So, I have just been putting my iThing on shuffle, but Eowyn started asking if there could be a new CD with a hand full of songs. So, if filled it in and here is the fist full of songs we came up with it.
As I listen to the cd, I realize that lots of this is based on books we are reading.
So as you look at this list, you might figure out that some of this came thanks to the ad intensive web page http://www.video2mp3.net/ Then a bunch more were brought to the computer by an Ion TTUSB Turntable with USB Record (This thing works great. It just plugs in to your computer and the program records the audio and splits up the tracks)
And, as you may have guessed, lately we have been reading:
GSS had their Daffodilie Dash. That’s a bunch of kids running in a big circle in the field next to the park. I played weird up beat music at them to influence them to run away, or keep running in circles.
Giving the feel of spiritual fantasy in real life; Mac, with the help of a buddy, sets out to document the time his youngest daughter fell pray to a serial killer and he was then invited back to the crime scene to spend a long weekend hanging out with the physical manifestation of the Holy Trinity…. “High Concept” is alive and well!
How Was It?
This inspirational Journey seems to even off the book shelf owned byMITCH ALBOM’sThe Five People You Meet In Heaven. First time author William P. Young, isn’t going to wow you with his writing style but it’s not going to detract from the story either. (Take note Mrs. Stephanie Meyer)
The story is well detailed and the “just some guy trying to Jot down the details of an amazing experience” motif makes any lack of skill just a plot devise .
The beginning feels like you are being manipulated into liking or relating with this guy so that you will care about his interactions later. The fun thing is, it works.
When he does meet God, it smacks of “the magic minority” (where in a white centered story, the character in the ethnic minority emerges as the inspirational Yoda to cause the protagonist to have their self revelation.) God the son is literally Jesus, a nondescript Jewish man. the Holy Spirit is a mystical Japanese woman and because Mac has a problem relating to father figures, God the Father appears as a black woman named Papa. (Think “the Oracle” from the Matrix, though later in the book they seem to switch over and borrow from “Firefly“). This all “works” in the story but it’s because you are into the story and can gloss over he fact that God has been handed to you in the form of trite racial cliché. Dispute all this, most my criticism is in retrospect because this fun, interesting story informed by many devotional books and Christian rock and folk music, helps you put all that aside so you can just enjoy “hanging out” with the story.
Is It Good For Kids?
It’s reading level and straight forward attitude would make this a very assessable book for kids. (No problem if they are reading Twilight and Harry Potter.) I see two concerns for parents with the content.
First, the story has some harsh situations. Most notably is the abduction and murder of a little girl. Followed closely by the story of Mac’s childhood abuse at the hands of his Alcoholic and Christian father, whom Mac poisoned before he ran away from home as a child. It is all handled well without anything graphic and does not hold a candle to the violent and horrible acts presented in the Bible. Still it will be to much for some kids.
Then there is the fantasy vision of God but it is not couched in a fantasy world through the wardrobe. A fictional presentation of the real God could be confusing for some young people. (Of course it could also be confusing for some adults as well.)
What about spiritual issues?
The ultimate message of this book is that God is three in one, presented to the world in Jesus. God loves you, has forgiven your sins. Now that He has open the way, He wants to have a relationship with you.
I believe (from the Bible and my experience) that God is real and will have a real relationship with anyone who seeks or knocks. Therefore anything that points people to get to know God is a good thing because He will welcome them and He will reveal Himself to them in his love and his truth.
Beyond that, if taken as a fictional presentation of a real God, it is accurate to the Bible. I believe that there are some issues that are not dealt with in the book, or skirted around in a way that may make Christians uncomfortable, but it still does not constitute untruth.
Here are the four things that stood out to me:
Jesus talks about how he is concerned with individuals not institutions. While all the assertions about putting your faith in Jesus not the government are true, it glazes over the fact that God chose rulers and directs affairs of state. It also seems to be down on Church in the same vain. It is down on the dead institution but wants vital fellowship between those in fellowship with God – thus asking for the church the way it was meant to be.
There is a discussion of Hell and sending people there. The final word on this is that Hell is real and Jesus takes our place so we don’t have to go. The book also points out that not everyone chooses the relationship Jesus offer and thus fell the full effect of their sin. Beyond that it never tells us what becomes of those who die out side of a relationship with Jesus.Though it’s never even hinted at, I believe the description of Hell that would go best with this book is that God is not so cruel as to take some one, who has spent a lifetime avoiding a relationship with Him, now force them to spend eternity in relationship with the one they avoided in their life.
Finally, (and this is very picky) there is a forth supernatural character who I think theological could have just been the holy spirit (and the story didn’t need another weirdo character to ponder over)
So, in conclusion, Spiritually, it’s packaging may give people concern, but the content is very conservative biblical information.
What Is your Recommendation?
