The Ten Commandments. A bit dated but still a good one.
Jesus Christ Superstar.
Powerful films, also religious films.
But the point is not if it happened or not, the point is that both the OT and Veggitales say that it happened, and that it was a good thing.
And you don’t get to keep making these tangential posts then attempting to use junior modding to silence a response to you.
It’s a combination of two genres that are kinda cheesy in their own right, and both for similar reasons.
Both Christian media and educational children’s media is generally didactic. While being entertaining is a goal of such, it’s not the main goal.
I also note the audiences of both tend to be less cynical about those genres. Children watch cheesy stuff all the time. And the most popular adult Christian media seems to be pretty cheesy stuff that hamfistedly reaffirms certain values.
That said, I think VeggieTales is actually fairly good for the genre. Even when it aired, it was able to get appeal from teenagers. The songs are fun and humorous, and aren’t didactic at all. And it cracks somewhat irreverent jokes (for the genre), something that seemed verboten in Christian media.
That is, the older stuff did. I think the most recent thing I ever watched was the movie about The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.
Oh, and the graphics were innovative at the time. Normally Christian stuff gets the dregs on the technological front, but VeggieTales was actually one of the earliest fully CG TV shows, and looks much better than stuff that came out years later (in part because they knew their restraints).
Except the version told in the show didn’t actually result in anyone dying. It has the only people they ever showed in Jericho merely running away, clearly still alive, with not a hint of anyone dead.
And more relevant to the thread: it had Monty Python references, fourth wall breaking humor, and slapstick. I laughed just now watching it on double speed to make sure I wasn’t wrong about it not killing anyone.
But then explicitly told the children to read the actual story in the bible with the genocide.
Not children’s, but since the thread moved a bit into discussing grownup entertainment, Alice Cooper’s albums Brutal Planet, Dragontown, and The Last Temptation have a strong Christian message (Cooper is a Christian), without being cheesy in the slightest. I’m an agnostic and I love Uncle Alice. Brutal Planet is one of my favorite of his albums.
True, it is commonly mentioned as one of the better efforts at this when it comes to production, content and style.
I’m not that familiar with children’s Christian media, but as far as I know, everything in this post by BigT is spot on.
I’ll just add that, as far as I can tell, the primary target audience for “Christian media” (Christian radio, Christian bookstores, contemporary Christian music, etc.) seems to be, not Christians in general, but specifically Evangelicals.
What if it’s a city-state?
That’s where I learned that “Turn! Turn! Turn!” is based on the book of Ecclesiastes.
P.S. Why does Google think that Turn! Turn! Turn! = 241217.524881?
Joe Bob Briggs’ Christian show compilation:
Christian Cringe Compilation-Retro Edition 2019 - YouTube
WOW!
More Christian children’s programming, from local access television:
Unintentionally funny Christian children’s program - YouTube
Here is a whole episode:
The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show - YouTube
Good question! Anybody?
A few answers here. (Two years ago)
BigT nailed it. Almost all Christian entertainment media is meant to teach a lesson, usually pretty clearly. The movie Courageous ended with what was essentially an altar call, for instance.
IMO It’s because they focus entirely on the message/lesson they want to convey. Veggie Tales is an exception in that the creative staff behind it clearly understand that if kids are not ENTERTAINED, they won’t pay attention to any message or lesson. Much more common is Bibleman. Let’s ram a moral lesson down kids throats while claiming to be entertainment.
BTW I’ve encountered plenty of cheezy Jewish kids ‘entertainment’. I also have some comics I bought at a Hindu temple I visited in New Jersey. The art and writing is generally horrendous though it occasionally rises to mediocre. So, I say again, when you focus on the message/lesson at and not on being good or entertaining, you get crap.
And then there is M-A-R-T-Y-R–MOUSE.
Ah, so “Turn” is interpreted as 2 pi, and ! is interpreted as the generalized factorial function.
But that would just be “Turn!” Shouldn’t “Turn! Turn! Turn!” be this number cubed?
Veggie Tales wasn’t bad, with some humor for parents mixed into each episode.
I agree the need to keep everything squeaky clean & sanitized makes the stories worse. But also in Christian children’s content the stories are often so oversimplified the main point is lost. Veggie Tales is better than most about this.
For example, the story of Jonah is not primarily about about a man surviving being swallowed by a whale/fish. But because someone decided the whale/fish would most appeal to kids that became the focus.
It’s story about love and hate, the protagonist’s hate vs God’s love.
turn! = 1231.10292 rad
turn! turn! turn! = 241217.524881