Product Description

It's back to 1880's London in this companion special to the hit VeggieTales video, The Star of Christmas. In the tradition of a great Dickens classic, Nezzer goes on a wild tour of his past, present and future in the company of Hope, a little Angel with a loving heart. Voiced by Contemporary Christian Music superstar, Rebecca St. James, Hope teaches Nezzer the true meaning of Easter. Filled with music, mechanical chickens and way too many plastic Easter eggs, An Easter Carol, will be an instant holiday classic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39258 in DVD
• Brand: VEGGIE TALES
• Released on: 2004-02-10
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 49 minutes

Amazon.com
VeggieTales goes Dickensian for this sprightly and inventive take on the Christian significance of Easter. Greedy Ebenezer Nezzer, a Scrooge equivalent and manufacturer of such Easter kitsch as plastic eggs and mechanical chickens, mounts a huge commercial campaign to reap further profits from a day that should be about remembering the resurrection of Jesus. With series regulars Bob the Tomato (cast, fittingly, as a Bob Cratchit type) and Larry the Cucumber on board, An Easter Carol finds Ebenezer led by a music-box angel named Hope (voiced by Rebecca S. James) through a spectral journey to discover the real meaning of Christ's death and return. As usual, the animation is lively but the script is less heavy-handed than some other Biblically inspired VeggieTales. Production art includes some wonderful stained glass backgrounds. The overall effect is clever and pleasing. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Very cute!
There's a lot to love about this DVD - it's got beautiful animation and beautiful music. The angel, voiced by Rebecca St. James, is especially lovely, and her voice is gorgeous. The mechanical chickens and the chicken rap are absolutely hysterical, and the story about Mrs. Nezzer, the Christian grandma, is extremely touching for both young and old.

However, in adapting it from Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," there are times when I thought the story dragged on a bit just for the sake of having "parallels" to the other story. Easter Future was especially convoluted. My 6yo couldn't understand why there could be no Easter just because there wasn't a pretty church nearby ("You don't need a church to believe in Jesus, right, Mommy?") It could have used some serious editing.

This is the most explicitly Christian of all the Veggie Tales videos thus far. The other ones (Jonah, Josh and the Big Wall, The Ballad of Little Joe, Madame Blueberry) all could be said to fall under the general category of "Judeo-Christian values" or Barney-esque "good morality tales," but this one makes explicit to children why belief in Jesus is so important and why Easter is such a joyous occasion. The timing of this video couldn't be better, either. I suspect a lot of little ones will get reminders about Mr. Nezzer when pining after chocolate bunnies this year. =)

Though it has some shortcomings, they are negligible in terms of its overall enjoyability, and it's definitely a beautiful video worth watching.

Best Piece of Work yet
Yes, there's no silly song :(
Yes, Bob and Larry take a back seat to Nezzar :(

But I must say this is such a solid piece of work for Big Idea, that I really can't complain. The music is excellent. The humor is very witty. The characters are very lovable. The only problem is my son just wants to see it over and over and over.

The best part of this video is that for the first time VeggieTales gives the whole Gospel message for kids. It's all here: Jesus birth, life, death, and resurrection! Unlike other VeggieTales which use Old Testament stories as a means to promote great virtues and morals, this video uses a fun story to promote the story of Jesus and the hope we receive from his victory over death. This video isn't branded "Christian" at the end with a single verse from Qwerty, rather it is thoroughly Christian through and through. The closest Big Idea got to this previously was with its Christmas videos--which rightly only focused on Jesus' birth.

This video truly rounds out the VeggieTales catalog. Neither the animation nor the theology could be any better. Although it coincides with the Star of Christmas video, I strongly disagree with the reviewer who says that you need to see that video first. Both of these videos work well as stand-alones...in fact, if I were to buy only one, this is the one of the two to buy.

p.s. Although the packaging refers to two animated shorts, they are nowhere to be found on the DVD. Since the Big Idea website does not refer to these shorts in their description of the product, I am guessing that they were removed from the DVD at the last minute.

An awesome VeggieTales...well there all awesome but still...
I am compleatly obsessed with VT. And no, I'm not 4. :)

This VT is like the Easter version of "A Christmas Carol". It is also the sequel 2 another VT, "The Star of Christmas". Ebenezer (sp?) Nezzar owns a factory of plastic eggs, which his Grandma started 113 years ago. Mr. Nezzar has the idea that if he keeps making Easter eggs, it's like his Grandma is still alive. So he plans to tear down St. Bart's church nearby, so he can build "EasterLand". The night before Easter, his Grandma apperars out of her portrait and sings a little song telling "Ebby" that he has Easter "all backwards and upside down". Later, an angel appears to Ebeneazer, to tell him what he has wrong.

This VT has great music, a great story, and an awesome silly song! (Not with Larry, but with Mr. Nezzar. See the chapter "Boids")

VT is fun for the whole family. Older kids (like 10 and up) will really appriciate the message, and "Boids"! Younger kids will be cracking up at the funny scenes, and parents will be proud they chose such an awesome DVD 4 their kids!