King George and the Ducky

King George and the Ducky
Director(s)	Mike Nawrocki
Producer(s)	Jennifer Combs
Writer(s)	Phil Vischer (Big Idea) Sean Gaffney (Original story)
Music by	Kurt Heinecke
Distributor	Word Entertainment
Released	April 1, 2000
Runtime	36 minutes
Previous episode	Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed
Next episode	Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen

King George and the Ducky is the thirteenth episode of VeggieTales.

This story is a retelling of David and Bathsheba from the Book of Second Samuel.

Plot

Countertop Intro

The show opens up on the countertop with Jimmy and Jerry Gourd, who are disguised poorly as Bob and Larry. They say they've received a letter from a guy named Jimmy who lives somewhere near Texas. He mentions a friend of his named Jerry who is very selfish. Jerry (dressed as Larry) speaks up and says that Jerry is a very nice guy and the guy who is really selfish is called Hubert. Jimmy (dressed as Bob) is annoyed with Jerry for messing up the letter. Jerry takes off his Larry costume and lashes out at Jimmy. All of a sudden, the real Bob and Larry appear and confront Jimmy and Jerry. Jimmy and Jerry say they figured Bob could use a break and they've wanted to host a show ever since Dave and the Giant Pickle. Bob at first isn't sure about letting the gourds host it at first, but he lets them when they say that they have a story to tell. The story they have is a poorly acted play called "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill (and Came Down with All the Bananas)".

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill (and Came Down with All the Bananas)

(see page for full plot)

After The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill...

After the story ends, Jimmy and Jerry head towards Qwerty for a verse, only to find that he is completely shut off. As Jimmy tries to figure out a way to turn him back on, Jerry shows a piece of cardboard with "Don't be selfish" (which obviously isn't a real Bible verse) scribbled on instead. As the gourds attempt to wrap up the show, a fed up Bob comes out and discredits Jimmy and Jerry for their performance, plus he scolds them with their results. Bob apologizes to the viewers for the unusual activity, saying that they will try again, and he asks Larry if he remembers about a letter from Lucy Thomas from Bismarck, North Dakota, which reads that she won't share her toys with her little sister. The two then begin to play the story of "King George and the Ducky".

King George and the Ducky

In the story, there lives a king named George (Larry) who resides in a very big castle on a mountain. While his kingdom is in the middle of a pie war, all he ever does is spend time in his bathtub and play with his rubber ducky. King George's assistant Louis (Bob) always urges him to stop fooling around and start taking part in leading his troops in the epic pie war, but George always ignores Louis and focuses on him and his rubber ducky collection. One day, as George looks over his kingdom, he notices a poor peasant boy named Thomas (Junior Asparagus) bathing outside and playing with his own rubber duck. Filled with envy, King George's focus is all on Thomas' duck and will do stop at nothing to get the duck. Just then, Cedric (Scallion #1), King George's top general of his army, comes by to inform George that the war has grown ferocious and that his army is desperate need of more soldiers. Seeing this as an opportunity to snatch Thomas' ducky, King George says that Thomas will be willing to enlist and to send him to the front line alone. George and Louis begin to prepare for taking the ducky.

Later that night, King George and Louis head out to the village to take the duck. They take the duck from Thomas' house and head back to the castle. George puts the ducky on a pedestal and claims that it is, “the most perfect ducky the world has ever known.” Louis points out that it is literally no different than George's other duckies, but George ignores him. Just then, Cedric comes in with Thomas, who has won the battle all by himself but is suffering terrible PTSD from the battle. While Louis feels awful for allowing this to happen, King George doesn't feel any remorse and focuses on the duck. Louis snaps at George for being selfish and always focusing on what the only thing he cares about: himself and for being a terrible king in general. Just then, Melvin, (Pa Grape) a storyteller, comes in and tells a parable about a rich man who has a lot of sheep and a poor man who has only one sheep which he loves very deeply. When the rich man is visited by the guest, he goes to the poor man and steals his sheep to serve as dinner to his guest. Demanding who the horrible rich man is, Melvin points out that the rich man is King George himself. Melvin tells George that "whether you're a king or just a kid, God wants us all to think of the people around us, not ourselves." King George then heads to Thomas, gives him a hot bath to cure his PTSD, apologize, and give back his duck to make up for his sins. King George, Louis, Melvin, and Thomas then sing a song about how it is always right about putting people first.

