VeggieTales: Pistachio - The Little Boy that Woodn't Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

VeggieTales: Pistachio - The Little Boy that Woodn't Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 7, 2020

VeggieTales is a longstanding faith-based children's program that teaches positive family-friendly and Biblically based lessons by way of adorably simple animated content. In Pistachio - The Little Boy that Woodn't, the world of VeggieTales recreates the story of Pinocchio, a framework for a tale centered around the importance of teaching children to listen to their parents and not to be influenced by outside, and devious, voices. Through simple animation, enjoyable songs, and plenty of heart, the film effectively builds its case as little Pistachio, standing in for Pinocchio, lies and loses the little bit of money placed in his care but gains a foundational knowledge that will last him a lifetime.

In the quiet Italian town of Bologna-Salami, a toymaker named Gelato lives with his assistant “Cricket,” who is actually a Caterpillar. Gelato never married and has no children. He makes his living, and finds his purpose and joy, in making toys for other children. One day, Gelato is gifted a piece of pistachio wood. He spends all night making a very special carving: a little boy in his image that magically comes to life that he names “Pistachio.” When Pistachio’s father gives him a few pennies to buy a book, the boy falls down a rabbit hole of lies, influenced by a couple of shady criminals out to rob him of his money. Will the boy, whose nose grows with every lie he tells, fall for the scheme, and if so, will he learn any valuable life lessons along the way?

The animation's simplicity is countered by the material's inherent value and the characters' effortless charm. With witty writing and jokes that mostly hit, not to mention cute characters and fun songs, the breezy 51-minute program has a lot to offer before even considering the meat-and-potatoes lessons it has for children to learn. The film features a couple of interludes along the way, the first one featuring Bob discovering that his countertop has received a makeover (even if nothing has really changed) and another featuring Larry singing an unknown Broadway song about misplaced office supplies. These enjoyable shorts offer a little sidestep from the main storyline.

The film proper reinforces positive messages about obeying parents and the importance of, at a young age, relying on the wisdom of those who are older, and who instruct form a position of love. “Listen little ducklings and your life will turn out alright” says one of the early songs (Gelato has created several little ducklings who are essentially part of his family). As Pistachio goes on his adventure, he is taught not to spend money he doesn’t have but eventually falls in with a bad crowd and must choose between what he believes to be best versus what his father says is best. Of course, temptation leads him down the wrong path. He loses the pennies which his father entrusted to him but ultimately comes to appreciate the value in obedience and doing right.

It is worth noting that the scenes in which Pistachio has been taken to a carnival to lose his money are dark and a little scary. The atmosphere is one of dread: it's night, it's drizzling, and the bad actors bring a cunning attitude that is at once both falsely reassuring and obviously, to older viewers with more life experience, fraudulent. Pistachio is frightened but at the same time he is drawn to the slick talking promises that say he can easily earn something by giving away what little he has. It is a rather dark concept and it's treated as such. Little ones might find it too frightening -- and that's not even to mention when Pistachio is swallowed up by the whale -- so parents should weigh the potential scares with the value of the messages the film ultimately shares.

VeggieTales: Pistachio - The Little Boy that Woodn't Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The animation created for Pistachio - The Little Boy that Woodn't is not crude, but neither is it complex. The picture is a bit flat, lacking anything resembling complex detailing, whether on characters or environments. Of course, that's a relative observation. It's quite attractive for a lower budget series, but it's obviously not up to par with the elite Hollywood studios. Still, overall clarity of what's here is just fine. The 1080p resolution allows the animation elements to be seen with far more clarity than standard definition, and the VeggieTales aesthetic certainly looks as good as ever on Blu-ray. Color output could be described similarly. The palette is not particularly bold and nuanced. However, essential greens, reds, and other primary colors offer good fundamental saturation and, again, play to the animation's innate qualities. The picture does not show any serious artifacts, though eagle-eyed viewers will spot hints of aliasing here and there.

VeggieTales: Pistachio - The Little Boy that Woodn't Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

It's nice to see a program like Pistachio - The Little Boy that Woodn't feature a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack; so often these lower end titles would include lossy multichannel or stereo lossless, or stereo lossy in the worst case scenario. While, like the video presentation, the audio is no great shakes in the grand scheme of things, the track does offer a surprisingly robust output that more than compliments the movie and satisfies its requirements. The opening VeggieTales theme song plays with impressive stage engagement, enjoying a wide and detailed front end and a seamlessly integrated back channel component that envelops the listener in the fun. Music is impressively large for the duration, again featuring a prominent front end and well integrated surround wrap. The track offers positive atmosphere, including at the dark carnival and later inside the whale where dripping water may be heard emanating from several different locations throughout the stage. The track is primarily dialogue intensive, however, and spoken word clarity, placement, and prioritization are just fine.

VeggieTales: Pistachio - The Little Boy that Woodn't Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Pistachio - The Little Boy that Woodn't contains various supplemental features as outlined below. A DVD copy of the film is included with purchase. However, no digital code has been included. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

• Art Gallery (1080p, 16:04): Director Mike Nawrocki and Concept Artist Joe Spadaford offer commentary over a number of character and location sketches.
• Studio Commentary: Director Mike Nawrocki and Producer Kevin Gamble discuss the new opening song, story details and themes, characters, and more. The track is friendly and jovial; young and older fans alike should find the track to be a worthwhile experience.
• Staplers Sing Along (1080p): The office song interlude, sing-along edition. Included are Sing Along with the Veggies (3:28), a karaoke-style version with vocals intact, and Sing by Yourself (3:28), which includes the karaoke-style on-screen lyrics but does not include any vocal accompaniment.
• Larry Visits a Marionette Theater (1080i, 4:49): Larry learns about Marionette puppets from some real puppeteers.

VeggieTales: Pistachio - The Little Boy that Woodn't Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Pistachio - The Little Boy that Woodn't takes a classic story and reworks it to deliver a good core message about parental obedience and trusting strangers. The positive messaging is straightforward and presented in a viable tale that does go dark though parts of its middle stretch, but necessarily so and obviously not so dark as to overwhelm the experience. Still, parents should be prepared to comfort children who might find a few scenes a little too disturbing. Big Idea Entertainment's Blu-ray delivers decent video and audio and a well-rounded assortment of extra content. Recommended.