Phil Vischer (born June 16th, 1966 in Muscatine, Iowa) is American voice actor, puppeteer, writer, animator and songwriter. He is best known for creating the series VeggieTales and Big Idea with his partner Mike Nawrocki.
He is best known for voicing Bob.
In 2007, Phil started expanding the company with JellyTelly and produced a new series called What's In The Bible.
He is currently living in Wheaton, Illinois with his wife Lisa and two daughters, Sydney and Shelby, and his son, Jeremy.
"Departure" from Big Idea
Since after the production of their first feature film was complete, a lot of fans thought Phil left the company and wasn't interested working there and thought he hated his past work, and even some crew members believe the rumors for a while. However, Phil states this is not entirely true and this what he said in his podcast.
During the production of Jonah, the company was in financial trouble due to various events (e.g. HiT Entertainment trying to sue them after buying the rights from Lyrick Studios). Around that time, they hired a lot of people to help out with their productions before they went bankrupted. There was one new guy who was a new producer and thought he was king, but then one production he was working on wasn't going well, which resulted the project being shut and made the new producer really mad. Just as the company was being bankrupt, the producer thought Phil was the problem for not letting the crew members doing what they want. So when Classic Media brought the company afterwards, the producer place in their contract that Phil should stay away from being CEO. When Phil had a meeting with the owners, he suggested that he should remain as CEO. But this was overturned when John and Eric wanted the company to move somewhere in Nashville and they only wanted Phil as a consultant, and give him an office allowance so he can stay in Chicago.
What the producer put on the contract is that if Phil came back, he'll walk away and stop making the shows. So during the next few years, Phil wrote some books and created both Jelly Telly and What's In the Bible. Sometime afterwards, Classic Media was brought by Entertainment Rights from London and Phil thought he'll get an opportunity. But then months later, the company was brought by two other guys and because of it, a lot of cuts had to be made at Big Idea. Fortunately much later, John and Eric brought the company back and thought he'll get another opportunity and possibly join both Jelly Telly and Big Idea together. However, things didn't go well as the head of the company stated they're not interested in Jelly Telly (and possibly shut it down) and didn't want to continue What's In the Bible?. Phil still wanted to continue his current show, so he rejected the offer.
In 2011, Phil heard in the trades that both John and Eric were selling the company to Dreamworks, so he waited for a phone call from them if they're interested in being involved in Big Idea again. However, he never received one from anyone there. Regardless, Phil stayed in the company doing voices and wrote some episodes after the bankruptcy.
In 2018, Phil officially left Big Idea, stating on Twitter that he was not coming back to work on any more new episodes after VeggieTales in the City ended production.
Written
- Where's God When I'm S-Scared?
- God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!
- Are You My Neighbor?
- Rack, Shack and Benny
- Dave and the Giant Pickle
- The Toy That Saved Christmas
- Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space!
- Josh and the Big Wall!
- Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed
- King George and the Ducky
- Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen
- Lyle the Kindly Viking
- Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
- The Star of Christmas
- A Snoodle's Tale
- Lord of the Beans
- The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything
- Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue
- Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving (co-written with Robert G. Lee and Mike Nawrocki)
Directed
- Where's God When I'm S-Scared?
- God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!
- Are You My Neighbor?
- Rack, Shack and Benny
- Dave and the Giant Pickle
- The Toy That Saved Christmas
- Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space!
- Josh and the Big Wall!
- Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed
- Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
Voices
- Bob
- Archibald Asparagus
- Pa Grape
- Mr. Lunt
- Jimmy Gourd
- Mr. Nezzer
- Philippe Pea
- Scallion #1
- Tom Grape
- Grandpa George
- Frankencelery
- Apollo Gourd
- Goliath
Fun Facts
- Phil is a fan of the B-52's and Monty Python, which he often used jokes or references to them in his work.
- While in the making of Where's God When I'm S-Scared?, he and his wife were in financial struggle.
- According to the DVD commentary of Dave and the Giant Pickle, he stated that the desert environment, along with the space environment used in episode 3, were the easiest environments to create at the time.
- He started Big Idea with nothing more than his Bible college friend Mike Nawrocki, two interns Chris Olsen and Robert Ellis, and one computer in his spare bedroom.
- In episode 36 of his podcast, he was often known as "Flip" by his family. According to his mom, this was because when you say "Phillip" fast, it would sound like that. Phil had trouble dealing on his name for a while.
- He started making short films with his family's Super 8 camera when he was eight years old.
- He once met John Lasseter during a Siggraph convention sometime in the 1980s according to his autobiography.
- He along with Mike Nawrocki flunked out of St. Paul's Bible college.
- He did all the designs of the sets and characters for every show up until The Toy That Saved Christmas.
- His favorite movies are The Hudsucker Proxy and Brazil.
Works at Big Idea
- Where's God When I'm S-Scared?
- God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!
- Are You My Neighbor?
- Rack, Shack and Benny
- Dave and the Giant Pickle
- The Toy That Saved Christmas
- Very Silly Songs!
- Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space!
- Josh and the Big Wall!
- Madame Blueberry
- The End of Silliness?
- Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed
- King George and the Ducky
- Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen
- 3-2-1 Penguins!
- Lyle the Kindly Viking
- The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown
- Heroes of the Bible!
- Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
- Jonah Sing-Along Songs and More!
- The Star of Christmas
- LarryBoy: The Cartoon Adventures
- The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment!
- The Ballad of Little Joe
- An Easter Carol
- A Snoodle's Tale
- Sumo of the Opera
- Duke and the Great Pie War
- Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush
- Lord of the Beans
- Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler
- LarryBoy and the Bad Apple
- Gideon: Tuba Warrior
- Moe and the Big Exit
- God Made You Special
- The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything
- Lessons from the Sock Drawer
- Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue
- Abe and the Amazing Promise
- Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah's Umbrella
- Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving
- Silly Little Thing Called Love
- Pistachio - The Little Boy That Woodn't
- Sweetpea Beauty: A Girl After God's Own Heart
- It's a Meaningful Life
- Happy Together!
- Twas The Night Before Easter
- VeggieTales Live! Sing Yourself Silly
- Princess and the Popstar
- Larry Learns to Listen
- Bob Lends a Helping Hand
- The Little Drummer Boy
- If I Sang A Silly Song
- Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men
- The Penniless Princess
- Little Ones Can Do Big Things Too!
- The League of Incredible Vegetables
- Lettuce Love One Another!
- The Little House That Stood
- MacLarry and the Stinky Cheese Battle
- Merry Larry and the True Light of Christmas
- Veggies in Space: The Fennel Frontier
- Celery Night Fever
- Beauty and the Beet
- Noah's Ark
- VeggieTales in the House
- VeggieTales in the City