Light of the World

On Saturday night, I attended a local screening of this new, 2D-animated film, co-directed and animated by former Disney Animation mavens Tom Bancroft, John Schafer and Tom's twin brother, Tony. It's the result of something called The Salvation Poem Project, which is going to feed into my criticism of the movie – but that's a theological matter. As an animated film, I think it stands up well against the cell-animated output of Disney's golden era. It has charm, humor, dramatic shape, lively characters with touching relationships. It doesn't shrink from the harsh facts of Jesus' death for the sins of the world. It condenses the story and reorganizes the material around what Tony Bancroft, in a "live" Q&A session (via Zoom) following the movie, called a buddy movie focusing on Jesus and the youthful apostle John. It has some parables. It has some miracles. It depicts doubt and faith. It goes to some pretty emotionally gripping places. And it does it without glib song-and-dance numbers, one thing that sets it apart from a Disney animated feature.

I have a few issues with the movie. The first thing that all but knocked the breath out of me, like a punch in the gut, was putting the words (more or less) "Baptism is just a symbol" in the mouth of John the Baptizer. That does not represent what the John of New Testament record said or would say. Second, the movie gives a rushed account of Jesus' Last Supper – so rushed that, I noticed, nobody actually eats or drinks the bread and wine that Jesus holds up when he says "my body and my blood." And whether he means "This is" when he holds them up is rather left to the audience's pious, or impious, imagination. Third, when Zebedee comes to John at the end of the movie and asks him how he can start being a believer, John's answer is (to paraphrase) "You just have to say this prayer," and then leads Zeb through the Salvation Poem – basically, an abbreviated, rhyming form of the Sinner's Prayer. Fourth, young John (in the movie) defines faith as the result of your decision – a position, known as decision theology, that runs at a 180-degree angle to the John who wrote John 1:12-13, and John 15:16, and 1 John 3:1-2, etc. It would have been a more Johannine story if John's answer to Zebedee had been, say, "Be baptized and receive forgiveness of your sins." But enough.

Here's Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) We find Pontius Pilate reading the charges against Barabbas, the murderer. I happen to know enough Greek to recognize that the lettering on the scroll in Pilate's hand spelled out the first few lines of John's gospel: "In the beginning was the Word," etc. To a Bible scholar it's as much an "Easter egg" as when Andrew, observing a miraculous catch of fish, exclaims, "You're going to need a bigger boat!" (2) The earthquake that ripples through Jerusalem at the moment of Jesus' death. The whole crucifixion scene is powerful, if condensed. (3) When John (the Baptist) baptizes Jesus – a beautiful depiction of that scene. A bonus scene, perhaps more in hindsight than from the impression it made on me at the time, is when young John gives a coin to a sick little boy named Josiah. According to Tony, this character was named after Schafer's son, who was critically ill during the making of the movie; and apparently, Schafer experienced a series of devastating personal losses during the two years it took to make this movie.

I also learned, from Tony Bancroft's chat with the owner of our local theater, that this movie was made in half the time, with about one-tenth of the money and by a very small percentage of the people-power of a typical Disney animated feature. But it's still of very high quality and an entertaining and moving film. With the doctrinal reservations stated above – for the faithful to bear in mind and discuss after seeing it – I recommend it highly. Much can be gleaned from it without drinking the "Salvation Poem" kool-aid to its dregs. It may even be for the better that there are reservations to think and talk about. It's barely made it on Rotten Tomatoes – I heard that as of Saturday, it had just received enough reviews to register on that aggregator, with a score of 91 percent freshness – but give it time. It's at least faithful enough that it doesn't insult Christianity or turn God into a villain, like some movies that I won't mention by name ...