Minnesota Legends! was a 1993-2000 American animated western science-fiction comedy drama buddy series created by VeggieTales music composer Kurt Heinecke and animated with Toon Boom Animation for the first three seasons before officially switching to MohoPro during Seasons 4-7. The series debuted with it's pilot episode titled "For Then He Flew The Nest!" on August 22nd 1993 before it came to a dramatic close with the show's final episode titled "Chicken Brainz!" being released in the middle of the show's seventh season on November 3rd 2000. The series was produced by Big Idea Entertainment, Universal and Comedy Central. The show is set to have a comeback in Spring of 2020 titled "Minnesota Legends!: The Series" and is supposedly about the crew reuniting years later to have more adventures like they did when they were kids and to relive the glory days. A theatrical follow-up movie for the revival titled "Minnesota Legends: Return of The Legends" was released in theaters on April 18th 2020 and had a set streaming release on November 22nd 2020. Another movie for the series entitled "The Minnesota Legends Movie 2: How The Legends Save The World! [again..} was released on July 6th 2021 and had a selected streaming release on October 31st 2021 even though it's not a Halloween themed movie. The second movie was Kurt's last production before Kurt had quit the studio.
The original show's voice cast had all reprised their roles except for Johnny Carson. They are joined by the creative team led by show-runner Kurt Heinecke.
The revival had two seasons alongside two theatrical movies which was meant to serve as the third season.
There was a series of shorts that premiered on YouTube's offical channel with the first short being "The Day Christmas Came". The shorts would eventually last until April 1st of 2021 and it's final short being " Hunting Season". It's unknown why the short's had ended but maybe it was because of Kurt quitting Big Idea Entertainment after NBCUniversal had fired him.
History:[]
The show was developed all the way back in August of 1992 by VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer in hopes of wanting to make something not VeggieTales related but because of how hard it was to make limbs for each of the characters he sold the show off to music composer Kurt Heinecke and thus Minnesota Legends! was born and ready to be developed.
On August 16th, 1992 Kurt had already begun production on the 2D and 3D models for his characters before making a offical test pilot uploaded by the VeggieTales official YouTube page which showcases how the 2D models would work in 3D elements before deciding it's best to make the show 2D to make it less expensive.
At SuperBowl 1992, Kurt was brainstorming names for each of the characters until he came up "Joey The Bird", "Lioness the Female Lion", "Eric the Stooge" and "Plex the Wombat!".
On December 13th, 1992 an offical test screen was done for the series being titled "Minnesota Legends: The Series PILOT! -work in progress- 12/13/92. The pilot would be officially redubbed into a episode of the revival called "What Happened on 12/13/92?".
On June 13th, 1993 a news article by the name of "Brand New Series by Big Idea Productions" showcases VeggieTales and Minnesota Legends!.
On June 27th, 1993 the characters standing alongside the show's logo would be revealed.
On August 12th, 1993 the show's official teaser trailer would be released.
On August 15th, 1993 the show's theme song would be revealed at a convention.
On August 22nd all the way until November 22nd 1993 the show's first season released.
On June 12th all the way until July 5th 1994 the show's second season released.
On December 8th 1995 all the way until January 19th 1996 the show's third season released.
On June 8th all the way until July 5th 1997 the show's fourth season released.
On April 9th all the way until May 18th 1998 the show's fifth season released.
On November 19th all the way until December 4th 1999 the show's sixth season released.
On August 6th 2000 all the way until November 3rd 2000 the show's seventh and final season released.
During a November 2012 conference about the show , It was revealed that a revival series was in talks but had no plans of releasing it that year.
On October 22nd 2014 a mobile game titled "Minnesota Legends: Fire at Will!" was released on IOS and Apple devices until it got discontinued on August 4th 2016 and rereleased for the reboot series on November 2nd 2020.
On December 21st 2017 the show had it's first Christmas-themed episode titled "The Day Christmas Came!" and it was uploaded on YouTube as well.
On December 25th 2017 every episode of the show had a syndicated release.
On April 16th 2020 the revival's first season made it's offical debut on Hulu and HBO Max.
On December 20th 2021 the revival's second and final season was released alongside the two movies.
As of 2021 there had been no word of the show ever since it's departure. Some news of it may return in the future but we should keep out eyes out until then.
