The scurvy-free Pirates Who Don't Do Anything are the denizens of the latest computer-animated installment of the popular VeggieTales franchise. All images © 2007 Veggie Pirates Productions, LLC.

The new pirate movie coming to the big screen today doesn't feature coarse-talking corsairs of the Caribbean. In fact, the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything are completely scurvy-free, being of the vegetables food group, and they frolic on the high seas in the latest computer-animated installment of the popular VeggieTales franchise -- one that has sold more than 50 million DVDs/videos since its 1993 inception.

"VeggieTales has been a CG property since the characters were first developed in 1990 on an old Silicon Graphics Personal Iris workstation running one of the first seats of Softimage sold into the U.S.," notes VeggieTales creator and Pirates Who Don't Do Anything screenwriter/producer Phil Vischer.

"Today, the animation for VeggieTales continues to be produced by Big Idea in collaboration with various specialized production studios around the world. For Pirates, we teamed up with STARZ Animation in Toronto, which has mastered all of the computer animation with a production pipeline built primarily around Maya."

Pirates -- even ones who don't do anything -- are popular with children, and Vischer believes that they have become, like cowboys to an older generation, symbols for "exotic" adventure.

"Forget about the fact that they were thieves with lousy personal hygiene," Vischer says. "The modern notion of 'pirate' comes no closer to reality than John Wayne's or Clint Eastwood's 'cowboy' personas. As for our three 'pirates,' they're really just three regular guys who long to be heroes. The film is the story of that journey."

The three leads in The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything -- A VeggieTales Movie are a gourd, a grape and a cucumber, who risk their limbless lives on the 17th-century high seas. In addition to Mr. Lunt, Larry the Cucumber and Pa Grape, there's an animated cast of oddballs that includes Rock Monsters, a hoard of evil Cheese Curls and a morally-divided royal family.

"Our villain is a new character, as is the royal family of the fictitious 17th-century land our modern-day heroes must save," Vischer says.

A gourd, a grape and a cucumber risk their limbless lives on the high seas. The movie may seem to be sailing in the wake of Captain Jack Sparrow, but in fact the script was completed before the first Pirates of the Caribbean film was released.

Unlikely Heroes
While it may seem that The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything is sailing in the wake of Captain Jack Sparrow, Vischer advises that he actually completed the screenplay before the first Disney Pirates of the Caribbean film was released. "This script was written well before the first Pirates of the Caribbean film hit theaters, and was influenced more by fantastical nautical adventures like C.S. Lewis' Voyage of the Dawn Treader, as well as more contemporary 'loser-turned-hero' films like Three Amigos and Galaxy Quest."

In the new VeggieTales movie, a mysterious ball drops from the sky and a "Helpseeker" is sent from the past in search of heroes. The spherical artifact sets into motion a series of events that drags the vegetable friends from their jobs in a dinner theater back to the 17th century. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything must face their fears by becoming unlikely heroes in a battle to rescue a royal family from an evil tyrant -- as well as by rescuing themselves from living the life of common couch potatoes.

"VeggieTales really targets kids up to eight years old, but Pirates is a family film that I think kids of all ages will enjoy," Vischer says. "Our humor, often described as G-rated Monty Python, and our silly songs, have kept parents sticking around for the entire show and have given us a following among teens and college kids as well. Any lesson we work into our films, though, we try to make intelligible to a four- or five-year-old."

The Pirates film offers up a lot of music, including a VeggieTales take on "Rock Lobster." Other songs include "Spanish Gold," "Jolly Joe's," "Yo Ho Hero," "Papa's Got A Gumball Nellie," "Look At Us, We're Walking Rocks," "What We Gonna Do?" and "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything."

"Unlike our first theatrical, Jonah, I didn't set out to write a musical," Vischer says. "But since some of our scenes are set inside a dinner theater, of course we had to throw in a few silly pirate songs. And then a few other songs crawled in as the film developed. For some reason, songs crawl into just about anything Mike Nawrocki and I develop."