VeggieTales: The Wonderful World of Auto-tainment (2003)

This is my second reluctant viewing of a Veggie Tales movie (unless you count Lord of the Beans three times now, sigh) so I can't quibble about how this isn't as good as Lyle the Little Viking Who Could or whatever. (Please don't correct me, it's sarcasm. I joke because I only care about real movies.) Coming from Minnesota, I understand lame humor, but... Veggies Tales are even more lame and corny than the dopiest cornfed humor from the breadbasket of the heartland. Family values fanaticism aside, my son simply enjoys this title and asked for it by name; he chuckled at the few funny spots and we explored all the special feature activities together. The futuristic humor theme may not play as well with the Barneytime crowd because robots and automatons are unfamiliar territory for the kiddos; and frankly "randomized humor" (while often socially suitable humor of the absurd for teens) doubtless goes over like a lead balloon for all but the smallest tykes (when in an absurd mood). Veggies Tales gets high points for its art and music production values; I sincerely enjoyed the Modern Major General number in its main as well as its karaoke versions. The illustrations and arrangements are quite good. The humor is just often too stretched, or it intentionally tries to make you groan. Three stars.