Il était une fois Jésus

This movie is about Jesus Christ. And any movie that glorifies Christ is worth seeing; this one is actually quite good at it. The animation is unique and effective. The voice acting is convincing. The whole family can enjoy this one. The cel animation that appears throughout the movie is neat. At least rent it for a viewing, you'll be glad you did. The DVD has some neat special features.

As the title indicates, this movie centers on Christ's miracles, but has plenty of parables, counter-legalism interactions with the teachers of the Law, historical clues, relationships, calling of the 12, Gethsemane, the miracle of the Cross, and most importantly the resurrection. My favorite scene is the woman who touches His robe.

I woke up this morning to the alarm on my bedroom TV. I could hear familiar voices... Ralph Fiennes?... Richard E Grant?... William Hurt?... When I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, I realised that the program on BBC2 was an animated version on 'Jesus of Nazareth'.

Not being a particularly religious disposition, this was not the reason that prevented me from getting up out of my nice warm bed. Alas, it was the unbelievable animation that bedazzled me. I come from a design/multimedia background, and so I found this example of animation very interesting, and the more I watched it, the more I was amazed.

The flow of the animations; the realism of the characters' features; the expressions on their faces; the interlaced, drawn animation 'dream-sequences'; all these aspects aggregated to form a top class exhibition of animationary excellence.

And to top it all off, the dialogue and storyline were superbly written in a way that would appeal to young AND old. I a twenty-nine year old man, but I have to admit that watching this brought a tear to my eye, and a lump in my throat.

Whether this was an empathetic reaction to the plight of Jesus, or an inherent appreciation of the animation quality... one can only guess.

10 out of 10 (and I only caught the last half hour!!) I shall be ordering a copy of this on DVD as a Christmas present. Thats the easy part... the hard part is deciding which one of my four favourite neices to give it to!

...very enjoyable and moving stop-motion/animated movie condensing the life of Jesus into 2 hours. All the flashbacks and the temptation scenes are hand-drawn, all else is stop motion puppets. I felt there was a scene or two they could've added, but they were probably on a tight budget. Possibly the loaves & fishes, and the expelling the demon from the man into the pigs, and the dialogue between Jesus and the other two crucified thieves could've been added. I'm sure you'll see this on every Easter from now on. It's not preachy by any means, and very enjoyable. I also liked how Pilate was portrayed as an evil man, yet his decision with Jesus' fate was not based on his character. Temptation scenes with Satan were excellent also. Highly recommended.

When he decides to quit his job as a carpenter, everyone thinks Jesus has perhaps flipped but his mother knows that this "father's work" that he speaks of is in fact God's mission for him on Earth. Jesus sets off to tell the people how things should be, gathering a group of men (disciples) around him as he goes. His message is simple but it is not met well by the religious leaders of the day. Seeing the passion and zeal he brings to the people, these leaders plan to accuse him of blasphemy and see him removed from the spotlight in a bloody and permanent fashion.

Whenever I watch a film I try to view it as objectively as possible, ignoring my own preconceptions, media hype etc. With this film I will set aside my opinions on the subject matter but will admit that, if you are a Christian with kids then you'll probably love this movie because it does a great job of presenting Jesus in an accessible and convincing way without making it into a Pixar or Disney Happy Meal type product. The plot is well-known but the film still does a good job with it, careful with what it drops and what it includes, building the main blocks of the tale and allowing enough to be hammered home without doing so much that it would overwhelm with events. The animation is well done; the models are smooth and match the action well, while the variations into other styles is used to make a point or to expand the limited scope of the models and their backgrounds.

The voice cast is pretty close to being stellar and they certainly helped the film sell. Fiennes is OK as Jesus but I didn't think he delved deep for a character – perhaps an unfair complaint since this is aimed at kids and therefore not a performance that called for complexity or interpretation. Holm is good as Pilate; Hurt is strong in a foundation role, important in building the story on a personal level for kids. Grant is a strange John the Baptist – mainly because he sounds very like Richard E. Grant and it doesn't seem right! Stott is unmistakably but a very good Peter. Support from Massey, Molina, Peck, Thewlis, Christie and others all help the voice work add to the classy feel of this film – certainly they raise the film above the Sunday school cartoon level that lesser actors could have seen it stuck at.

Overall a good film on several levels. Christians with kids will love it because it gets the message across without being "educational" in a way that puts off kids and without being the other extreme of being a glossy cartoon. However the casual viewer may enjoy it as well, because the voice work is roundly strong, the animation professional and the story told in a manner that is well delivered and watchable. Considering the millions who went to see the lesser "Passion of the Christ", this film deserves to have many more viewers.

A Surprisingly useful video. As a teacher of Religious Education this movie was always going to be useful to me, but as a synopsis of the New Testament based largely upon the Gospel of Luke, this video offers an uncanny degree of insight. The creators have bothered to research particulars and peculiarities of life at the time of Jesus, and although there are particular details missing that disappoint me (e.g. the absence of the Dove at the Baptism narrative), individual cut-scenes from this movie make excellent alternatives to trying to get pupils to struggle through texts from the New Testament in class.

The frequent transitions between clay and cartoon animation as a theatrical technique needs explanation before use, especially if only watching brief clips, but these do not detract from the pupils own ability to empathise with characters and evaluate stories based on its presentation.

As an overall synopsis various pericopes are omitted, but this can easily be forgiven a movie of a commercial length, and suitable for pupils to watch in the course of an afternoon.

I personally, as a passionate Christian and student of New Testament Theology, find it a moving and engaging presentation, and it is among the DVD's that I'll stick on on a lazy Sunday afternoon: it's fine for the kids to watch (although obviously they don't get much of its meaning), and I'll enjoy it, too.