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- "Hello! My name is Joshua, and God has given us this land!"
- — Joshua giving his victory speech towards the people of Jericho
 | |
| Josh and the Big Wall | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | |
| Produced by |
Chris Olsen |
| Written by |
Phil Vischer |
| Music by | |
| Released |
November 5, 1997 |
| Runtime |
34 minutes |
| Previous episode | |
| Next episode | |
Josh and the Big Wall! is the ninth episode of VeggieTales. This episode is a retelling of the Bible story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho.
Plot
The Israelites, having been held as slaves in Egypt, are liberated by Moses (Mr. Nezzer) and led to the Promised Land. However, they flee upon seeing Goliath's family in the land and are barred from the Promised Land for forty years. Upon the completion of their forty-year exile, Moses has died, and Joshua (Larry the Cucumber) has become leader of the Israelites. Joshua leads them back to the Promised Land, but the city of Jericho stands in their way. The Israelites are then met by the defenders of Jericho (the French Peas) who taunt them from atop the city's great walls. Joshua tries to explain that God has given this land to the Israelites and that therefore the defenders will have to step aside, but the Israelites are instead met by more insults and smug jeering. When a slushy falls off the wall and hits Jimmy on the head, Joshua decides that the Israelites should fall back and regroup.
That night, Joshua meets the commander (Archibald Asparagus) of the Army of the Lord who tells him how the Israelites are to take Jericho: they must march around the city once a day for six days; on the seventh day they are to march around it seven times while the priests blow their horns, and all scream as loud as they can at the same time. At this point, the messenger states, the walls of Jericho will fall. Joshua reports this to his team the next morning, but the rest of the Israelites have ideas of their own. Pa Grape wants to go back to Egypt, and Jimmy and Jerry plan to attack the wall with a giant rocket they just constructed and the Israelites applaud (despite not having hands). Eventually, they agree to try it God's way and proceed to Jericho later that day.
While marching around the walls, the Israelites face more trouble; the city's defenders insult them all the more, turning their taunts into a choreographed musical number, while Joshua and the agitated Israelites try to ignore them. Unfortunately, the taunting turns to a super semi-frozen battle when the Jericho defenders use slushies as their weapons to attack the Israelites, forcing them to retreat. The end of the day finds the drenched and desperate Israelites on the verge of rebellion, while Joshua refuses to quit. At this point, Junior, one of the Israelites and the co-narrator, intervenes and convinces them to continue with the plan. He says that God's way always works out in the end.
The Israelites agree to stick with the plan, despite more slushy attacks and taunts. On the seventh day, they blow their horns and scream. At first, nothing happens. The Jericho peas laugh, but then the walls collapse under them. With that, the Israelites continue their journey towards the Promised Land.
Characters
Major Characters
- Bob the Tomato
- Larry the Cucumber (Himself and Joshua)
- Junior Asparagus
- Jimmy and Jerry Gourd
- The French Peas
- Pa Grape
- Archibald Asparagus (Himself and Messenger from God)
- Qwerty
Minor Characters
Silly Song cameos
- Grandpa George
- Lovey
- Dad Asparagus
- The Peach
- Larry-Boy (Mask helmet)
Songs
- VeggieTales Theme Song
- The Promised Land
- Silly Songs with Larry: The Song of the Cebú
- The Lord Has Given
- Keep Walking
- The Lord Has Given (reprise)
- The Promised Land (reprise)
- What Have We Learned
Home media
VHS
- Word Entertainment/Everland Entertainment (November 5th, 1997)
- Lyrick Studios (June 8th, 1999)
DVD
- Warner Home Video (2002, VeggieTales Classics line)
- Rerelease (2009)
Other Languages
- صة شعب الله وارض (Arabic)
- Das Abenteuer von Josua (German)
- Unknown (Hebrew)
- 여호수아와 여리고성 (Korean)
- 巨大な壁の物語 (Japanese)
- 沙漠先鋒隊 (Mandarin) (Taiwanese)
- Joshua og den store muren (Norwegian)
- Jozue in veliki zid (Slovenian)
Fun Facts
Moral
- Doing things God's way is better than doing them your own way.
Explanations
- Saline is a mixture of sodium chloride (salt and sterile water). It's commonly used for contact lens solution and nasal irrigation sprays.
Trivia
- This is the first episode for these things:
- The first episode Everett Downing worked on as an assistant storyboard artist.
- The first physical appearance of Aunt Ruth, who only cameo appeared in a slideshow still in the silly song, though was previously mentioned by Jerry Gourd in the I Can Be Your Friend song from Are You My Neighbor? in The Gourds Must Be Crazy.
