Me, Myself, & Bob:
a True Story about Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables

© 2008 by Janice Byrd

by Phil Vischer

Book review by Janice Byrd

What happened to the VeggieTales? They all but disappeared after their movie debut of Jonah in 2002, and are just now returning with new DVDs, a Saturday morning television show, and another movie. In his autobiography, Me, Myself, & Bob, Phil Vischer, the founder of Big Idea Productions and the inventor of Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber, tells us why and how it all came down.

Phil Vischer was an odd sort of kid--creative, entrepreneurial, religious, curious and quiet. The first half of the book chronicles Vischer’s coming of age, coming to Jesus, and coming to idolize and imitate Walt Disney. Vischer had a dream, a dream he believed was God-given.

Vischer’s plan was to make a living during the day by doing commercial animation, and then in the evenings to develop an animated kid’s show. It was Phil’s wife Lisa who came up with the vegetable format, but it was always Phil’s vision to show kids how special they are and how much God loves them.

At the end of the book, an on-line link to an additional unpublished bonus chapter of Me, Myself, and Bob gives those interested in digital art detailed technical descriptions of how Bob and Larry actually came to animated life.

The demise of Vischer’s dream is a heartbreaking and humbling tale which gave me a better understanding of how God could stand back and allow my own dreams and earnest efforts to fail. “What kind of a God would do that? And why?"  That’s the question this book ultimately answers.

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