What's in the Bible?

Veggie Tales’ creator Phil Vischer has a winner with this new kids’ series . . .

Virtually every child who has grown up in a Christian home over the past couple of decades has heard of VeggieTales. Today’s generation of kids will hopefully grow up watching What’s in the Bible, a new 13-DVD series from VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer.

Vischer and his new company Jellyfish Labs (partnered with Focus on the Family) have produced the first six DVDs already. The series builds on the success of VeggieTales, which sold more than 50 million videos. Vischer’s innovative integration of faith and storytelling also includes JellyTelly, which launched daily faith-based programming via the Internet in 2008 at JellyTelly.com.

Both JellyTelly and What’s in the Bible (WITB) make use of animation, puppets and Vischer himself in front of the camera for the first time in a starring role. Supported by a cast of puppets (which he voices himself), Vischer interacts with his cloth co-stars who each add their unique perspective to the program. Vischer told me that the key puppet — news anchor Buck Denver — is a cross between the Mary Tyler Moore Show’s Ted Baxter and Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert. Other puppets include Pastor Paul, Pirate Pete, and Sunday School Lady (patterned after Vischer’s grandmother).

Phil Vischer

“There was always part of me that was Mister Rogers,” Vischer said. “Bob the Tomato was my inner frustrated Mister Rogers. I thought maybe I needed to be more of that. I want to tell some serious stuff. Sometimes we need to talk about things with eternal implications.”

Vischer does just that. The depth and scope of WITB is impressive, but its genius is that it works for kids and for parents. Through humor and his unique and diverse characters, Vischer teaches. The material connects with kids through visuals and humor and with adults through depth and clarity. It’s clearly the best bible-teaching tool for children on the market today.

— Read more about WITB and Legatus Magazine editor Patrick Novecosky’s interview with Phil Vischer at his blog. Click to find out more about What’s in the Bible.