- "Gee, it sure does feel good to be forgiven when you make mistakes."
- — Dad Asparagus as The Professor
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| God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?! | |
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| Directed by | |
| Produced by | |
| Written by | |
| Music by | |
| Distributed by | |
| Released |
August 23rd, 1994 |
| Runtime |
32 minutes |
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God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?! is the second episode of VeggieTales. It features two stories about forgiveness.
The first story is a parody loosely based on "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck, while the second is a parody of the 1960s sitcom, Gilligan's Island.
Plot
Opening Countertop
On the countertop, Bob and Larry introduce themselves and greet the viewers. Bob then tells Larry that he ran into a friend of theirs named Marco after walking home from his bowling league. Marco had a question for both Larry and Bob. Marco said that when his little sister makes him mad and says she's sorry, their mom says he needs to forgive her, but Marco doesn't understand why he needs to forgive her. Larry then tells the story of "The Grapes of Wrath".
The Grapes of Wrath
(See the full page for the plot.)
After the story ends, Bob congratulates Larry on the story but asks him if that is actually how the story goes. Larry says "oh yeah" and winks at him.
The Forgive-O-Matic
This episode doesn't include a silly song, but has Scallion #1 dressed as salesman hosting an infomercial instead. In this segment, Scallion #1 tells the audience (consisting of Bob, Larry and Junior watching from the countertop) that when people do misdeeds, the Bible calls that sin and they need to be forgiven. He then introduces the Forgive-O-Matic from a company called Wrongco. The Forgive-O-Matic is an invention that supposedly automatically forgives you of your sins when you use the dial and hit the button. He also says customers who order while the advertisement is still running would receive a set of indestructible Ginsu steak knives. To prove so, he has a potato who works as a miner from West Virginia say (by obviously reading a cue card off-screen) that he and his coworkers dug through solid granite with the steak knives, and they were still going strong.
Suddenly, Junior comes on stage and interrupts everything to tell Scallion #1 that he knows lots of people who have been forgiven without the scallion's product. He says that if we ask God for forgiveness, then He will forgive us. Knowing that no one will buy his product after what Junior said, Scallion #1 announces other dubious capabilities about the product and even introduces a Chia Forgive-O-Matic. Junior tells Scallion #1 to say goodnight as the lights go out. Scallion #1 chases after Junior, but trips over the cart that holds the Chia Forgive-O-Matic.
Larry's Lagoon
(See full page for the main plot.)
Production
After Big Idea finished Where's God When I'm S-Scared?, VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer began to wonder what he and his production team could make next. He then remembered a puppet skit he wrote in Bible college called the Forgive-O-Matic. Phil gave the script to his assistant animator Chris Olsen to animate and direct while he went to figure out a longer story. As he was considered their next project, he considered spoofing (in very loose terms) classic literature, something that he and VeggieTales co-creator Mike Nawrocki discussed before they began working on the first episode. Ideas the duo discussed included "Bridge over Pumpkin Pie," "War and Peaches," "Lime and Punishment," "Madame Blueberry," and "The Grapes of Wrath," and as of 2020, only the latter two have been created by Big Idea.
After Grapes of Wrath was done, Phil and Mike went out to dinner to think of the second segment, and they came up with Larry's Lagoon, a spoof of the 1960s sitcom, Gilligan's Island.
Characters
Major
- Bob the Tomato (as himself and The Skipper)
- Larry the Cucumber (as himself and First Mate Larry)
- Junior Asparagus
- Archibald Asparagus (as the Millionaire)
- Pa Grape
- Ma Grape
- Tom Grape
- Rosie Grape
- Dad Asparagus (as himself and the Professor)
- Lovey Asparagus
Minor
- Qwerty
- Sunny the Sun
- Unnamed Trees
- Snake
- Scallion #1 (as an Infomercial Salesman)
- Henry the Potato (as a Miner from West Virginia)
- Palmy
- Coconut Back-Up Singers
Songs
- VeggieTales Theme Song
- We Are The Grapes Of Wrath
- Some Veggies Went To Sea
- The Forgiveness Song
- What Have We Learned
Home media
- Main article: God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!/Home Video
Other Languages
- حواديت الحساب (Arabic) (The Grapes and the Maths)
- God wil dat ik ze vergeef?!? (Dutch) (Same Translation)
- Vihaiset viinirypäleet (Finnish) (Angry grapes)
- Τα Σταφύλια της Οργής (Greek) (The Grapes of the Wrath)
- 神様が赦せとおっしゃっているんだ！(Japanese) (God says that he Forgives!)