Characters:[]
Season 1 Debuts:[]
- Joey Bird
- Lioness The Lion
- Eric the Stooge
- Plex the Wombat
- Wacky Watermelon
- School Supplies
- Fred Malkinson
- Power Bot 2000
- The Destroyer Bot 2000
- Wacky Bot
- Funky Bot
- Crazy Botz
- Mr.Botsman
- Larry the Teenaged Robot
- Freddy Mcboom
- Addy Mcboom
- The Mcboom family
- The Malkinson family
- Rapid
- Big Bad Granox
- Granox's Army
- Dogs
- Cats
- Chickens
- Cows
- Horses
- Random Farm Animals
- Aliens
- Hooded Boy
- Super Solider Marcus
- The Leaner
- The Priest
- King Mario
- Baby Hooded Boy (flashback only)
- Mother Carson
- Father Carson
- Carson
- Braxton
- Jacob
- Faith
- King Boobersgoobers
- Postman Hillenberg (TV and DVD versions only)
- Clones
- Robot Plex
- Scooby Ghosts
- Warlord Jackson
- Random Hobo
- Matilda
- The Jackson Brothers
- Random Plumbers
- Unnamed Lion Cub
- The Magical Fence-De-Lot
- Baby versions of the main characters (Flashback only)
- Weapon Seller
- Hudson Gourd
- Mr.Stealer Pig
- The Yellow Stooge
- The Mighty Knights of Imaginal
- Nora Price
- Vinny Price
- Martin Stewart
- Gerald
Season 2 Debuts:[]
- Lilith Fingerite
- Thomas Parsons
- Emperor Hudison
- The Wife of Gerald
- The Kids of Gerald
- Gerald's Half Brothers
- Papa Maxi
- More Mighty Knights
- Snow Goblin
- Frenchie the French Bull Dog
- Marcus the Brave
Season 3 debuts;:[]
- Castle Guards
- Eric Half-Cousin
Season 4 debuts:[]
- Doctor Kim
- Doctor Prim
- The Prism Knight
- Time Lord
- Captain Rhythm
Season 5 debuts:[]
- Stanley Vincent
Season 6 debuts:[]
- Mighty Bat Queen
- Madame Highcard
- Wolverine Wolfers
- Daniskha Waffers
- Waffle the Stooge
- Unnamed kids playing in a corn field
- Carter Blight
Season 7 debuts:[]
- Goddess of War
- Captain Riverdale
- Sonic Supersucker
Revival Season 1 debuts:[]
- King Sandstorm
- Business the Briefcase
- What a Guy "The third"
- Parsons Queeners
- Queen Donkey
- The Two Gay Sisters
Revival Season 2 debuts:[]
- Mark
- Uranus
- Super Systars
- Skylar Systar
- Queen Amandigo
Minnesota Legends: Fire at Will debuts:[]
- Captain Clarkson
- Multiple Military Personnel
- Doctor Destroyer (unlockable)
- Bounty Hunter Eric (Unlockable + event skin)
- Mewthreee (guaranteed gift)
- Keeper Horse! (guaranteed gift)
- Sam the Knight (unlockable)
Minnesota Legends!: Return of the Legends debuts:[]
- Avery
- Captain Fredrick
- Snow Monsters
- Gabriel Rookers
- Rockstar Gater
Minnesota Legends Movie 2 debuts:[]
- Lisa Smalltown
- Dave Smalltown
- Master Smalltown
- Multiple Smalltown Guards
- Space Guardians
- Rodrick Racoon
- Doctor Slimeberg
- Indi pendant Programming Interpreter
- Lord Matrix (first official appearance in Big idea history before The Super VeggieTales Movie!)
List of Episodes[]
Episode Format:[]
Each episode of the series (excluding 2) follow a pretty similar format to VeggieTales and 3-2-1 Penguins! starting out in a kid's bedroom with two grown men by the name of Kurt and Mike (likely Kurt being Big idea's music composer/series creator and Mike being Big Idea's co-creator) explaining to the kids the basic plot of the topic episode before explaining further that "The events that you are about to see in this show are entirely fiction. There is no way a balloon can possibly still be up in the air with pebbles in place of helium and there's no way a Cebu can tell time on it's own. Once again, this series is entirely fiction." before cutting to the Theme Song.
After the theme song ends it then cuts to the episodes title card before having the characters do something (or have another character do it) in unintelligible ways that they have to go on adventures to retrieve this hidden object, pebble, stone or Present and then celebrate as the episode would then come to a close.
However this has changed in the Season 4 episode "Time Idiots", as the format likely stayed the same during the first format but has since followed a pretty different path during the second format.