Christian Cartoons of the 1990s–Early 2000s With Surprisingly Big-Name Connections

The first episode of VeggieTales, “Where’s God When I’m S-Scared?,” debuted on December 21, 1993. It seemingly was animated on a shoe-string budget. However, it was based on traditional family values and contained witty jokes and writing. 

The smash success of VeggieTales encouraged independent companies to design their own conservative media and to feel that anyone could make their own cartoons to promote family values. However, it is highly noticeable that quite a few early 1990s and early 2000s (VeggieTales time frame) Christian cartoons had rather big-name voice actors and animation studios.

For the 2002-2003 season, after VeggieTales was a raging success, an ex-Disney animator, Tony Bancroft, produced a cartoon called Lenny and Sid and formed his own company, Toonacious Family Entertainment. Alongside Bancroft's share of production work, there had been some final touch-up animation made by Wang Film Productions overseas — a studio that once animated Fox Kids-era portions of the popular Animaniacs for the 1993-1994 season. 

StarToons, a studio that once animated parts of syndicated Tiny Toon Adventures for 1990 and Fox Kids-era Animaniacs episodes through 1994, collaborated with a company named Fancy Monkey Studios on another Christian cartoon, Little Dogs on the Prairie, in 2000. They previously worked with Broadman and Holdman Publishers plus Focus on the Family (McGee and Me) alums Rob Loos and George Taweel on The Secret Adventures (1993-1995) to create animation sequences of the three kids on the show — Little Matt, Rebecca, and Drea — transforming into and talking to different animals. (All other content was live-action.) 

Rob Paulsen, the voice of Yakko Warner (Animaniacs), performed Zeke the Falcon from Nest Family Entertainment show Kids' 10 Commandments. Even Don Knotts (Andy Griffith's deputy Barney Fife) did the voice of a character from Max Lucado's Hermie and Friends: A Fruitcake Christmas. Finally, Debi Derryberry (Jimmy Neutron) played one of the prairie dogs in Little Dogs on the Prairie. 

The trend of more Christian and/or conservative videos popping up after VeggieTales certainly alerted consumers to shopping for more conservative videos to teach values and to entertain. An observer may learn that the smash success of VeggieTales encouraged studios to create their own media promoting family values and to feel that anyone could get their feet wet in it, even independent companies with unexpectedly big-name connections. In truth, Tony Bancroft went on sabbatical from Disney because the company was hostile to the animators' free speech rights and to Christianity. Disney gave Bancroft a hard time because of his religious beliefs and free speech (he was ridiculed for praying during workplace breaks), so Bancroft felt inspired to make his own family-oriented show. Further, even Mike Nawrocki and Phil Vischer (the creators of VeggieTales) became big-name figures in their own right. Recently, Nawrocki went on to write The Dead Sea Squirrels books and Vischer has created an apologetics issues podcast.