Big Idea Entertainment (also known as Big Idea Productions or simply Big Idea) was an American animation production company, currently owned by Universal Pictures. They were best known for producing and creating VeggieTales (along with its multiple spin-off series) and 3-2-1 Penguins!.
History
Big Idea was founded by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki on February 1, 1989, under the name GRAFx Studios. The company started out by designing graphics for commercials. After a failed attempt at a live-action variety show called The Phil & Mike Show, Phill and Mike learned that children were the primary audience of Christian entertainment, so they decided to create a kids show since The Phill & Mike Show was intended to be targeted towards teens.[1] When developing their new show idea, Phill and Mike decided that their characters shouldn't have limbs. hair or clothes, as CG animation was still in it's infancy at the time and those aspects were the hardest to animate. Originally envisioning talking chocolate bars, Phil's wife Lisa suggested that the characters should be fruit and vegetables, as parents may not like kids idolizing unhealthy food. In 1991, a demo titled Mr Cuke's Screen test was created to test out the animation software Softimage 3D. Another early animation, created as a formal pitch for the series, Take 38, was made in 1992. The name of the show was later decided to be Veggietales, chosen by Mike.
GRAFx Studios was renamed to Big Idea Productions in August 1993, shortly before the release of the first Veggietales episode, as Phill believed that the name "GRAFx" didn't suit a company that was going to make kids media.[2] Thanks to funding from Phill's parents as well as an anonymous donation from a church friend, the first episode of the series, titled Where's God When I'm S-Scared?, was released in December 1993. Big Idea later signed a deal with Word Entertainment to produce and release more episodes.
Big Idea's offices were originally located at a screw factory before moving to the Chicago suburbs in 1997 with initial plans to purchase the DuPage Theater in Lombard, Illinois. However, renovation delays, unforeseen building conditions, and zoning battles prevented this and they instead relocated into rental offices at Yorktown Center.[3]
The first episode of Big Idea's second show, 3-2-1 Penguins!, premiered on November 14, 2000. The show follows siblings Jason and Michelle as they travel on space adventures with a group of penguins while spending the summer at their grandma's house. The series was initially released direct-to-video and was later picked up for two additional seasons as part of NBC's Qubo programming block, alongside VeggieTales on TV.
On March 16, 2002, Big Idea's third show and the first Veggietales spin-off, LarryBoy: The Cartoon Adventures was released. Set in an alternate continuity to the main series, the show follows Larry the Cucumber, who works undercover at the Bumblyburg Bugle as a janitor while fighting crime as his alter ego, Larry-Boy. The show was extremely short lived and only lasted four episodes, ending in June 2003.
On October 4, 2002, Big Idea released their first theatrical movie, Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, as a co-production with FHE Pictures and Artisian Entertainment.
In 2003, Big Idea filed for bankruptcy due to the financial failure of Jonah, as well as a lawsuit from one of their distributors, HiT Entertainment. Phil Vischer sold the company to Classic Media for $19.3 million and then left to found Jellyfish Labs. Big Idea then moved from Chicago, Illinois, to a new studio in Nashville, Tennessee.
In 2007, Classic Media was acquired by Entertainment Rights, who later sold them to Boomerang Media in 2009 as part of a voluntary administration. [4][5]
Big Ideas second theatrical movie, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, was released on January 11, 2008, in partnership with Starz Animation (now known as Jam Filled Entertainment).
In 2012, DreamWorks acquired Classic Media for $155 million, rebranded it as DreamWorks Classics, and made Big Idea a subsidiary of DreamWorks. This led to the creation of two reboots made exclusively for Netflix, titled VeggieTales in the House in 2014 and VeggieTales in the City in 2017. Following the release of Noah's Ark in 2015, Big Idea's home media division was laid off, with the company focusing entirely on the Netflix shows.[6] Big Idea's headquarters were shut down shortly after VeggieTales in the City wrapped up production in the summer of 2017, with only its marketing department staying alive.
DreamWorks was acquired by NBCUniversal in 2016 for $3.8 billion.[1][7] In 2018, NBCUniversal licensed Big Idea’s properties to the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), resulting in The VeggieTales Show in 2019. This series was created in collaboration with Trilogy Animation Group. [8] Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki, the original creators of the franchise, returned as head writers and voice actors for the show.
On June 29, 2021, Phil Vischer announced that he and Mike Nawrocki were no longer working on VeggieTales due to pay disputes and creative differences.[9] According to Phil, Big Idea currently exists as an in-name-only unit.[10] Current VeggieTales episodes are still branded as Big Idea.
A third theatrical film, centered on Larry-Boy, was announced in February 2024. The film is set to release in 2026 in partnership with Kingstone Studios. Phil has confirmed several times that he will not be involved and didn't know the film was being made until fans told him about it on social media.[11] It is likely that Mike will return to play Larry/Larry-Boy, with Phill confirming that he has been contacted about appearing in the movie.[12]
Gallery
Logo Evolution
See this page for details on the Logo evolution
Variants
Crew
External link
References
- ↑ https://x.com/philvischer/status/1782605254753665381
- ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=fOl5-Bo0oJwC
- ↑ https://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/big-idea-productions-inc-history/
- ↑ https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dreamworks-animation-agrees-to-acquire-classic-media-163396666.html
- ↑ https://www.licenseglobal.com/entertainment/boomerang-media-buys-entertainment-rights
- ↑ ps://x.com/philvischer/status/951248418592186368
- ↑ https://www.cmcsa.com/news-releases/news-release-details/nbcuniversal-completes-dreamworks-animation-acquisition
- ↑ https://wordandway.org/2019/08/20/veggietales-to-mount-latest-revival-on-trinity-broadcasting-network/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20210629172649/https://twitter.com/philvischer/status/1409926275683307522
- ↑ https://twitter.com/philvischer/status/1431293520556576768
- ↑ https://x.com/philvischer/status/1758503179765879128
- ↑ https://x.com/philvischer/status/1758504652616667625