George of the Jungle (1997)

Hmm. This had to have been a Jay Ward cartoon. It's got the Jay Ward mark on it. Not as much as I'm sure the actual cartoon had (I only saw one episode once, a loooong time ago in a galaxy far, far away, i.e. North Dakota). And I have to confess I DO love that style of humor. Things got a bit too zany here at times for me and left me going, "Okay, THAT was just dumb..." and because of those many "That was just dumb" moments I couldn't put it on any type of "Great movies" list. However it was fun for the one viewing, picking out the good bits throughout and savoring those and ignoring the rest. 2 stars.

13 Going On 30 (2004)

Plot: A 13 year old girl plays a game on her 13th birthday and wakes up the next day as a 30 year old woman.

As far as silly chick flicks go, this one isn't bad. Yes, this theme has been done before. Yes, it's utterly predictable (but, hello, it's a chick flick, it HAS to be). But it was enjoyable to watch... the cast was all great... A lot of people really panned this movie but I thought it was a lot better than some of the other chick flicks that came out 2004... *Cough*Theprinceandme*coughcough*. Probably won't ever watch it again, but, hey, I've seen it once. That's all that's necessary. 3 stars.

Cellular (2004)

Oooh. The previews made it look good... and it WAS good. My two other thrillers I wanted to see (Godsend and The Forgotten) were both horribly panned, and I couldn't remember if this one was or not. So I persuaded my parents to get it so we could watch it. Turned out to be a nice intelligent movie. W00t w00t for intelligent thrillers!! Nobody in this was stupid and making me go, "YOU IDIOTS! THINK ABOUT IT!" It kept me interested in what was going on... nothing was lagging throughout the movie. And it even threw in an occasional sense of humor as a change of pace. 3 stars.

A Cinderella Story (2004)

Plot: Routinely exploited by her wicked stepmother, the downtrodden Sam Montgomery is excited about the prospect of meeting her Internet beau at the school's Halloween dance.

When I went to rent this, I said, "I want to see something light and fluffy." Yup, this is about as light and fluffy as you can get. The goofy overdone slapstick humor, the stereotypical obnoxious cheerleaders, the hot guy who really isn't all that bad, the good guy friend who I always hope she'll end up getting together with since I never like the bland lead guys in these movies... It's all there. I must say, I AM getting sick of this "Be true to yourself" theme. People who ARE true to themselves... are getting way sick of it. And if you're not true to yourself, watching 80,000 teen movies on it isn't necessarily going to help. But ah well. We shall ignore that and not mind the movie for what it is... a light-hearted "I don't want to think about life" bit of fluff. One other mention though... I don't know that our Cinderella is too badly treated. She has a computer with Internet access in her bedroom! She has her own car! She has her own cell phone! But *shrug* 1.5 stars.

Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush (2005)

People are lauding this as like the best Veggie movie ever. I have to say, I still liked King George and A Snoodle's Tale better. This was quite a fun Indiana Jones spoof, but it didn't ever really completely gel with me. The Silly Song With Larry, although amusing, wasn't nearly as ruling as some of the ones in the past, and the opening short with Junior actually bored me somewhat. (*gasp* WHAT?! A Veggie video boring? THIS CANNOT BE!) I still would probably recommend this because the Minnesota Cuke part IS great fun (if you get the DVD, make sure and watch the veggie commentary, it's great).

A Snoodle's Tale (2004)

This might be one of my favorite VeggieTales movies to date. Wait. Scratch that. This IS one of my favorites. Whether it surpasses King George and the Ducky, I'm not sure, but it's awfully close. It's the first Veggie movie in quite a while to use the ol' on-the-counter formula... Nice to see Qwerty again, not to mention hearing the theme song!

It's also the first time in awhile that a Veggie movie has had two different stories separated by the Silly Song. The first story, "Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly" was only so-so as far as the actual message, but had some hilarious bits... My personal favorite was a series of jokes that started when there was a close-up of Scooter opening Dr. Jiggle's door... but you see a hand turning the knob. Scooter jumps back and screams. When Larry asks him what's wrong, he replies, "THE HAND!" This happens a few more times and kept making me giggle.

The Silly Song With Larry (guest starring The Maybe-Scallion Who Sang the Puppy Song in Esther) is hilarious... Definitely one of the best ever!

And the Snoodle's tale? I have to admit, it almost made me cry. I'm not kidding. It was such a touching story and resonated so deeply with me that I found a lump in my throat and had to sniffle hard a few times to keep back the tears. This has to be one of the coolest stories the Veggies have ever made. I just might have to buy this video, it's so good. Note, this is also my longest review to date. Hmm. Way to go, Big Idea, for making a movie I could write this much about! 4.5 stars.