Countertop Outro and What Have We Learned

Back on the countertop, Bob tells Larry that the very next day, King George went out giving away all his old duckies to his people the next day to start his new life of being a good king. The Bible verse of the day is Romans 12:10; “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.” Bob informs the viewers that instead of honoring ourselves or making ourselves happy, we should think about the people around us, such as our friends, family, and neighbors. The show ends with the French Peas, who are dressed as Bob and Larry, coming out and asking if they can host a show of their own.

Characters

• Bob the Tomato
• Larry the Cucumber
• Qwerty
• Jimmy and Jerry Gourd
• Junior Asparagus
• Pa Grape
• Scallion #1
• Barbara (Voice)
• Bill (Voice)
• Percy Pea

Songs

• VeggieTales Theme Song
• I Love My Duck
• I Must Have It
• Silly Songs with Larry: Endangered Love
• There Once Was a Man
• The Selfish Song
• What Have We Learned (Sung by Jimmy and Jerry Gourd)

Home media

This episode was first released in Christian bookstores on April 4th, 2000 by Word Entertainment. On August 8th, 2000, it was given a mainstream market release by Lyrick Studios. On June 18th, 2002, Warner Home Video reprinted it. On May 20th, 2003, Warner Home Video and Sony Wonder reprinted it as part of the VeggieTales Classics line.

Fun Facts

Moral

• Selfishness will not lead to happiness.
• Be considerate of others.

Explanations

• "Break a leg" is show terms for saying "Good luck!", and it was first said in Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space!.
• Infidel is another term for someone who doesn't believe.
• Boysenberry is a type of berry, which is a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry.
• A cobbler is similar to a pie, but with a biscuit topping.
• The "Bye-bye, Lumpy!" message is a farewell for using the previous server (possibly Softimage) for the shows.

Trivia

• This episode was the first for several things:
  • The first episode to use Maya software.
  • The first appearance of Scallion #1 with his new hairdo.
  • The first episode where someone else besides Bob and Larry tries to take over the Countertop.
  • The first episode Tod Carter worked on.
  • The first post-1998 episode where Madame Blueberry does not make an appearance.
  • The first (and only) time Larry played an antagonistic role. He turns nice at the end afterwards.
    • Speaking of which, some fans wrote letters saying they didn't like Larry being mean.
  • The first episode where someone else sings the What Have We Learned song in its entirety (in this case Jimmy and Jerry), as Bob cut off Larry before he finishes the song in Rack, Shack and Benny.
  • The first episode to have two story segments since Are You My Neighbor?.
  • This is the second episode replacing the Palatino font for the end credits; however, it has returned as the font on Qwerty's screen for the Bible verse.
  • The first VeggieTales episode (and Big Idea production in general) to be produced in the 2000s.
  • The first episode to use the Why We Do What We Do Promo (mass-market release only).
• This is the only episode to feature 2 stories with a Silly Song in the middle of the second story.
• The costumes Jimmy and Jerry wore were based on the ones Mike Nawrocki experienced when he was a spokesperson for a Vacation Bible School. The kids who participated actually made cardboard cutouts of Bob and Larry.
• This was the last episode to use the VeggieTales intro from 1998 to 2000.
• This was also the last episode that Ron Smith worked on as a full-time animator for VeggieTales.
• This episode marks the return of letters received from a kid by Bob and Larry since Josh and the Big Wall! However, this episode would mark the last appearance of letters until The Ballad of Little Joe.
• This episode has been featured in Larry's Favorite Stories!, Lettuce Love One Another!, and Growing Generous Kids!.
• The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill (and Came Down with All the Bananas) was later featured in Englishman with an Omelet and Lessons from the Sock Drawer.
• Endangered Love will return in Larry's Favorite Stories!, The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown, Sing-Alongs: Do the Moo Shoo, Silly Little Thing Called Love, and If I Sang A Silly Song.
• During the scenes of King George taking Thomas's duck, there's a graffiti of King George and his castle on the viewer's right. It also has "Selfi," which probably means "Selfish." So the picture is probably drawn by someone who didn't like King George.
• Phil said this was the riskiest episode they wrote since the original Bible story it's based after is more "adult" themed. Sean Gaffney helped out when he wrote a ten-page draft called "King Dave and the Bath Ducky", which is basically just the same Bible story but with a rubber duck. Phil then decided to tweak it (eg. names and locations) because he didn't want kids to know what Bible story it's based on.
• According to Phil, Pa Grape's character was named Nathan but then changed to Melvin in the final.
• Mike Nawrocki read the interactive storybook version on Madame Blueberry.
• On the original VHS release, it contains the 3-2-1 Penguins! Promo.
• The script for the main story has a copyright of 1999 and also lists a difference; even though the screen cuts to black at the end of the story, the script says "fade to black."
• Even though Bob said "God made you special and he loves you very much", Jimmy and Jerry said goodbye to the viewers instead of him and Larry because Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki did their voices too.
• This is the last episode known to be rendered in low footage quality on its original release,^[1] not counting any international compilation releases (i.e. Englishman with an Omelet) that appear to be converted with a type of digital video capture card.

