Sunshine and I spent this morning doing laundry and watching Pistachio: The Little Boy that Woodn’t. I requested it for review because I thought Sunshine might be old enough now to enjoy VeggieTales. She sat through most of it and, when I asked her if she liked it, she said, “Yeah,” but she didn’t get quite as excited over the music and Silly Songs as I thought she would.
Pistachio is VeggieTales’ version of the story of Pinocchio. Gelato is a lonely toymaker who is given an interesting piece of wood which he carves into a toy boy. That boy then comes to life and declares that he wants to do whatever he wants and he will not listen to Gelato. Gelato, along with his adopted ducklings, try to teach Pistachio a few lessons, but Pistachio soon gets distracted by a puppeteer and then led astray by two street-wise vegetables.
When Pistachio finally realizes that he should have listened to Gelato all along, he has to find a way to get back to his dad and learn a few more lessons in trusting that his dad knows better than he does. It’s been long enough since I read the original story that I enjoyed this retelling, especially some of the VeggieTales surprises and twists.
One storm scene near the centre of the movie may be scary for some young kids, though it didn’t bother Sunshine. Most of the movie is fairly upbeat and fun. The Silly Song in the middle was one of my favourite parts (as most of the Silly Songs are); it was an “Obsure Broadway Hit” that was done very well by Larry the Cucumber and another vegetable.
Pistachio was a fun movie that tries to teach kids to listen to their parents. It lived up to my expectations of fun music, good jokes, and a few twists to a familiar story.
DVD has been provided courtesy of David C Cook and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available now at your local Christian retailer.
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