- Unknown (Mandarin) (Standard)
- 葡萄饒恕記 (Mandarin) (Taiwan) (The Grapes and the Forgiveness)
- Vredens druer (Norwegian) (The Grapes of the Wrath)
- خوشه های خشم (Persian)
- Deus Quer Que os Perdoe?!? (Portuguese) (Brazilian) (1st dub) (God wants me to Forgive?)
- Perdoar… Por Quê? (Portuguese) (Brazilian) (2nd-3rd dubs)(Forgiving... Why?)
- Бог Хочет, Чтобы Я Простил Им!?! (Russian) (Same Translation)
- Sadovi jeze (Slovenian) (The Fruits of the Anger)
- ¿¡¿Quiere Dios Que Los Perdone?!? (Latin Spanish) (Same Translation)
- Nho nhăn nhó (Vietnamese) (Grumpy grapes)
Fun Facts
Moral(s)
- Everybody makes mistakes and deserves forgiveness.
- We should continue to forgive others even when they mess up more than once.
- Holding grudges are harmful and can lead to hurting the feelings of the other people around you.
Trivia
- This is the first episode for several things:
- The first appearance of the Grape family, Henry the Potato and Lovely Asparagus. This also marks the only video speaking role of Rosie (not counting A Very Veggie Christmas).
- As Phil Vischer had not considered the Silly Songs with Larry segment a regular staple of the series at the time, this is the first episode to not have a Silly Song. After frustrated and confused fans flooded the Big Idea studio with letters asking where the segment was, however, Phil suggested to Mike Nawrocki that he write more Silly Songs for future shows, which ultimately led to the segment becoming a regular appearance.
- The first episode not to have a letter from a child. Instead, Bob is asked a question by Marco, one of his TV friends (though what this means is uncertain).
- The first episode to spoof classic literature.
- The first episode to use constriction (pupils shrinking).
- The first episode someone cheers.
- The first episode not to have Phil Winklestein, Lisa Asparagus, The Blue Wind-Up Lobster, and not all of The Scallions (as here it was just Scallion #1) appear since their debut appearances.
- The first episode where QWERTY displays two verses on one episode. The second was in Abe and the Amazing Promise.
- The first episode that reveals more of the kitchen countertop, including cabinetry. The kitchen sink was not yet added until Are You My Neighbor? where it is seen in The Hairbrush Song.
- This is also the only episode in which the cabinetry and drawers look different.
- This is the first time Junior appeared on the countertop, as shown in The Forgive-O-Matic.
- This is the first episode that ended with Larry saying God Made You Special, and He Loves You Very Much by himself. The second was in Rack, Shack and Benny.
- The first episode not to have a prototype video cover for the front.
- The first episode to use a Word Entertainment FBI warning screen in 1997 (the year it was reprinted on VHS).
- This is the first episode that used splashing water animation.
- The first and only episode where there's no fade to black between the closing countertop scene and the credits.
- This episode can be featured in Happy Together! and Growing Faithful Kids! featuring The Grapes of Wrath, and Lessons from the Sock Drawer featuring Larry's Lagoon and The Forgive-O-Matic.
- The Grapes of Wrath will return in Happy Together!, and Growing Faithful Kids!.
- The Forgive-O-Matic will return in Lessons from the Sock Drawer, and the TV version of The Gourds Must Be Crazy.
- Larry's Lagoon will return in Lessons from the Sock Drawer.
- An episode based, however loosely, on The Grapes of Wrath was actually suggested by Mike prior to production on the first episode.
- This episode is notorious for having more animation errors than any other episode in the VeggieTales series.
