Kids today need moral instruction, and who better to provide it than a bunch of computer-animated vegetables? That's the big idea behind the Big Idea production company, which for almost a decade has created Christian kiddie fare like Where's God When I'm S-Scared? and Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen for the video market using songs, stories, scriptures, and talking tomatoes, to great niche-market success. Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie is the franchise's first foray into the theaters, and it re-tells the story of Jonah with a twee, monocle-sporting asparagus in the role of the Nineveh-averse prophet. It's as strange as it sounds, but it also accomplishes what it sets out to do, using the story as a jumping-off point for a crash course in mercy and compassion. Mike Nawrocki and Phil Vischer, who co-write, co-direct, and supply much of the voice talent, soft-pedal the proselytizing and explicitly Christian elements in favor of gags and gentle lessons, keeping the pace fast and the scenery colorful. Filling the movie with pop-culture references and irreverent humor (at least in this context), the Big Idea team has clearly absorbed the lessons of The Simpsons, even if VeggieTales seems like the sort of entertainment the Flanders kids would watch while everyone else tunes into The Itchy And Scratchy Show. In catering the story to provide a nice lesson, the Book Of Jonah gets defanged a bit. It's light on God's threat of smiting, for instance, and the Ninevites' most outrageous sin involves slapping each other with fish, a detail not found in most Bibles. But at least Nawrocki and Vischer follow their hero to his bitter, disillusioned end before cleansing the palate with a jaunty song. Kids and vegetables alike will undoubtedly go forth to lead better lives.