- "Isn't it great that because God forgives us, we can forgive others?"
- — Pa Grape after ending the story
The Little Drummer Boy is the thirty-seventh episode of VeggieTales and the fifth Christmas episode of the series. It is a retelling of Romeo Muller's story.
Plot
Junior's parents are going out to do some Christmas shopping, and Pa Grape (playing Junior's grandfather) is at the Asparagus residence to babysit Junior until they come back. They're planning to get a drum set for their son, seeing how he loves playing with his drum sticks. Junior is practicing his drum skills and is waiting for his friends to come by so they can sing Christmas carols together. However, because Junior is listening to his music on his device, he doesn't hear the doorbell and his friends, Laura, Annie, and Percy think he forgot to come caroling and went shopping with his parents. The asparagus doesn't know why his friends came by, only to hear them singing far away. He thinks his friends ditched him, but Pa Grape thinks it's probably a mix-up and they'll come by again. Pouty, Junior decides he won't forgive his friends for ditching him. Pa Grape decides to cheer Junior up by reading a story about a small drummer.
The story starts with a small farm boy named Aaron. He goes out to see if his pet lamb Baa Baa is alright, to which his father replies "yes." His father also gives him a gift, which is a drum. Whenever Aaron plays the drums, the animals start to dance along. Unfortunately, his happiness ends quickly as the Roman army burns down his family farm, as it was in the property they wanted. Aaron hides with the animals for shelter, but his parents aren't there, so he thinks they died in the fire. He decides that he'll be better off without any other people, and he leaves the farm along with the remaining animals.
Meanwhile in the desert, two travelers named Ben Haramed and Ali are trying to find a way to earn money for their show, since the only performers they have are a flame juggler, acrobats, and a stand up comedian. Ben then hears distant drumming from Aaron, and thinks that he and his animal friends would be a good addition to the group. He tries to persuade the drummer to join in, but Aaron refuses since he doesn't want to be involved with people. However, Ben tells the drummer that once they make enough money and share it (which Ben doesn't plan to), he won't be around others. Aaron eventually decides to join the group, but also because he wants to take care of his animal friends.
The traveling group arrives in Jerusalem to start their show. But things don't go so well, and the townspeople aren't amused with the performers. So Ben insists that Aaron should play in front of the rambunctious crowd, although he doesn't want to smile at others. He sings along with his animal friends, and everyone loves their performance. But Aaron doesn't feel happy, and throws the money back at the folks, which makes them angry and causes them to throw slushies back at the performers, who escape from the trouble.
Later that night, the group spend the night in the desert again. Ben isn't pleased with Aaron's actions earlier, and states that he won't leave until he pays back the damage he's done. Ali spots three men wearing fancy clothing like kings (they're wisemen who are planning to meet the newborn king), and Ben decides he'll make a profit since they have lots of gold. The group set up a show, but the three men aren't interested; they need to leave because there's a star they have to follow. However, things don't go well as their Sandspeeder conks out from carrying too many jars of myrrh. Ben has a sly idea: he'll give Aaron's camel Joshua to the three men, so he tells Ali to distract Aaron while he sells the camel away. Just as Aaron arrives back, he gets mad at Ben for selling his friend and he refuses to take his money. So he runs off with his remaining friends so he can find Joshua.
Just as they're heading to find the three men, Aaron spots the shepherds looking at the sky because something shiny was talking to them (angels), saying that they need to head to Bethlehem. He decides to follow them, and just as they head to the town, Aaron spots Joshua and soon they are reunited. But things get bad as a Roman riding his chariot almost hits Baa Baa, causing Aaron to worry that he'll die. He decides to talk to one of the wisemen, but he doesn't know how to mend sheep. However, he suggests they go see the newborn king in the manger. Because he doesn't have anything to give and only has a drum, Aaron decides to play a song for the baby. This helps him open his heart with happiness and forgive everyone that he held his grudges against for so long. Just then, an amazing surprise happens when his parents arrive and he is happily reunited with his family, and his dad says he'll help Baa Baa get better.
After hearing the story, Junior decides that he'll forgive his friends for not letting him join in their singing. His friends come to the door, and ultimately apologize and forgive him for what happened earlier. Pa Grape tells the kids that he'll make some hot chocolate to make it up to Junior for missing out on Christmas carols since they were out in the cold, which they accept. Percy then tells Junior before heading to the kitchen that he's allergic to his new cat, which confuses Junior.
Characters
Major
- Junior Asparagus/Aaron
- Mr. Lunt/Ali
- Mr. Nezzer/Ben Haramed
- Mike Asparagus/Benjamin
- Lisa Asparagus/Leah
- Pa Grape
- Reginald/Joshua
Supporting
- Magi
- Larry the Cucumber/Belthazar
- Bob the Tomato/Melchior
- Archibald Asparagus/Gaspar
- Jimmy and Jerry Gourd (Jimmy only speaks) (Jerry speaks in the silly song)
- Oscar (silly song only)
Minor
- Jean-Claude/Mais/Roman
- Phillipe/Oui/Roman
- Laura Carrot
- Annie Onion
- Percy Pea
- Crazed Jopponian
- Silly Song Announcer
Songs
- VeggieTales Theme Song
- A Treasure to Behold
- Can't Smile without Ewe
- A VeggieTales Christmas Party: The Eight Polish Foods of Christmas
- The Little Drummer Boy
Other Languages
- Unknown (Arabic)
- Den lille trommegutten (Norwegian) (same translation)
- پسر بچه طبل زن (Persian) (Drummer Boy)
Quotes
- Unfortunately, Aaron's happy world was about to come to an end.
