My brother has a strange obsession with potatoes. One year in art class,
most of his projects centered on them. A movie poster proclaiming “Paul
Schaffer is… Potato.” An ad featuring a herd of potatoes running
gracefully over a rolling plain, accompanied by the words “Free the
Potatoes.” That little venture had the teacher questioning Nathan’s
sanity. It’s no surprise with this predilection for promoting potatoes
that my brother is a fan of Mr. Potato Head. He has a couple different
versions of the classic spud and has gotten a kick out of rearranging
the parts into both logical and dubiously artistic combinations. When
Nathan saw an advertisement for VeggieTales Dress-Up Mix-Up Larry, a toy
based on the same premise but instead featuring our favorite ludicrous
cucumber, he expressed an interest in that as well. I promptly gave it
to him for his birthday. Somehow, Larry found his way into my room, and
there he has stayed. But if Nathan is ever looking for a friend for that
cynical spud, he knows where to find one.
The reason that the
creators of VeggieTales settled on using fruits and vegetables as the
stars of their series was simple. Computer animation was only beginning
to emerge as a distinct form of animation, and Mike Nawrocki and Phil
Vischer wanted to work with images of the least complexity possible. As a
result, all their main characters lack limbs. Suspension of disbelief
is required to accept the idea of them maneuvering objects while so
unappendaged, but then suspension of disbelief is required for every
aspect of a series revolving around singing vegetables.
Because of this, Larry has fewer parts than Mr. Potatohead, though the
parts he does have are more interesting. No hands for him. No pairs of
shoes – though he does come with a single brown shoe that can be placed
on his head. All of his attire is a nod at one video or another. Most of
the articles can be seen on the video Very Silly Songs! The pirate bandana, beard and eye patch are a reference to The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything,
the silly song created especially for that video. The aforementioned
shoe stems from Larry’s time as a resident of Flibber-o-loo in the
Seussian retelling of the story of the Good Samaritan. The bath towel
and brush are taken from Oh Where is My Hairbrush?, generally
agreed to be the most popular silly song even all these videos later.
Larry has a Gilligan-style hat from the parody of that show featured in God Wants Me to Forgive Them?!
and a Gourd’s Gym shirt/towel, a headband, a tool belt and a hard hat,
all from Larry’s failed attempts to discern the purpose of the Very Silly Songs!
video. And, just for good measure, Larry has an extra silly set of
extra eyes, because silliness and Larry go together like tomatoes and
cucumbers.
Throughout the series of videos, Larry has donned a
wide variety of costumes. Recently, some of them have been rather
complex, most notably his Dickensian get-up in The Star of Christmas and An Easter Carol.
It’s a shame more of his guises could not have been incorporated; maybe
they’ll eventually come out with an expansion set. I’m surprised that
there were no Larryboy accessories, considering that this Batman-style
superhero is one of Larry’s most popular incarnations, spawning a video
series all his own.
Unlike Mr. Potatohead, Larry does not have
a little hole in the back in which to store his attachments. They would
be too large to fit in there anyway. He does come with a plastic
display base, but it would be nice if there were some sort of storage
for Larry’s parts. Additionally, he is larger and more cumbersome than
his starchy counterpart, and he can’t stand on his own without the
plastic base. Still, he’s oodles of fun, especially for those who are
particularly fond of VeggieTales’ goofiest character. My brother can
have his potatoes. I’ll stick with Larry any day.
No comments:
Post a Comment