If you like Christian booksSUCH AS The Purpose Driven Life, or spiritual books like “ The Five People You Meet In Heaven” or “Velvet Elvis” I’m sure you will enjoy this book. Beyond that it’s worth the read to join into the conversation. As a best seller with a movie on the way, it’s a great book to have in your vocabulary when you talk to others about what it is like to have a relationship with Jesus.
Though the book defiantly suggests Larry Norman and Bruce Cockburn, by the end, it made me want to listen to Rich Mullins and Sufjan Stevens… I think I will.
The movie is based on a children’s book about a doubting boy who travels on a magical train and finds that, if he believes, that there really is a Santa. The story is stretched over an hour and utilizes a new computer animation technique. Actors have little sensors put all over there face and body. Then their performances are digitally entered into a computer and rendered as the computer characters. This allows Tom Hanks to play 5 characters including the child we follow throughout the film.
How Was It?
The animation was well done, but a little creepy. The people are almost real, but just plastic enough to be strange ( not to mention that they never blink). There are several scenes where things just degenerate into first person roller coaster effects. I found out that it was originally presented in IMAX 3D , which would make this repetitive effect a little less pointless.
The plot feels very contrived. There are several other kids added who each have “life lessons” of their own. Songs are trite and pointless. There is a moment with the train conductors looking for some part of the train (that causes another roller coaster screen) that is almost genuine cartoon fun. For the most part though, this is just numbing animation that tries to be deep, but mostly becomes confusing and contrived.
On top of it all, the charming “Classic Christmas” motif was nice until they shattered it with a weird cameo by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler as a rock singing elf.
Tom Hanks is a good actor, but the others….
Was It Good For Kids?
There is nothing particularly vulgar about the film.
You can check Screenit.com to see what exactly happens on the screen.
I have had kids tell me they liked it, but not have a lot to say about why. The issues here may be much more in the dizzying spiritual ideas that make as little sense as the rest of the poorly contrived plot. So without further ado ….
What About Spiritual Issues?
This film seems to have a lot about “belief” in it, not “believe in anything” but ” belief” for the sake of “belief” itself. The child does not believe in Santa, so he is whisked off to learn the power of “Belief.” At the end (spoiler) there is a bell that only those who “Believe” can hear. The boy learns to hear it and as he gets older, though most can no longer hear the bell , our hero can for his entire life.
The idea that belief is a power that needs to be applied for no reason, is not one that goes with the Bible. Our God is a specific being that gives proofs from the logic of the Bible to the wonder of creation. Our faith is not blind but educated. We can know God is there and our belief grows out of trust. Although some of the statements from the movie, if taken out of context, are true, it is still offer s you a “belief” in nothing.
The only time that the there is an object to of the belief is when a homeless man asks if the hero boy believes in ghosts. Though the boy says “NO”, he learns to believe in them as he is talk s to one who gives him aid throughout the rest of the film.
Still this is just Belief as the idea that you know something is real. Not belief in the sense that you have put your trust and hope in it.
What Is Your Recommendation?
This is just the slow moving, overly analysed and specialized humanism that Writer/Director Robert Zemeckis brought us in Forest Gump. There are a lot of good holiday films. This is not one of them. Though your children may be willing to be quiet for the time that the film is running, there are much better options for kids’ films. People will continue to say that they find “Christian Themes in this film, but that is because they are not paying attention. They heard a word they knew and instead of seeing how the film was defining it, they inflicted there own definition on the movie. I can not see how this can be healthy or worth while.
A computer animated cross between a Shrek-style twisting of faerie tales and a Pulp Fiction-style story line. Each character tells their story completely, then, we start over from another perspective. Each story is different, but intersects with the other characters and their stories. It’s fun to see things that didn’t make sense before explained later.
The story line is simple. The cops show up to find a tied up grandmother, (Glenn Close) a wolf (one of my favorite voice actors, Patrick Warburton) dressed in her clothes, a little girl in a red hood (Anne Hathaway of the Princess Diaries) and a woodsman (James Belushi) who has recently burst on the sceen with ax in hand. The police think that this mess of fairytale endings will be the key to discover who has been stealing the secret recipe books from all the good ie shops in the wood. Chief Grizzly ( rapper Xzibit , in a part that has nothing to do with hip-hop) just wants to book the wolf, but the frog (David Ogden Stiers) wants to get the real story.
How Was It?
I expected to find this movie lame. The ads did it no favors. I don’t know if this was helped by my lowered expectations, but I found it entertaining. The animation is nothing special (especially with Pixar running around) but the story is creative. I really enjoyed the interacting story lines. The pop culture references were good but not so overwhelming that it bogs down the plot . They more use popular movie/tv short hand in ways you would not expect to see it in a faerie tales. The plot is predictable, but fun.
Is It Good For Kids?
