Genres

Visitors Review

2012-05-25 22:42:09

"Unless you become as little children..." Matt 18:3

I have been a Christian for nearly 20 years and have studied the scriptures thoroughly. It was with great delight that I watched this claymation. I affirm what the other reviewers have written and would add that it is rare to find such an endearing and therefore, what I consider, accurate portrayal of our Lord. I just happened upon watching it and was so drawn in I did not consider it a children's movie until reading the listing in the newspaper to find the title. It would do the Christian world well to adapt this child-like perspective of Jesus and I therefore recommend it to all audiences.

2012-05-25 09:28:50

Imagainative and fresh, yet faithful and reverent

This review is from: The Miracle Maker - The Story of Jesus [VHS] (VHS Tape) I can't believe the Amazon reviewer found this joyless -- I found it wonderful, with both joy and pain at the appropriate parts. I love it when Jesus tells the fishermen to push their boat out and Peter rolls his eyes -- a marvelous little touch, and a symbol of just how good this clay animation is. The movie shifts to traditional "cel" animation whenever we are hearing something second-hand -- for example, Jesus' parables -- or to dramatize fears or temptations. Fiennes' authoritative reading as Jesus' may be too sharp for those who like a milquetoast Jesus, but it's very much in keeping with the Biblical account. The use of Jairus' daughter as the viewpoint character, and the convenient use of Jairus as one of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, are the closest the movie gets to creative license -- and even here, there's nothing that out-and-out conflicts with the Biblical account. The use of Jairus' daughter is a wonderful way to bring children into the story.

2012-05-17 22:47:04

A few more details...

Kudos to the film for providing an accurate portrayal of Mary Magdelene -- she was NOT a prostitute or an adulteress, but rather the victim of demonic possession (Luke 8:2).Double kudos for resisting the temptation to record the moment of resurrection, something that the Gospels tell us nothing about -- no witnesses, no record. My big gripe with a local passion play, and my only real gripe with Mel Gibson's film, is their attempts to include this moment. It doesn't add anything, it actually detracts from the dramatic power of the account.Which leads to a TRIPLE kudos, for their rendering of the wonderful encounter in John 20:14-16. If that moment doesn't bring tears to your eyes, better check your pulse, because you must of a lump of rock in your chest rather than a beating heart.Finally, a slightly ironic kudos for them being smart enough to leave out the line from Matthew 26:73 ("You must be from Galilee, you have the accent!") -- since the actor who voiced Peter had a very obvious Scottish burr. (-: I was able to get over it through most of the film, but including that line, especially at that moment, would have made it impossible to take seriously.

2012-05-17 06:46:39

Terrific Film

Great family film. Quite true to the bible. Easy for the little ones to understand and enjoy.

2012-05-08 02:33:03

Captivating retelling of story of Jesus

Most Christian films do not inspire me. But I do love the Visual Bible Gospel of John and The Miracle Maker. The device of telling Jesus' story through the eyes of Tamara, the daughter of Jairus whom Jesus raised to life [and who just happens to have been a witness to many of the key events in the life of Jesus] is a clever one, which should appeal to young people and also older folk.The film gave me great joy as I saw Jesus through the eyes of this little girl.Anne Dudley [composer of music for The Full Monty and many other great films, which I haven't seen ...] does a terrific job with the music, and I enjoyed the way the Russian dolls were used for the characters in this story.I also like the scene where Jesus the carpenter tells Mary, Martha and Lazarus he is leaving the carpentry shop to build something new for God.The featurette included on the DVD about the making of the film is fascinating, too.Highly recommended.

2012-05-07 13:21:53

Appeals to kids and adults

I saw this on ABC on Easter Sunday. I liked it so much I immediately looked on Amazon.com to see if/when it would be available for sale. You can bet I will buy this when it comes out. I thought it followed the Bible more closely than Prince of Egypt did. The claymation and depiction of Jesus loving the children appealed to my 4-yr old, and the way it stayed pretty close to the Biblical stories of Jesus appealed to me.

2012-05-05 15:20:32

Jesus The Miracle Maker

I was immensely pleased to see such a high quality program about the life of Christ finally geared towards children. My kids watched it with fascination. Even though they are often told about Jesus and his sacrifice, they seemed to understand it more after being able to "see" it. I recommend this movie to anyone who want their children to understand the Miracle.

2012-05-05 06:50:49

The best non-denominal Christian movie

Although it took me some time to get used to the clay-mation of the video, I found enthralled by this movie which masterfully captured Jesus in a human point. I read a review where someone thought it had a 'dark' tone, which took me by some surprise at first; compared to other movies I have seen of Jesus, I found this the most 'light'. In fact, this is the first movie I have seen where Jesus *smiled* and even laughed. I loved it! I have to admit my favorite part was when either a Sadducce (sp) or Pharisee (sp) called out to Jesus, to trick him, "Teacher!" And they had Jesus turn his head and sigh heavily, obviously thinking, "*Not* again, will they ever stop?" I couldn't stop laughing.

