VeggieTales hitting St. Charles church

When the first VeggieTales video, "Where's God When I'm S-Scared?," was released in 1993, co-creator Mike Nawrocki had no idea VeggieTales would become such a phenomenon, spawning books, CDs, toys and movies.

Nawrocki provides the voice for several VeggieTales characters, including Larry the Cucumber. Larry, Bob the Tomato and the rest of the cast will perform April 13 at Christ Community Church, 37W100 Bolcum Road, St. Charles, as part of the "VeggieTales Live! God Made You Special" tour.

The show starts at 7 p.m. and reserved tickets are $18, available by calling 630-833-3733 or at www.edanconcerts.com.

The Kane County Chronicle had the chance to talk to Nawrocki about the upcoming show and the inspiration behind VeggieTales.

Kane County Chronicle: What should people expect from the show?

Nawrocki: Well, this is kind of a showcase of Silly Songs, and some of the more popular teaching songs as well. It takes place at the Silly Song Warehouse, where Larry the Cucumber stores all of his Silly Songs.

One of the songs goes missing, which is a big deal in VeggieTales world, and so all of the characters and a couple of human characters go looking for it.

It's a great opportunity to sing a lot. There's just a lot of fun music and a lot of fun choreography.

With all VeggieTales stories, we have a lesson, and the lesson is that God made you special, and that's why this is called the "God Made You Special" tour. There's a couple of characters who aren't feeling so special at the beginning of the story who do learn that at the end.

As far as Silly Songs, what's the favorite song that you do as Larry the Cucumber?

I probably get more requests for "The Hairbrush Song" than any other one. That was one of the very first Silly Songs, and one of the more popular ones as well.

There's "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" Silly Song, which is another fun one. One of my personal favorites is "The Bellybutton Song."

You released your first VeggieTales video in 1993. Did you ever think when you made that video that VeggieTales would be such a hit?

We had no idea. We really felt like there was a need for really entertaining stories that would help parents pass on biblical values to their kids.

At the time, Phil Vischer (Veggie Tales co-creator who also is the voice of Bob the Tomato), and I really felt there was the need for those types of stories.

The technical challenge of finishing that first video was so huge. At the time, computer animation was brand new. Our first episode was about a year and a half before "Toy Story" came out.

So there was not much being done at the time with this new technology. Just overcoming those technical hurdles was just so huge.

So do you think VeggieTales was groundbreaking in many ways?

I think at the time it certainly was groundbreaking just using this new technology.

I think the other thing too is just our type of storytelling. I think that's part of the fun of the show and its longevity as well.

It's not just the same characters in the same location all the time. We're always doing something different with the characters.

The show aired on NBC in 2006 and I understand there was a little controversy because the network chose to remove most of the references to God. Was that disappointing to you?

There was some editing that had gone on, and from our perspective, not necessary. We are clearly a faith-based product, and that's part of the DNA of the brand.

They did get a lot of feedback from viewers, and eventually backed off on that.

The core of what VeggieTales is that these are stories told from a biblical worldview, and that's what we are all about.

Do you think you kind of broke open the market for faith-based programming?

I think it helped to show that there is a place in the market for faith-based entertainment, and it predated "The Passion of the Christ" and the Narnia movies.

There are a lot of people in this country who hold these values, and value stories that contain messages from the Bible along with Bible stories, and things that they feel are important to pass on to their kids.