"Holes" Creates A Place for Onions

(Los Angeles) - Like garlic, onions are an unsung hero, even in the realm of vegetables. Although garlic has a reputation of warding off things like vampires and prospective dates and while never having faced the dastardly association of a film like "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", the thought of onions still generates a wince among much of the population. But with the opening of "Holes" on April 18th the onion may redeem itself yet. Not even Veggie Tales has been able to do that!

The Walden Media produced "Holes," based on the Newbery award-winning novel by Louis Sachar, follows the story of a young man (Stanley Yelnats) who is falsely accused of stealing a pair of tennis shoes and then sentenced to a year in a juvenile detention camp. With a stellar cast, Walt Disney distribution, and at least one already built-in audience of people who know the story from reading the book, "Holes" promises to make an impact at the box-office as well.

As the layers of the story are peeled away, onions symbolize a positive, healing, and protective element throughout the film. Sam, a wholesome character of good will, loves onions and helps to aid people in the town with the onion remedies that he makes.

If that weren't enough, onions become a main ingredient for a recipe that Stanley's father, an inventor who's been working for years on a cure for foot odor, accidentally discovers. This discovery provides the Yelnats family with an endorsement from none other than legendary athlete "Sweet Feet" himself, portrayed by L.A. Laker Rick Fox.

Upon finally reaching the top of "God's Thumb", a mountainesque rock in the middle of the desert, the two youths stumble upon "Sam the Onion Man's" garden and are elated upon tasting the incredibly sweet onions that still thrive there. It's the onions that give Stanley and Zero the strength they need before making the journey back across the desert to Camp Green Lake in an effort to locate the treasure and uncover the truth of what's going on there.

At the climax of the story, onions literally save their lives when the two main characters find themselves stuck in the bottom of one of many holes dug at camp and surrounded by swarms of deadly Yellow Spotted Lizards that take up their inhabitance there. Details won't be announced here but if not for the onions (yes the onions!) the discoveries of the much sought after treasure and answers to an age-old Green Lake mystery would have never been known.

Thank God for onions!!!

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