's right. That's the church bus, that's not the municipal bus. And um, this is great because the challenge here was, uh, you know, to have this feel like a huge, big scene, but yet, be economical with it so we could actually pull it off. So to give the idea that this bunny is running through this big town, through all of this snow, um... David Pitts, the producer, was really good about uh, you know, just, helping us to set this up in a really economical way. So, when we look at close ups here, uh, you know, we're just seeing a cycled background going um, you know, so it's just cycling back over and over, we have very few shots that are actually really complicated shots. But yet, it feels like a really uh, intricate scene. Um, you know, they're running down basically the same street many, many times.
Mark: How did our carrot first get his Scottish accent?
Mike: It's Benny!
Mark: It is Benny! And he was eating a donut in the road wasn't he?
Mike: That's right! Donuts for Benny!
Mark: What kind of message is that to send to kids? Don't eat donuts in the road, children.
Mike: Scottish carrot. Yes.
Mark: Yeah, how did he get his Scottish brogue?
Mike: Well that's a, that's a, Mr. Jim Poole as Scooter; he actually, he, he first showed up- we did a Star Trek parody where he was Scottie in our Star Trek, and so, Jim Poole who was actually the artistic director at the church that Phil and Lisa and I and Kurt Heinecke all went to. Um, just had a great Scottish brogue, so he lent his voice to uh, Scooter the Carrot, and has been Scooter ever since.
Mark: That's wonderful.
Mike: I love that big smile.
Mark: Yeah, everyone should have a cyborg bunny.
Mike: Yeah, big smile.
Mark: Mine's name is Steve.
Mike: Tim Hodge uh, was a storyboard artist on this sequence and he did such a great job. Just detailing out the whole chase scene. He actually you know, wrote quite a bit of the dialogue in here too.
Leslie: Now here's a note, that would be in 'Twas The Night Before Easter, we talked about this. You know, some folks, some southern folks might be wondering why there's a wall of snow at easter time. But our northern folks said, you know, "Hey, it is not uncommon to have a wall of snow on Easter."
Mike: On Easter.
Mark: So that's a good question...
Mike: It would never happen in Franklin, Tennessee, but in Chicago it is very, very, common.
Leslie: Which is where VeggieTales originated, so...
Mark: That is what I'm wondering, is that, where our veggies happen to be? Are they in the north east United States, the midwest?
Leslie: They are surely in Maine. Where they celebrate Easter.
Mark: They don't grow veggies in Maine near Easter.
Mike: In Crisper County, Crisper County, uh... it seems like it'd be by Lake Wobegon.
Mark: I still think the bunny should have had a Yoda backpack.
Mike: Instead it's a bus backpack.
Leslie: I love this scene. I think the kids are gonna love this scene too, 'cause it's just, so much fun.
Mike: Oh yeah, like how he kicks the bus like a horse.
Leslie: And there he goes! Delivery to the church.
Mike: He made it to the church on time; almost like a rocket car. It's great to be able to use public domain hymns, I've got to say. So, 'cause this is exactly a hymn you would sing on, in a church on Easter. And uh, we just got to sing it!
Mark: So what you're saying is that you didn't write this.
Mike: I did not write this, no.
Leslie: And there is the pastor's wife playing the organ.
Mike: Yeah, that's right.
Mark: She did earlier when we were talking and she had quite a riff.
Mike: Yeah, yeah, she's a jazz organist.
Mark: Her nonfingers were burning!
Mike: And part of our, part of what we wanted to do on this show, we partnered with World Vision, who is about serving others, and um, our challenge was to incorporate a message about Easter, and uh, you know, the whole concept of, of service. And uh, so this verse from Mark you know, that Bob just read, Pastor Irwin just read, uh, worked in perfectly. Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, um, and be given his life as a ransom for many and that's, that's the heart of Easter, so. It's time to give that service message about Easter, um, it worked out really well.
Mark: You know, Leslie is one of those is one of those you? Because that's what you looked like when you were coming into the theater earlier, speaking.
Leslie: Yes, yes, I have a flip hairdo.
Mark: Are you singing one of the voices in the choir there?
Leslie: Oh yes. Passerby #1.
Mike: You can actually, you know, we're doing this during production so we're about ready to record for the choir, so if you want to be in the choir, it's not too late.
