Paul O'Donnell: January 2009 Archives

Les Phillabaum, the former editorial director at Louisiana State University Press, who took a chance to publish the unknown, deceased author John Kennedy Toole's novel, "A Confederacy of Dunces" died on January 14th. With Phillabaum's passing, the players who pulled off one of the most remarkable and inspiring escapades in the annals of publishing are now gone. Let us take a moment to tell the tale once again.

Lately VeggieTales releases come in two kinds, the inspired and the merely inspiring. The latest VeggieTales release, "Abe and the Amazing Promise," due out February 10, fulfills the promise of every VT production: to get some Bible knowledge into your kids' head while showing them how to be better people. It alludes to the majesty of God and inspires us to be better people. But at no point did I or my test audience of pre-tweens wonder if Phil Vischer or Mike Nawrocki had finally lost their marbles.

Before pulling out of "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" just before Christmas, Walt Disney Pictures seemed the perfect partner for Walden Media in producing the Chronicles of Narnia series of movies. Family-oriented, fantasy-ready and unembarrassed by Walden's Christian values, Disney was both wholesome enough for the evangelical audience base for Narnia and credible enough for mainstream mallgoers.

When it was announced, Disney seemed to be motivated by pure economics. The second film in the series, "Prince Caspian," had cleared only $219 million over its production budget, compared to the more than $500 million worth of black ink that flowed from the series opener, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." And Disney, be reminded, had to split even those profits.