Veggie Tales - King George And The Ducky

Reviewed by Sue Brown

The main section of the DVD covering the subject of selfishness tells a story about a King who collects rubber ducks and who, despite having a cupboard full of them wants more and more - no matter what the cost to other people. The story is easy to understand and children of all ages will relate to it. As with the other Veggie Tale DVDs, 'King George And The Ducky' includes lots of extras like colouring pages and a family game on DVD-ROM and karaoke, commentary and trailers on the main DVD. The story is, in the main, a "child-friendly" and very clever version of the story of David and Bathsheba - although you would have to really know your Bible to work that out! The Veggie Tales story adapts the Bible story very well. However, the main disappointment was that it didn't show the full consequences of the King's sin (in the DVD the King is sorry and everyone lives happily ever after - no permanent damage done) - which isn't exactly how it goes in the Bible. The story could have been made so as to not be as harsh as the reality of the Bible (so nobody dies) but still remain true to the fact that sometimes we have to live with the consequences of what we have done wrong. This highlights a common issue with the re-telling of Bible stories to children - should we remove the "bad bits" and just say nice things? It seems a shame that, after telling 90% of the story in a way that is parallel to the Bible, Big Ideas stopped short of the final hurdle in this instance. However much we all enjoy those talking veggies, the biblical content shouldn't be fudged.