- The first episode where Larry is replaced by Junior as the host.
- This is the last episode for these things:
- Tom Grape's last appearance to date.
- The Peach's last appearance until Merry Larry and the True Light of Christmas.
- The last show Mike Nawrocki worked with the sound effects.
- This was the last episode to use the original VeggieTales logo and theme song.
- This is the last episode to be distributed by Everland Entertainment.
- According to the concept art, there were a few differences between that and the final.
The original title of the episode.
- According to a The Morning Star November 23, 1997 newspaper article, the episode's original title was going to be "Joshua and the Battle of Jericho".
- The ark was going to be on wheels.
- The helmets on the army of Jericho were going to be colanders and something to an Asian straw hat. Also, the helmets would've covered the Peas' eyesight, but they'd still see (ala Tom Grape and Mr. Lunt).
- The wall was going to be extendable, meaning, starting as a low wall and folding up to become bigger.
- There was going to be a motorcycle involved.
The 1999 VHS reprint cover was going to look similar to the original one, but never made it into the final reprint.
- The cover to the 1999 re-release was going to look similar to the original cover but never came to be.
- There was going to be more shots of the walls of Jericho collapsing for the episode, but they were scrapped due to money running low and the episode's deadline.
- This episode can be featured in Heroes of the Bible!: Stand Up, Stand Tall, Stand Strong!, and Larry Learns to Listen.
- The Song of the Cebú will return in The End of Silliness?, The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown, Englishman with an Omelet, Heroes of the Bible!: Stand Up, Stand Tall, Stand Strong!, Sing-Alongs: I Love My Lips, and If I Sang A Silly Song.
- Mike Nawrocki read the interactive storybook version on The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment!
- At the end, Junior asks Bob if the Israelites really built a rocket and got slushies dropped on their heads, but it turns out that those were things added in their story (possibly to make it appealing to young kids). This line was added in the script in order to prevent young children from asking that question in Sunday School.
- Even though Junior replaced Larry in this episode, Larry did appear with Bob in the next episode.
Technical and Logical Remarks
- The lighting has changed from what was from the previous episodes, despite the fact that Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space! was the first episode with a lighting department. Phil stated this because they had a new lighting technician after the previous episode.
- This is also the first time the characters had a different color look, which results them not as shiny. This was done by their lighting director at the time, Jon Gadsby.
- The sun shown is actually a lens flare.
- Unlike the Biblical version of the story, God's directions don't start at Egypt.
- The German dub's title refers to Josh as "Josua", but the dialogue in the actual episode refers to him as "Joshua".
- In the 1999 Word Entertainment VHS reissue and further reprints of this episode, the axis positioning and height of the characters was edited for some scenes.
Goofs/Errors
- After God tells Moses about the Promised Land, you can still see part of the clothing after he leaves the screen.
- After the Israelites get scared of the Pickle family and run away, Percy's escaping from the tree was rendered at a lower framerate, which technically counts as a rendering glitch.
- As you'll notice in some shots, the legs on the sheep don't touch the ground, making them float in mid-air.
- In the first of Jericho, the slushie cup isn't there until it shows up in the closeups of the Peas. It then vanishes again after the Peas ask Joshua who he is. It then reappears after Joshua tells the Peas to leave.
- One shot shows Jerry's eyes positioned too high.
Inside References
- This episode has a few nods to Dave and the Giant Pickle, such as:
- It's a retelling of a Bible story that takes place in the desert, the Israelites are in the story, and the costumes the characters wore (Jimmy, Jerry, Tom, and Junior) were recycled.
- Goliath and the sheep are in it.
- The French Peas were portrayed as the bad guys.
- A few mentions of lack of body parts, such as:
- Tom stating to his father how they're clapping.
- Jimmy saying he has slushy in his ear.
- Larry has his pajamas from Oh, Santa! at the end.
Real World References
- Like Dave, this episode contained a small nod to the Monty Python series. Here, the French Peas taunt Josh and the Israelites from above the wall. This is reminiscent in Holy Grail, where the French taunt King Arthur and his men from their fort.
- As Phil confirmed, the moving arrow action on the map is similar what the Indiana Jones films did.
Fast Forward
- Junior would become co-host again for a later episode, even the opening for this episode where they imagine themselves in the story.
- This episode, along with Dave and the Giant Pickle, was turned into a touring live show in 2002. Both episodes were combined into one 90 minute stage show.
Episode Transcript
Gallery
