''Larryboy: The Cartoon Adventures'' (also known as ''Larryboy'') is an American

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy wa ...

children's series developed by Tom Bancroft (a former animator for

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) as a spin-off of the ''

VeggieTales ''VeggieTales'' is an American Christian media, computer generated musical children's animation, and book franchise created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki under Big Idea Entertainment. The series sees fruit and vegetable characters retell ...

'' franchise created by

Big Idea Entertainment Big Idea Entertainment, LLC (formerly known as Big Idea Productions, Inc. and Big Idea, Inc.; also simply as Big Idea) is an American Christian animation company, best known for its computer-animated ''VeggieTales'' series of Christian-themed ...

. The first video titled "Larryboy and the Angry Eyebrows", was released on March 16, 2002. The videos came to an end with "The Good, The Bad and the Eggly!", released on June 10, 2003, due to Big Idea's bankruptcy. Unlike its predecessor ''VeggieTales'', which was animated in CGI using Softimage 3D and later

Autodesk Maya Autodesk Maya, commonly shortened to just Maya ( ), is a 3D computer graphics application that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, originally developed by Alias and currently owned and developed by Autodesk. It is used to create assets for interact ...

, ''LarryBoy'' was animated in 2D animation using

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. From September 2006 to September 2009,

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aired the content of all four videos on its

Qubo Qubo ( ; stylized as qubo) was an American television network for children between the ages of 5 and 14. Owned by Ion Media, it consisted of a 24-hour free-to-air television network often mentioned as the "Qubo channel" (available as a digital ...

block alongside airing of VeggieTales videos. Each video contains two segments, a twenty-minute long segment and a seven-minute short segment (''Larryboy Super Short'').

Premise

The video series revolves around the character Larry's superhero alter ego Larryboy as he tries to manage his life as a superhero while working as a janitor for the ''Daily Bumble'' newspaper in Bumblyburg.

Characters

''Larryboy: The Cartoon Adventures'' only carries over four characters from ''VeggieTales'':

Larry the Cucumber This is a list of characters that appear in the ''VeggieTales'' franchise. Primary characters Bob the Tomato Bob the Tomato (introduced 1993) is the friendly but slightly high-strung host of ''VeggieTales''. Creator Phil Vischer has often cite ...

Bob the Tomato This is a list of characters that appear in the ''VeggieTales'' franchise. Primary characters Bob the Tomato Bob the Tomato (introduced 1993) is the friendly but slightly high-strung host of ''VeggieTales''. Creator Phil Vischer has often cite ...

, Junior Asparagus, and Archibald Asparagus, with Mike Nawrocki, Phil Vischer and Lisa Vischer reprising their respective roles.

Videos

Reception

In a mixed review, Scott Blakey of the ''

Los Angeles Times Syndicate The ''Los Angeles Times'' Syndicate was a print syndication service that operated from 1949 to 2000. Owned by the Times Mirror Company, it also operated the ''Los Angeles Times'' Syndicate International; together the two divisions sold more than ...

'' wrote that the series has "sly nods to comic book characters of the 1930s and the so-called golden age of animation" while referring to the series as a "breakthrough in reverse" for its use of 2D animation instead of 3D animation. In a more positive review, Richard LeCornte of the '' Reno Gazette-Journal'' writes that the series "succeeds at making its message pleasing to children and adults" and gave the series a B+. The series was nominated for a Golden Reel Award in 2003 for Best Sound Editing in Direct to Video, but lost to '' The Adventures of Tom Thumb & Thumbelina''. Vischer stated that fans of the original ''

'' series criticized the series for its cheap-looking animation. Mixed with Big Idea's bankruptcy at the time, the series was cancelled after the release of only four videos.

Home media

All of the videos were released in both VHS and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

formats. They were also released as a set or included with the other ''Larryboy'' videos in: ''VeggieTales: Bumblyburg Super-Hero Value Pack'' (2004), ''VeggieTales: Larryboy Super Hero Power Pack'' (2012), and ''VeggieTales: Larryboy Ultimate Super Hero Collection'' (2019).

References

External links

''Larryboy: The Cartoon Adventures''
at the

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Official Announcement
via

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{{VeggieTales Christian animation Direct-to-video television series DreamWorks Classics VeggieTales