Subsidiary | |
Founded | 1989 1993 (Big Idea Entertainment) |
(GRAFx Studios)
Founders | |
Headquarters | Franklin, Tennessee, United States |
Key people
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Products | VeggieTales, 3-2-1 Penguins! and other faith-based products |
Owner | Comcast |
Parent |
Big Idea Entertainment (simply known as Big Idea, formerly known as Big Idea Productions and Big Idea, Inc.) is an American Christian animation studio best known for its computer-animated VeggieTales series of Christian-themed family home videos.
It is a subsidiary of DreamWorks Classics, which in turn is owned by DreamWorks Animation, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast.
Big Idea was founded in 1989 under the name GRAFx Studios by Phil Vischer to create graphics in television commercials. That same year Vischer created a 12-second short film called Mr. Cuke's Screen Test. This short inspired him and Mike Nawrocki to create VeggieTales in 1993. The company's first video, Where's God When I'm S-Scared?, was released the same year. Rapidly running out of office space, Big Idea relocated to the Chicago suburbs in 1997 with the purchase of the DuPage Theater in Lombard, Illinois. However, renovation delays, unforeseen building conditions, and lengthy zoning battles resulted. In the interim, the company was guided by City of Lombard officials to rent space at the Yorktown Center, a local mall.
In 2003, after management and financial issues and a lawsuit by Lyrick Studios, Big Idea declared bankruptcy and was auctioned off to Classic Media. After purchase by Classic Media, the company relocated to Nashville in 2004.
In March 2009, Entertainment Rights sold its UK- and US-based subsidiaries, including Big Idea and Classic Media, to Boomerang Media. As of 2011 Big Idea, Inc. has been repackaged officially as Big Idea Entertainment, LLC. In July 2012, Big Idea's parent company, Classic Media, was acquired by DreamWorks Animation and renamed DreamWorks Classics.