- This is the only other episode to have Larry's lower dopey voice. However, Larry's voice was starting to improve and bear more resemblance to his current voice from the next episode. His voice gets to its final form in the closing countertop.
- The Forgive-O-Matic segment was based a puppet show Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki performed at Bible college.
- The sound effect of the boat's motor in the second segment was actually Mike Nawrocki making a motorboat sound with his mouth. The grapes' car's motor was also a sound effect made by series musician Kurt Heinecke using his mouth as well.
- Larry's original daydream that caused him to crash the boat was that his nose would come off his face and float around him, but the production team thought the idea was strange.
- In the Forgive-O-Matic, when Scallion One tells Junior that he's busy with advertising, a picture of Bob, Larry, Junior, Lisa and Mike Asparagus with the original VeggieTales logo can be seen on a bulletin board in the background if you look closely.
- The first few copies of the original 1994 VHS has the same designs as the original 1993 VHS of the previous episode.
- When scoring for the episode, Kurt Heinecke used a stopwatch to see how long each piece of the score would fit with whichever scene.
- The Latin Spanish and Japanese dubs have the theme song from Where's God When I'm S-Scared?.
- The Slovenian and Japanese dubs are the only dubs that perfectly time Bob and Larry's screaming with their voice actors.
- This is the first episode to have someone tell the segments, rather than present them.
- There exists an extremely rare late 2001 VHS reprint of this episode by Lyrick Studios. It has a green tape with a purple ink label, and it has a print date of August 6, 2001.
Remarks
- Larry blowing on a sail to propel himself out at sea is physically impossible due to the concept of closed systems.
- When the grapes sing their song in their car, they sing about smiling seldom and never laughing, despite doing both several times later in the segment. They might not have found something so amusing until seeing Junior's sprouts.
- Larry states that "Junior's dad heard them [the grapes] laughing," but in the next shot, the grapes aren't heard laughing. Larry may be referring to the previous shot in which Dad Asparagus heard them from inside Junior's house.
- As he flies the helicopter, the Professor claims he "made it entirely out of bamboo and coconuts," but those materials alone cannot be used to make an engine capable of flight.
- This episode and Where's God When I'm S-Scared? were never restored in digitally pristine visual quality unlike the rest of the 1990s episodes on their VeggieTales Classics reprints.
- This could possibly be because the original project files of God Wants Me To Forgive Them!?! are presumed to have been lost or even deleted to free up disk space (with the exception of most footage for the The Forgiveness Song being re-rendered in high quality for Very Silly Songs! in some form). This is evidenced by Phil stating in the commentary that the Grapes' car twitching (when the Grapes leave in their car after being renamed the Grapes of Math) was an unfixable error (more on that below). Big Idea has also never bothered to recreate that scene.
- However, unlike with the previous episode that was in much worse quality, this one is still in marginally good quality like the other episodes, even though it is still compressed in slightly low audio and footage quality (as were other episodes in the early years).
- Out of all the early VeggieTales episodes that were edited for later re-releases, this is overall the only 1990s episode that remained in its original master on all of its reprints (especially on its VeggieTales Classics reissue, where it also lacks a 5.1 Surround Sound audio track on the DVD), therefore all the scenes, animation, voices, music and sound effects from the original version by all means remained untouched for every re-release (not counting the VeggieTales Theme Song and an added 1997 Big Idea logo with Bob and Larry).
- The original 1994 VeggieTales Theme Song is included as a bonus clip on the 2004 DVD release, in which it can be watched when you answer all the hard Trivia questions correctly. However, this version of the theme song has the text "Original Open from 'God Wants Me To Forgive Them!?!'" added on the screen prior to the text "Big Idea Productions presents" popping up on the screen and also has the 2003 audio (with Larry's current voice) dubbed over the original.
- On the alternate VHS cover for the original Latin Spanish dub (with the La Bamba font), the back states that the video features "Silly Songs with Larry," which is indeed false because of the aforementioned Forgive-O-Matic skit having replaced it in the actual episode.