Remarks

• One of the screenshots on the back of the cover has King George and Louis smiling. Louis is smiling with his teeth, whilst in the actual episode, he has his mouth opened. It could be possible that this was an alternate take.
• The bananas, hills, and strawberries are all drawn as opposed to the models.
• If you watch the video on a computer, you'll notice some white behind in the scene where George and Louis were down the castle.
• There are two 3-D throws toward the camera, King George's duck and the manatee doll from Endangered Love.
• Stalking a five-year-old while bathing is a horrible, indecent thing to do.
• The countertop scenes have a yellow tint. Phil Vischer once apologized to anyone who noticed it.
• All of King George's other ducks are all just the same generic yellow, which pretty much removes the point of keeping multiple of the same in storage, as Louis points out when King George steals Thomas' ducky. 
• It's unknown how exactly Qwerty turns on, having turned off in the beginning but turned on after the story.
• Jimmy presses "Option" on Qwerty, but the "Option" key is only on a Macintosh keyboard.
  • Qwerty is not a Macintosh, but would later be updated into one in Pistachio - The Little Boy That Woodn't.
• It's unknown when the story of King George takes place, considering he uses a quarter to operate the binoculars.
• George states that he wants the message sent out to every boy and girl. Considering the time that the story takes place, it would be unlikely as he'll only be able to reach rural and border states.
• The disguise may be useless, as most people know King George via his uniform. Also, how did he steal the duck without anyone waking up from it despite already making some noise?
• Somehow, Thomas manages to tank the Pie War by himself, depending on who he was against at the time.
• The back of the DVD states there was a how-to-draw on Junior Asparagus.
• The previews option has a preview for the episode itself.
• Some international releases replace Endangered Love with The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps.

Goofs

• When Bob tells Jimmy and Jerry he just had a break, Larry loses his mouth.
• At the very end of "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill", as the film ended, the image displayed underneath the projector effects was clearly an early animation-studio rendering, missing the 3D textures.
• Jean Claude's right eye clips through the pie crust after the pie hits him.
• An "I Love My Duck" shot shows King George in his king clothes, but in the next shot it turns back to his towel, and after that, he has his king clothes back on.
• Background mountain shots are shown at inconsistent angles. One shot shows in a lower position, but the shots after that show the mountains back to their normal position.
• The Croatian and Slovenian dubs leave out Bob's "Wait a minute, you mean 'wasn't'..." dialogue during The Selfish Song.
  • Jean-Claude also doesn't scream before he is hit with a pie in the pie war in the Croatian dub, although he still moves his mouth as if he did.
• The Smile of a Child edits cut out the Silly Song and The Selfish Song.

Inside References

• Bob tells Jimmy and Jerry he just had a break, probably referring to the previous episode.
• The quote "Aye aye, Skipper!" is a reference to Larry's Lagoon.

Real World References

• In the teaser trailer from the second sing along, the narrator mentions King Arthur and Henry the 8th.
• Jerry's line "You wanna piece of me?" was a homage to the first Toy Story film.
• The first story's title is a spoof on "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain" starring Hugh Grant.
• The glasses King George wore while stealing Thomas' duck are Groucho Marx glasses.

Fast Forward

• A prequel of the story would be made years later.
• The glasses would become a running gag in later episodes, though in a slightly different variation.
• While not necessarily the next episode, the French Peas would later get the chance to do a show.

Episode Transcript

• Transcript

Gallery

References

1. ↑ Screenshot from a 240px Alby VCD release of the episode; video quality (from the actual master it was converted from, not the VCD quality) and fuzzing red colors appear to show low footage quality