Jesus' Crucifixion in Anime

This is a very literal rendering of the Crucifixion story into animated form.  You may or may not wish to read the comments on You Tube about this video.  Some of them are quite sarcastic.

Some videos will not play properly when you click on the triangle.  Instead,  click on the title line in the picture and the video will begin .  When the video is completed, close the You Tube pop-up window to return to this blog.

Oh, My Goodness! Bibleman!

I know this  was made by well-meaning people, but …….???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????

Bibleman is a series of video television episodes aimed at a 3-9 year old audience and featuring an evangelical superhero, Bibleman (portrayed by actor Willie Aames) and his sidekick, Biblegirl.  Wearing the Armor of God, Bibleman battles evil using the Word of God.  The villains he fights carry names like Dr. Fear, Shadow of Doubt, Ludicrous, Taco Smell, The Smiler, Timid Tessie, The Fibbler, The Cheater, The Legions of Laziness, GameMaster Bully, and Prince of Pride.

This video series is mocked by non-believers as ludicrous.  I must say that I am afraid they are correct.  The Bible quotation use seems contrived, the jokes fall flat and would be unintelligible to their stated target audience (3-9 year old children), and the ridiculously low production values make the secular The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers  seem like high art.

Superbook

"Superbook , also known as Animated Parent and Child Theatre (アニメ 親子劇場 Anime Oyako Gekijō?), is an anime television series produced by Tatsunoko Productions in Japan in conjunction with the Christian Broadcasting Network in the United States." (Opening sentence of the Wikipedia article about Superbook.)  It uses a children's science-fiction/time travel story to present stories from the Bible.  The first 26 episodes aired 1981-1982, and the second 26 in 1983.  A new computer generated image version of the series is being produced by the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Reruns of the original series currently are being aired in the United States, Chile, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines.  An episode of the original series, "The Patience of Job," is here.

Film Comment: Rabbit

This perverse (extremely perverse) little nine minute film is one I know you'll probably never see, so I'm doing no no harm in including spoilers in this comment. Rabbit (2005) is a limited animation film illustrated like a children's picture book with the names of each object printed directly under the object: ie. "rabbit," "flower," "house," "boy," and "girl," etc. You get the idea, it looks like an old fashioned British children's reading primer. The British director, Run Wrake, used educational stickers he found in a junk shop.

A sweet little boy and girl are playing in a garden when the girl decides to cut open a passing rabbit. The boy uses a cricket bat to whack the heads of several animals. Inside one animal, the children find a strange little animated idol (a demon?) which turns insects into jewels. The children come up with a plan; distract the idol with a tasty bowl of jam, kill animals to attract insects which the idol will turn into jewels, and the children get rich. They set their plan in motion and drive off to get more jam. The idol has other, deadly, ideas. The children end up eaten by insects.

This bizarre film was nominated for a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award and it deserved it. It speaks none too subtly about animal cruelty, consumerism, greed, corruption, and hypocrisy (false innocence). As seen by Christian eyes, it is an allegory about the dangers of consorting with evil and demonstrates graphically that death really is the result (wages} of sin.

For those who wish to see the film, it is available from Netflix in the compilation entitled Cinema 16: Disc 2 (European Short Films).