VeggieTales has had a lot of great movies over the years and some not so great. We have legendary stories like “Rack, Shack and Benny” and “King George and the Ducky” and we also have some less notable videos like “Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler” or the worst movie they’ve ever released, “Sweetpea Beauty: A Girl After God’s Own Heart”. But I’m not here to talk about the highs or the lows; I’m here to discuss the movie no one seems to remember: “Moe and the Big Exit”.
Now you might be thinking, “Ben, we remember but that one, but there are some later movies no one’s ever seen!” You can’t forget a movie you never seen and those later movies were coming out as former VeggieTales kids were moving on to adult life. This movie came out in 2007 and it was the sequel to Little Joe which came out in 2003! This was the middle era of the VeggieTales dominance!
Moe’s movie was dropped right between “Gideon: Tuba Warrior” and “The Wonderful Wizard of Ha’s”, so you might be able to attribute some of its lack of fame to the fact that it was dropped between two strong films, but there’s an additional reason why that shouldn’t have been the case.
I think it is well-known that “Belly Button” is one of the greatest Silly Songs of all-time. Boyz in the Sink dropped so much heat their first time out that people were foaming at the mouth for a follow up and finally got it in 2012 with the song “Bubble Rap” on the “Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men” movie.
But what if I told you that “Bubble Rap” was the THIRD song Boyz in the Sink has released? “Moe and the Big Exit” actually contains their second song called “A Mess Down in Egypt” and man is this song not good. But even though it’s kinda weak, folk still should been clamoring to hear the return of the Boyz right up until they were let down.
Now if you couldn’t tell by the name, this movie is about Moses. But the Western twist here is that the Israelites are being forced to build the Grand Canyon instead of Egyptian infrastructure.
I won’t go through the whole Moses story because that’s a lot but Larry gets kicked out of the town for killing one of his brothers, marries the Native American Petunia, has a kid, enter burning bush tumbleweed, he goes back and meets up with his actual brother Archibald, dresses up in mask and becomes the Lone Stranger which sound like the nickname of a child predator hold on lemme take a breather.
We get the ten plagues but with Western-specific and sillier spins and Mr. Nezzer finally lets the Israelites go. Nezzer discovers as they are leaving the Lone Stranger was Larry and he is pissed so he chases after them. Larry and his fam can’t cross Death Valley because it’s so hot but God makes is snow in order to clear a path for them across the ground and when Nezzer and his boys try to cross the snow stops and they burn alive? I don’t know. But that leads directly into why I think this movie is so forgotten.
Up to this point, VeggieTales movies have been pretty light on death. Sure it’s been teased but we’ve never seen nor had it confirmed like we do in this movie. And when I say deaths I’m not referring to flashback stories I’m talking about present deceaseness.
According to my skim-heavy, low intensity research the only character to appear on screen in the flesh and later die was the Giant Pickle in “Dave and the Giant Pickle”. All the other battles and fights end with the foe running away, but not in this film.
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