Well, I did end up watching it. It was funnier in parts than I dared think. Parts of it made me laugh quite loudly -- for some reason I found the Evil Sporks incredibly funny and their conversion to loyal Cookie Monsters was oddly fitting. The creation of Scary-Man's Sporks in what looked like a giant waffle iron (that went "ding" and switched lights from red to green when they were finished --
see picture) managed to be suitably ridiculous in its own right and paralleled the creation of Saruman's army in the movie cleverly. Other positives I thought, was the extended laughing between Toto and Randalf in the beginning that ended up tiresome and had Toto watching Randalf awkwardly -- just because it parodied the movie scene well. Then there was Randalf's overly dramatic explanation of the Four Beans and the Fifth Bean. The fact that the Fourth Bean grants any kind of small kitchen appliance you could want -- now that could have been in the Entish Bow RPGs here on the 'Downs.
Also I liked the appropos of nothing appearence of the vegetable on the unicycle singing:
Oh I'm a lucky fella,
I'm a lucky boy,
I've got a new umbrella,
And it's me pride and joy!
And the rain may come
And the sun may go
I'll be warm 'n' dry
From me head to toe
Oh I'm a lucky fella
I'm a lucky boy!
It was just one of those "What in Udun was that about?" moments that I find funny because I'm weird that way.... Maybe it was a VeggieTales joke that makes more sense if you watch the show regularly, but its completely non-sensical and out of place quality is what made me laugh. Other funny bits: Grumpy dragging his axe around laboriously, Leg-o-Lamb making a "whooshing" sound whenever he moved about in sneaky Elven fashion, and Ear-o-Corn cutting the heads off of flowers as he walks along. The last bit was so un-Aragorn that I couldn't help but be reminded of all the sutble and not so sutble character changes made in the Jackson movies.
But what had to be, hands down, the funniest thing in the whole show, was the Silly Songs Elvish Impersonator interlude. Ear-o-Corn sporting fake elf ears, playing a guitar, singing like Elvis about his elf girl love -- who comes out and screams at him in Elven (which he doesn't understand) about how terrible he is and she wishes he would leave, etc. -- is just plain funny, especially when she says "I leave now to do laundry." The ending with Leg-o-Lamb taking umbrage with the whole thing was pretty funny, too.
That was what I liked. Most of the too-cute stuff I swallowed best I could knowing that it was a kid's show, but that's the best I can say. The Raspberry Forest or whatever it was called failed completely to be amusing. Maybe just because I'm female and blowing raspberries must appeal more to guys... who knows. I was disappointed that Sam -- SAM of all characters! -- was completely omitted, along with Merry and Pippin. The Other Elf supplied most of the Pippinesque humor of the hobbits, with his ill timed bathroom breaks and supposed good-for-nothingness. It seemed an awful elaborate way to set up the Keebler Elf joke at the end, and though I laughed at it, I would still have rather had Sam and at least one other hobbit in the Fellowship of the Bean. Also, there was no Boromir character. Oh, and I know this is a bit nitpicky, but from the very start in the Shire, Toto was wearing his Elven cloak with the leaf broach.
Then of course there was the sickly sweet moralizing. I expected it, seeing as how VeggieTales is designed largely to be a Christian alternative to secular cartoons, and each episode is all about the Lesson, but that didn't make me enjoy it. For a parody of a story whose author stressed how he didn't want it to be a straight allegory or moralizing tale, Lord of the Beans hits the audience over the head with the Lessons well and often. I have to point out that it wasn't the Christian morals that bugged me, it's just the preachiness of any kind that I don't like in a story. Give me Looney Tunes any day, it's nicely lesson free. Except for the subliminal ones, such as that violence is always the answer and the more devious you are the better. Unless you're Wile E. Coyote. Then it just sucks to be you. But I digress.
Anyway, that's my "Yes-I-Just-Wrote-An-Overly-Detailed-Review-of-a-52-Minute-
Children's-Program" review of
Lord Of The Beans. The short review is that it could quite possibly shatter the Travest-O-Meter, and is probably best viewed when properly smashed.