It is made for kids to enjoy with enough other things going on that adults will be ok ay (or have fun), too. There is never a moment where the joke is such that you will just hope your child will “miss it”. There is no cussing and all violence is very much good vs.bad or accidental and very cartoony. (Spoiler) We do find out that the grandmother has lied to her granddaughter about parts of her life. This is shown to hurt the relationship, but they do work it out. Beyond that, Red seems to be a “teen” character. She is updated to be hip Still yet , her shirt MAKES IT ALL THE WAY TO HER PANTS !!! Not only that, she’s going for the ultra hip – and ultra modest – bell
bottom jeans with a denim skirt.(Hopefully Red will be a good influence on Jasmine, Ariel, and those “Bratz” dolls.)
You can get a complete breakdown of what is on the screen at Screenit.com.
How about Spiritual Issues?
The wolf makes the statement “With God as my witness, you will learn to speak ” to the fast talking chipmunk. There is also a character who claims a witch has put a spell on him, but he then does something that proves there is no spell, but pretends not to notice so he can continue with his funny quirk .
The real lesson is “don’t judge a book by its cover” wh ich can have a spiritual application, especially if you bring up verses like John 7:24 .
What Is Your Recommendation?
If you have kids who would want a fun, bright film, or teens who are up late with alot of soda, this would be a good one to rent.
Hey , I was looking at the credits and noticed that the soundtrack was done by John Mark Painter. He’s from the band Christian band Fleming and John. This made me pay more attention. The Goat is voiced by Benjy Gaither (son of gospel singer Bill Gaither ) and the brothers who wrote and directed this film also hosted and edited (respectively ) CCM-TV, the short lived Christian music video show based on the magazine. It’s always great to see Christians put out something that does not make you want to gag.
I have since bought the Sound Track. It’s a lot of fun.
Did you know that Hercules Goes Bananas was the original title for Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s first film where they dubbed his voice to take care of his accent . I never thought I would see a movie with a HGB joke!
I have found that a lot of bands like doing Christmas music and just putting it out their on the web. I suspect the is a mixture of Generosity and marketing, still I have discovered great (often odd and eclectic) music for the holiday that is only a point and a click away.
This is a take off of every claymation Christmas special from the 60’s – 80’s with heavy emphasis on Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Will Ferrell plays Buddy The Elf. He is a very tall human who, much like Steve Martins “The Jerk”, did not notice that he was different from the hoard of Santa’s 3 foot elf’s who raised him. So taking all the attitude of said Christmas Specials and the three rules of an elf, Buddy travels to New York to meet his Dad (James Caan) even though Dad is a tough business man on the “Naughty List.”
How Was It?
It was funny. Will Ferrell manages to seem natural in this over the top character. My favorite part though is the introduction to elves and the north pole stammeringly narrated by Bob Newhart as Papa Elf. The other great thing is the sheer nuttiness of all the other characters. Well acted side characters all have there own quirks that help Buddy move seamlessly through New York. I think you will find this movie to be a series of very funny vinyets with just enough story and garland to string them together.
Is It Good For Kids?
Kids of the age for the original claymation will find a lot of fun and familier gags. Older kids will understand more of the juxtaposition of “Real Life” and “Elf Life”. There are a couple of jokes involving Buddy not understanding “adult” things, such as sending sexy women’s sleepwear to his father because the sign said it was perfect for “Someone Special” or following music to the woman’s locker room where a young lady is singing in the shower. It is very clear Buddy just wanted to sing along as in all his other whimsical misunderstandings. Buddy also uses God as a cuss word when he gets excited.
You can check Screenit.com for a break down of the elements on the screen.
What About Spiritual Issues?
First off this is all about Christmas and has not one reference to Christ. Luckily we do not get a “this is the meaning of Christmas” line to tell us it’s not Him, but just family or life or presents.
The odd thing here is the talk about Belief and Christmas Spirit. There is an easily made connection between Santa in this movie and God. (Spoiler) The end of the movie involves Santa (Edward Asner)crashed down in Central Park. In a Tinkerbell style conundrum, he can not fly because there is no more Christmas Spirit. Most likely the lack of Christmas spirit comes from a lack in belief in Santa, but it may just be a lack of belief in the concepts of love and magical generosity that Santa represents. He can not show himself because that would take away the correct type of Faith. A boy steals his gift list and reads it on TV. People are shocked at the accuracy where he even knows personal desires not just the one’s that kids wrote in their letters.
Spiritually we are left with some interesting questions.
Should Santa have attributes of God?
Faith is the evidence of things unseen, But is that faith based on wishful thinking?
Does prof destroy faith?
What Is Your Recommendation?
This is a funny light hearted movie. This does not destroy of de-mythologize fairytale but shows that they help us to live fuller more beautiful lives in the “real world”. In that light it is almost the kids version of “Lady in the Water”. Still the absence of God except as a cuss word and the notion of faith in Santa should give you something to think about when deciding if this film is right for you and your family and something to talk about if you do invite Buddy the Elf into your Christmas.
PS
If you do watch it. Keep your eyes open for a great re-do of the original big-foot “sighting” .
Ion TTUSB Turntable with USB Record (This thing works great. It just plugs in to your computer and the program records the audio and splits up the tracks)
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