YMMV / Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie

• Alternative Joke Interpretation: In the song "A Message from the Lord", during the end of Jonah's Long List, one of the characters says "This is quite a lot of rules!" This could be interpreted in two ways: it's either an acknowledgement of the massive number of rules mentioned in the song, or a rib-poking reference to how the Old Testament had hundreds of specific rules to follow, in which the New Testament of Christian faith states that the need for those rules is absolved.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Even though the Brazilian Portuguese dub was released around the time of the source material's popularity in Brazil, this movie never caught on and thus became very hard to find in said country.
• Awesome Music:
  • "Billy Joe McGruffey", the incredibly catchy car ride song at the beginning of the film, with the kids and Mr. Asparagus enchanting a groovy melody of goofy lyrics entailing the misfortunes suffered by a boy in grade school. The album version is extended to make it that much more awesome.
  • "Second Chances" in Jonah, performed by a gospel choir. It's also one of the catchiest songs in the film.
  • "In the Belly of the Whale", which is the first song that plays under the credits before "The Credits Song."
  • Tropers tend to enjoy the Lampshade Hanging of the second song to play under the credits. "This is the song / That runs under the credits / These are the credits / So this is where it goes..."
    • The lyrics then point out the song has nothing to do with the movie. It’s still awesome, and funny.
      There once was a song
      That ran under the credits
      That went with the movie
      But this is not that song
      Has nothing to do with the movie so we'll say
      Hey! Hey! Hey hey hey hey hey hey
  • Dad Asparagus refused to end the movie without a "big musical number". Cue the song "Jonah Was A Prophet", which is basically a very brief summary of the whole movie to very catchy music.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The outboard motor. When Jonah was faced with Walking The Plank, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything think they can get him out of it by using a surprisingly modern motor to get back to shore. But they don't know how it works, so Khalil offers to help. But in doing so, the motor runs out of control and falls into the ocean, rendering that scene... completely pointless. According to the commentary, the scene was meant to adapt Jonah 1:13, where the sailors tried to row back to land rather than toss Jonah overboard.
• Crosses the Line Twice: "The Slap of No Return." The Ninevites demonstrate this by using a non-anthropomorphic pumpkin with a smiley face drawn on it. When they see that, they turn it around to a scaredy face and smash the pumpkin right in front of Jonah, Khalil and the pirates, with its pulpy remains being splattered on their faces.
• Genius Bonus: Several subtle biblical and religious references that kids would likely not get.
  • Jonah's message to "Wash your hands" is not merely for humor ("It's not a joke!") Judaism had several rules for handwashing.
  • Angus' offer of a cruise to Egypt is rejected by Jonah for good reason. A verse in Deuteronomy mentions Israelites being brought back into Egypt as slaves in ships.
  • The scene where they try and fail to use an engine to get them back to land is adapted from Jonah 1:13—"Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea was raging against them more and more." In the original story, they did indeed try to get Jonah to safety rather than throw him overboard, but this detail is omitted from most modern retellings of the story, making that scene a seemingly pointless Big-Lipped Alligator Moment for someone who doesn't know the original bible story by heart.
  • The Ninevites actually did worship a fish god, a detail omitted in the Bible story, but some commentators speculate this as a reason they listened to Jonah.
• Fountain of Memes: Khalil from this movie has quite a few memes centered on him:
  • Replacing the line "You are a skilled metal worker" in his introduction scene with audio from another source.
  • "[THING] runs very deep in my family!" ^Explanation Khalil's catchphrase.
  • "...but in the proccess will break the heart of the woman you love!" (Khalil fake cries) ^Explanation The final words of Khalil's made-up reason that Jonah doesn't want to go to Ninevah. Many fans like to post the fake crying part to social media and video sharing sites.
  • "You are pathetic." ^Explanation Khalil says this at the end of the main story in the film when Jonah refuses to learn his lesson. The image of him saying it is a popular reaction image.
• Nightmare Fuel: "The Slap of No Return". Basically it's a giant club on a lever that smashes its victims like a bug. That they actually give a demonstration of how it works (with a thankfully non-sentient pumpkin) just made it even more disturbing.
• Wangst: Jonah, when he learns God gave the Ninevites a second chance. This actually fits in with the original Bible story.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The film began development in the late 90’s, just a few years before The War on Terror happened. However, the timing of a movie being released around this time that preached compassion and mercy was not lost on the crew, and home video bonus features do include clips of the crew mentioning how proud they are to make the movie during such a violent point in history.
• Woolseyism: The Japanese dub has several changes to the script:
  • The "Do you prefer poking or non-poking?" joke is changed to one about the vegetarian menu.
  • At the beginning of the Pirates' story, root beer is changed into no alcohol beer, likely due to how unpopular root beer is in Japan.
  • In the "Ding Dong" song, the lyric about Ho-Hos and Ding Dongs is replaced by one about chocolate cake.
  • Khalil's mother was originally a caterpillar. Here, Khalil uses "imomushi", or "potato bug", instead of "caterpillar".

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