When I heard that VeggieTales were bible stories told by vegetables, I had a flashback to Davey and Goliath (the Christian cartoon I grew up with) and vowed that I would never subject my children to them.

Then my teenage daughter came home from a babysitting job singing "Barbara Manatee" (officially titled "Endangered Love") and told me all about King George and his Ducky. I was still skeptical, but on her recommendation, we bought a video and we all fell in love with the whole vegetable bin.

So when Jonah came to our local theater, we were there opening night, and we've been singing "I'm a Bald Bunny" ever since. "Jonah" also gave me the opportunity to introduce The Fish-slapping Dance, one of my favorite Monty Python bits, to my children. If that's not quality family entertainment, what is?

Our only disappointment was that "Jonah" wasn't nominated for an Academy Award for animation -- if only so we could see tuxedo-wearing Bob and Larry in the audience at the awards show.

Now if you think you've already seen "Jonah" because you saw it at the theater, think again. With the DVD version not only can pick up all the little jokes and details that you missed in the theater, you can also enjoy the outtakes and additional material that is included with the DVD. The DVD is worth buying just for the audio commentary from Larry and Mr. Lunt. My eight-year-old daughter was laughing so hard, I thought she was going to hurt herself.

If I could only buy one DVD for my children this year, this is the one I'd buy.
"Jonah -- A VeggieTales Movie" is fantastic.