I Heard Big Idea was Bought By a Secular Company?

Big Idea did go bankrupt due to a fight with Lyrick Studios after Lyrick was bought out by Hit Entertainment (Thomas the Train and the Wiggles). There was a major dispute over who could distribute VeggieTales on DVD. Big Idea said that it was not bound to Lyrick, Hit disagreed. Hit was originally declared the winner, and Big Idea was bought by Classic Media– the owners of Lassie, Popeye and other brands.

The complete story is Phil Vischer’s old blog. Simply put, Big Idea is owned by classic media. Vischer still has creative input, writes a story a year, and is the majority of the voices– but he no longer has veto power, and he is not an employee of Big Idea. Most of the original crew is still there.

What does this mean for Biblical content? According to Vischer and Mike Nawrocki (Larry the Cucumber, VeggieTales was given permission to be who they are– there is no dictates from above that they have to water down their message or change the way they do things.

That said, Classic Media is in business to make money. You will notice that they are pushing more merchandise (t-shirts, toys, games, etc.) , they are having more appearances, and they are producing and promoting more videos. It’s possible that this is just the fact that there’s a real production company behind them, or it could be they know that these videos are good sellers.

I have noticed that there were stories they didn’t know if they could tackle before that now they are. As I’ve noted in the comments, some of the new ones are right on, and some seem to emphasize friends and family over God– they never totally exclude Him.

They’re still solid family entertainment with a “nugget” (they use this word a lot) of truth.