Posted on 09/04/2003 1:23:21 PM PDT by fishtank
VeggieTales Creators File for Bankruptcy
Bob the Tomato and friends sold to company that already has Lassie, Lone Ranger, and Rudolph. By Bob Smietana, Religion News Service | posted 09/04/2003
Big Idea Productions, makers of the best-selling VeggieTales video series, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday, as part of a deal to sell the financially troubled company.
Big Idea has agreed to sell its assets—including copyrights to Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber and other VeggieTales characters—to Classic Media LLC, which owns or manages media properties such as "Rocky and Bullwinkle," "Lassie," "The Lone Ranger" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
Despite Big Idea's continued popularity—eight of the top 10 selling videos in the Christian retail market are from Big Idea, including the recently released The Ballad of Little Joe—the company has had cash flow problems in recent years.
Last November, following the release of the motion picture Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, which grossed more than $24 million at the box office, Big Idea laid of 30 employees. Additional layoffs have cut the company's staff from a high of 200 part-and full-time employees to a current staff of 44.
"To call the last year difficult is an understatement," said Big Idea founder and CEO Phil Vischer in a statement. "In the midst of VeggieTales' success, we made several key strategic errors that led us to this point. Due to their great enthusiasm for both our business and our ministry, I believe Classic Media is a wonderful partner to help guide Big Idea back to financial health."
Kris Fuhr, a spokesperson for Big Idea, said the company intends to continue making VeggieTales videos, with an Easter special due for release next February, followed by videos in May and September. Plans for a second VeggieTales film, announced last fall, are now on hold, Fuhr said.
"There are projects that are ready to go," she said, "but they have to have the appropriate business model" before proceeding.
The Jonah film, which cost an estimated $10 million to $20 million to produce, was self-financed by Big Idea. The company would take on "financing partners for our future film projects," said chief operating officer Terry Pefanis, in a statement.
With video sales topping more than $20 million, Big Idea was once the largest animation studio in the Midwest. The company will now focus on story concepts and preproduction, with the animation and production outsourced, "which is what the rest of the industry is doing," said Fuhr. "We were one of the last places doing 30-minute-length videos in house," she said.
Big Idea began looking for a buyer this past summer, after it lost a lawsuit brought by Lyrick Studios, its distributor until 2001. Lyrick, which also distributes "Barney," sued after Big Idea switched to Warner Home Video to distribute its videos to the mainstream market.
In April, a Texas jury awarded Lyrick $11 million in damages, deciding that Big Idea violated a verbal contract with Lyrick. On July 9, Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn of the Northern District of Texas Federal Court upheld the verdict against Big Idea.
In an interview in the Aug. 4 issue of Christian Retailing magazine, Vischer defended the decision to leave Lyrick, claiming that three years of negotiations with them had failed to result in a signed contract. He also cited the sale of Lyrick and the death of former owner Dick Leech, who was instrumental in the early success of VeggieTales, as reasons for changing distributors.
Vischer, whose role models included Walt Disney, and who often spoke of building a company as influential as the Disney Company, also blamed his decisions as Big Idea's CEO for the company's difficulties.
"We got ourselves upside down financially when everything was working wonderfully," Vischer told Christian Retailing. "When things were doing so well, I thought that was God wanting us to expand, so we grew like crazy. Now I think it was more me having all these great ideas in my head and being so excited that I wanted to do them all at once."
No terms of the sale were announced. Big Idea's Fuhr said that the company hoped to complete the sale by the end of 2003.
In a statement, Eric Ellenbogen, chairman and CEO of Classic Media, said that his company looks forward "to supporting (Big Idea's) mission" and "growing the brand" in the future.
"Although Big Idea has experienced considerable financial difficulties, it has never let down its audience," Ellenbogen said. "We will commit everything it takes to advance Big Idea's unique franchise."
"Barbara Manatee, Manatee, Manatee,
You're the one for me, one for me, one for me,..."
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http://www.cherubwings.com/
How is that arrogant? God knows the number of hairs on our heads - not just mine, but yours too. He cares about everything we do, and if we are willing, He will lead us.
I can't say whether or not the guy heard from God to 'expand,' but it's not beyond the pale of what God might communicate with us about. . .IF we are listening.
Perhaps what they should have been billed as: "Acceptable for viewing by children of Christian parents." I realize they are not stories that specifically evangelize, but they do provide a moral lesson and are much better than a lot of stuff that is out there for kids.
Without getting into too much detail, the ones that have to be in writing are contracts regarding real estate, contracts in suretyship and contracts involving obligations which expressly state that they will last longer than a year (can vary by state).
If I remember right, it was a verbal contract which did Kim Basinger in on "Boxing Helena".
Just FYI -- at the end of each 30-minute VeggieTales videos, Bob and Larry consult "QWERTY", their computer, to give them a Bible verse that deals with the message of that particular show. I am 99.9% sure that a number of these scriptures are taken from the New Testament.
I saw that another Freeper had mentioned the fact that the Christmas video was Christ-centered. In fact, both Christmas videos, "The Toy that Saved Christmas" and "The Star of Christmas" discuss God sending a Savior, etc.
On another note, if any of you own the "Jonah" DVD, be sure to watch/listen to the Movie Commentary given by Mr. Lunt and Larry the Cucumber. It is very funny stuff! And, yes, in case you're wondering, I have a 2-year old. (But, truth be told, my wife and I started watching VeggieTales long before our daughter came along...) ;-)
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