Leslie: If you put me in the choir, you would be awfully sad.
Mark: You can do all of the scats, like Melinda did.
Leslie: Exactly, exactly.
Mark: Come on y'all bunnies.
Leslie: Bunny up!
Mike: That's an interesting production note. A lot of times the direct, uh, character dialogue of course we have to do before any of the animation is done, but a lot of the voicing, like, with crowds, where we do what's called a walla group, where we'll, after all the animation is done, we'll pull in a crowd and voice to the animation, or if there's a big choir, we can do the same thing, we just lay down a couple of guide tracks for them and then we'll bring in a full choir afterwards and finish it off. And the theater has become a park for the homeless kids.
Mark: With RoboBunny.
Leslie: With RoboBunny.
Mike: And look! That's what's in the egg!
Leslie: It's empty!
Mark: It's like the tomb! The resurrection story of Easter.
Mike: Now, a couple of people brought up the idea early on as we were developing the script that Qwerty is off on Sunday. Why aren't Bob and Larry off on Sunday? And they've got more of a clerical job, you know, so this was like a pastor. Pastors work on Sunday, they go and teach their lessons, they-
Mark: But I would argue that perhaps this isn't a job for them, it's like life for them, that we eavesdrop on from time to time.
Mike: That's true. Maybe it isn't work. And of course, it had to take place on Easter 'cause they were hunting for easter eggs.
Mark: Maybe they don't work at all. Maybe they're not the role models we thought they should be. And then again, maybe it's just the economy.
Mike: But Qwerty however, he's more of an office, you know, office equipment so he has some days off. So the church office is always closed on Sunday.
Mark: You can't leave your computer on all the time, kids.
Mike: But, you know, yep, he's got the video monitors on, but uh, you know, the CPU is sleeping.
Mark: Now it does bother me just a little bit, that they're watching kids on video but they never stand in front of the camera.
Mike: It's about phishing.
Mark: Is it a fish eye lens?
Mike: That bible has been reused a couple different times too. I forget the first time that that model was used but,
Mark: I think we should reuse our bible a lot of the time, Mike.
Leslie: Yes.
Mike: That's right.
Mark: Every day in fact.
Mark and Leslie: And he loves you very much.
Leslie: For 17 years, that same tagline is on every show.
Mark: And it's really what drew all of us to be involved here, as much as it's a special message.
Leslie: Right, yeah. It's a message that we, kids, ages 0 to 99 can never hear enough of.
Mark: Names, names, names, all of the people it takes.
Mike: To get this job done. Big thanks to our friends in New Zealand who, it's great to be working with you guys again.
Mark: It's New Zealand? It's been around a long time...
Mike: Our old friends in New Zealand.
Mark: The New and Improved Zealand.
Leslie: And I'm just wondering why we aren't getting top billing here, it's taking a bit of a ways to-
Mark: Because we are some of the most humble people we've ever met. I'm very proud of how humble we are.
Leslie: And we are helping here.
Mark: Yes we are. Absolutely.
Mike: Got some fun little animation of, uh, Gary bouncing around the easter eggs, going up the credits.
Mark: Great show.
Leslie: Great show.
Mark: And the song here is...
Mike: I don't know, we'll have to come clean here, we don't do the songs for the credits until the very end, that's in our final mix session, and so what we'll do is we'll take a number of songs and we'll sort of form a montage and then we'll lay that into credits. We just haven't done it yet, so we're just talking over blank right now. I am just being upfront with the people here!
Mark: Wow, that is humble.
Mike: It's part of our process.
Leslie: It's transparent!
Mark: It is transparent, much like that name right there. That name, that name, is a great person.
Mike: But whatever song you're hearing right now, I'm sure it's wonderful. It's probably Up with Bunnies because that's fun. We're gonna redo Up with Bunnies, and we might- sometimes we'll put a little silly song in there, a little Hopperena, 'cause it's sort of Easter themed as well.
Mark: Well and you know when we talked about the least favourite character? You know who does that person's voice? That name right there.
(murmur of people saying "right there")
Leslie: And I hope you noticed Passerby #1.
Mark: That's right.
Mike: Well, thank you everyone so much for listening to the commentary and we hope you enjoyed the show!
Leslie: Yes, bye!