- Wait, hold on. What do you mean? Isn't this a happy Christmas story?
- Well, every good story has some bumps along the way.
- Pa Grape telling Junior a good story would have bad happenings.
Production
In the commentary, Mike and Brian stated that they wanted to do another Christmas video based around the biblical times. They eventually decided to do one based on the Rankin/Bass special "The Little Drummer Boy" by Romeo Muller. Brian Roberts didn't know at first if they could do this episode due to the fact it involves the Nativity, and the policy Phil kept is to never show Jesus interact with the veggies. But then they discovered they never actually show Jesus in the original special.
Home Media
- Main article: The Little Drummer Boy/Home Video
Features
Trailer Appearances
Fun Facts
Moral
- Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, so we need to forgive them and make up for it.
- It's okay to miss out on something, but God will cheer you up and feel grateful for it.
Explanations
- A analogy is a way to compare two things, mostly to something else in significant respects.
- Fruitcake is a type of cake that contains chopped fruit and nuts, and it's usually served during the holidays.
- The Wisemen panicked when they heard the name Herod. Herod was a king in the Bible who was jealous that the new savior was a bigger king than himself, and planned to kill him after he was born.
Trivia
- This is the first episode for several things:
- The first time we see Junior's living room since Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space!.
- The first episode to feature Maggie Roberts as Annie Onion.
- The first Christmas episode to have the opening theme, but without the countertop (although it appears in the Silly Song). Brian Roberts states the living room segments act as the countertop.
- The first time since Moe and the Big Exit that both Nezzer and Lunt played villains together.
- This is the second Christmas special to feature the VeggieTales Theme Song, after It's a Meaningful Life.
- When this episode came out on DVD, it came with the Holiday Double Feature DVD as a bonus disc.
- As stated, this story is adapted from Romeo Muller's story. However, unlike the original, there are a few differences between the two. This included:
- Aaron's happy life was shown right at the beginning instead of flashbacks. This was so the audience can approach to him more.
- The farm was burned by Romans instead of bandits. Also, Aaron's parents were alive at the end.
- Ben and Ali didn't know who Aaron was, unlike the original where they knew who he was already. Also, they bribed Aaron and his animal friends to join them instead of capturing them by force.
- The two are also a bit more lighthearted, but still sleazy than how they were in the original.
- Mai, Oui, and Bernie were new characters for Ben's group.
- Ali juggled jars in the original, while he does flaming torches instead.
- Ben just sold Joshua in the original, while in this version, Ben and Ali try to separate both the camel and Aaron away.
- In the original, Aaron's lamb was saved because of Jesus. However, after Aaron played the song towards the new king, he was able to forgive others and his parents came back. Also, his dad was the one who saved the lamb.
- Some of the songs were different. (Go see the songs' pages)
- There were a few differences between pre-production and the final version:
- Originally, Percy's line about the cat was going to be first about a broken water heater, then a possum, and fighter robots.
- Brian originally wanted to remove the scene where Baa Baa gets hit, as he felt the original scene didn't fit well of just Jesus healing the lamb. However, he put it back in after they figured out that the dad can heal him.
- According to concept art, there was a scene where Aaron meets the wisemen in their oasis. In the final episode, he does not interact with them until near the end.
- Aaron was originally going to say "He can help me?" between "The baby?" and "I don't understand". He was also going to say "But" before admitting that he has no gift to bring. These lines were kept in the Bebe and Cece Winans version of the titular song (albeit only on the album and music video versions).
- This was released exactly 9 years after Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie.
- The music Junior listens to on his PeaPod is Deck the Halls.
- This is the last episode to be produced by David Pitts. However, he would still continue to work with Big Idea until The League of Incredible Vegetables.
- This marks the last appearance of Crazed Jopponian.
Remarks
- When Ali juggles the torches the first time, his turban turns completely black. But when he juggles in front of the crowd, the turban just gets some soot once the flames are in contact.
- This is the last of the 7 episodes where the Silly Song is in the later half in the runtime.
- Ben calls Aaron by his name, despite him (Aaron) never stating that fact.
- Although not a goof, there are some shots where Aaron's mouth clips through his eyes.
Goofs
- The cover and Larry's promotional model displays him without his tooth.
- During the final lyric of A Treasure to Behold, Bernie's mouth is shown to be moving, but his voice is not heard.
- The credits listed What Have We Learned, but that song did not appear in this episode.
- Pa Grape says that Aaron heard "two voices he was once sure he would never hear again", but only one of them is heard (that being his mother).
Fast Forward
- Baa-Baa would appear again in the next episode.
- Samson's model would later be re-used as a talking donkey 10 years later.
- The interior for Junior's house (including the nativity set) would later be used for young Philip Fleagle's house in the next Christmas episode.
Episode Transcript
Credits
Gallery