- The original 1994 VHS of this episode is one of only three 1993-1997 VeggieTales VHS tapes (the other two being the original 1993 VHS of Where's God When I'm S-Scared? and the 1996 VHS of Dave and the Giant Pickle) that have a different sticker label aside from the rest of the tapes from 1993-1997. The 1997 Lyrick Studios VHS of Are You My Neighbor? doesn't count, since it has an ink label.
- When the episode was reprinted in 1997, despite the Word Entertainment FBI warning before the video, it still uses the original 1994 master of the episode. However, after the theme song, there is a slightly longer black screen of death, and the picture panning of the episode is somehow positioned a few degrees to the left.
- Unlike Where's God When I'm S-Scared? and Are You My Neighbor?, the entire box cover for the 1997 reprint is oddly unchanged and instead reused the second 1994 box cover, making this reprint of the episode confusing and harder to find.
Goofs
- When Larry says it's great Bob bumped into Marco, his tooth is missing.
- When Bob says, "Oooh, that's a classic! This'll be good!", the lid on the pink canister briefly changes to a lighter purple color before reverting back to its standard purple color.
- As the Grapes' car leaves behind smoke in the first shot, the edge of the shadows of trees on both sides flickers.
- The other road path (behind the grapes) is glitched via over hinge.
- The car appears to fly above the road in one shot.
- One shadow suddenly disappears.
- In the shots showing the side of the Grapes' car as they're driving, neither of the Grapes have mouths, even when they're singing.
- Pa and Ma's glasses clip through their noses.
- Rose's braids clip through Tom's hat while they're driving.
- One of Rosie's braids clips through the piece of fence in the back of the car as she is throwing the snake into the tree's milkshake.
- One shadow renders too late.
- The car's tires are clipping through the ground when they're driving.
- The tree running down doesn't stay on the sloped hill.
- After the Grapes' car hits the tree stump, when Tom and Rose are arguing over "who did it," Rose is floating above the ground.
- Pa Grape clips through the car as he jumps out while asking Rose to apologize to Tom.
- Rose's pigtails are displayed in front of the stump instead of behind it in one shot.
- When Pa Grape says, "Well it must be some kind of a bean or something," something black appears to the right of his nose and flickers in the shot afterwards.
- Junior states that he's in a Liliopsida genus. Liliopsida is not a genus, but a class.
- After Junior takes off his hat, a small part of his eyes clips through.
- When Pa Grape admits he and the other Grapes of Wrath are teasing Junior, Dad Asparagus's tie flickers between various colour schemes, which was dubbed "disco tie" by the production team.
- Tom's hat clips through the car.
- There are many shots where either the tool, sandbox, or truck disappear.
- In the scene where the grapes wonder what Junior is, Ma Grape's (who's in the car) mouth flickers.
- As the Grapes leave in their car after being renamed the Grapes of Math, the car twitches. Phil explained in the audio commentary that this was an unfixable mistake.
- The knife cache is removed after it falls. Whether or not this is an error or someone removing it is unknown.
- Bob's eye twitches while he and Larry talk on the boat before taking off.
- The steering wheel's center glitches in one shot.
- Bob's eyes are detached from his nose in one shot.
- There's an inconsistent background shot when the millionaire and his wife were talking without any movement.
- Archibald's eye clips through his wife's hat in one shot.
- Palmy's coconuts are floating and are not connected.
- Palmy's leaves clip through his body.
- The ladder vanishes after its end reaches the helicopter.
- Bob's eyelids twitch for a bit when he says, "You smashed our boat! Now, what are we gonna do?"
Real-World References
- The design of Junior's house is based on the 1988 Canadian short film, "The Cat Came Back."
- The Chia Forgive-O-Matic is a spoof on Chia pets.
- QWERTY is seen playing Pong, one of the first commercially available video games, before pulling up the first Bible verse.
- Mike states in the Very Silly Songs! audio commentary that the shot in which the shipmates fly into the distance on the helicopter is reminiscent of a 7-UP commercial that was popular at the time.
- Larry's fantasy about freeing whales from ice could be similar to Operation Breakthrough, an operation that took place in 1988 that involved breaking three whales free from ice.
Fast Forward
- There would be another VeggieTales episode with a lesson about forgiveness.
Episode Transcript
Credits
Gallery