2012-05-02 11:24:38

Imagainative and fresh, yet faithful and reverent

I can't believe the Amazon reviewer found this joyless -- I found it wonderful, with both joy and pain at the appropriate parts. I love it when Jesus tells the fishermen to push their boat out and Peter rolls his eyes -- a marvelous little touch, and a symbol of just how good this clay animation is. The movie shifts to traditional "cel" animation whenever we are hearing something second-hand -- for example, Jesus' parables -- or to dramatize fears or temptations. Fiennes' authoritative reading as Jesus' may be too sharp for those who like a milquetoast Jesus, but it's very much in keeping with the Biblical account. The use of Jairus' daughter as the viewpoint character, and the convenient use of Jairus as one of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, are the closest the movie gets to creative license -- and even here, there's nothing that out-and-out conflicts with the Biblical account. The use of Jairus' daughter is a wonderful way to bring children into the story.

estrellaSMC 2012-05-02 00:02:42

Best Jesus film ever!

I first saw this film on TV one Easter Sunday. I fell in love with itright away. I loved how the clay figurines looked so lifelike. Thevoices were very realistic. Another Jesus movie I saw the charactersjust sat or stood around and said their lines. There was no emotion orfeeling. Also, this Jesus was more human. He laughed, he cried, he gotangry, he groaned once when the Pharisees and other temple leaders werepestering him with their questions. It was a lot of fun to watch him.The other characters were as good. You could feel Mary Magdalene'sgrief as she tried to speak while weeping in front of Jesus' emptytomb. You could hear the determination and loyalty in Simon Peter'svoice when he said he'd never let Jesus down. You could hear the awe inThomas's voice when he said, "my lord and my god." The list goes on andon. As it said on the website, "It's been told for over 2000 years butnever like this..."

gazzo-2 2012-04-29 20:22:05

What Rankin Bass would do now with better $$ and smarts.

You remember all those Rankin-Bass holiday Specials from the 60s and 70s,Rudolph and Frosty and Easter things? Well, this is a throwback to them-butwith a big budget, excellent voicers(Ray Fiennes, Richard E Grant, JulieChristie, Ian Holm, etc.), terrific animation, great heart.I liked most of all the straightforward, reverent way in which theyportrayed Christ, sure it's from the Gospels without much(if any)contemporary shading-but that is really what the material deserves, in mythinking. If you are going to do the Easter story, and his parables, showthe 12 apostles and etc-then this is the way to go about it. I enjoyed themix of stop motion and toon animation, esp in the parables. There was aninteresting mixture of styles too-some looked folky, some looked outtaMarvel Comix(whenever Judas saw Christ as some revolutionary figure, forexample), some more cutting edge. It didn't have the walking on water or Sermon on the Mount scenes, but didinclude Lazarus, a flashback to the nativity, healings and etc. I think theydid the gospels proud here,and have done a very good job of it. Thisdeserves to become a classic.***1/2 outta ****----very good.

2012-04-29 11:03:50

Awesome; very powerful; a must have

I have seen many different videos betraying the life of Jesus and this claymation by far surpasses them all. The Miracle Maker not only showed the deity of Jesus, but also revealed the humanity of Jesus through His dealings with the command people. I found myself identifying with many of the disciples' struggles as they dealt with Jesus. My heart was moved as I saw the attention to detail towards the Bible. I believe this video will become a very powerful tool used by young and old to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2012-04-25 10:57:40

Best movie for kids!

This review is from: The Miracle Maker - Special Edition (DVD) My two sons (both 5) loved this movie!! It is easy for kids to understand and they always ask me if they can watch "the Jesus movie!" Perfect to give as a gift and brand new!

caroline-31 2012-04-25 02:13:33

wonderful

This is a charming and moving animation which uses a combination of Russian puppet animation and 2-d animation togreat effect. The little girl that Jesus brought back to lifehas been used as the central character in this story followingthe last years of his life.We see him moving from giving up histrade as a carpenter through to the crucifiction and resurrection.Using animation means that the effects are more moving than justusing real life actors - and the use of such a high-spec voicecast works well - Richard E Grant is suitably manic as John TheBaptist for example.Loved it

2012-04-22 23:33:24

Fantastic!!

Finally a recent film of Jesus that is accurate,entertaining and well done. The animation is great and the Idea of showing the story through a little girls eyes was a great idea!!

greendoopey 2012-04-22 17:40:09

An excellent and faithful portrayal of the life of Jesus

I saw this on ABC on Easter Sunday. I was so pleased by this adaptation ofthe life of Jesus. The animation was non-traditional, which in a way wasnice because it made this adaptation unique and not just another animatedJesus story. The story was very faithful to scripture, but it neverdraggedand had a good narrative arc. The voice work was excellent. I instantlyrecognized Ralph Fiennes as the voice of Jesus, and he filled the role withintelligence and compassion. The performances brought a warmth andrealnessto what is often seen as a bunch of cold, old, and distant Bible stories.In sum, this is a quality production that is excellent for kids andfamiliesand serves as a wonderful introduction to the life of Jesus.

2012-04-20 00:43:20

Inspiring Interest in Future Believers

This DVD production of the story of Jesus has accomplished exactly what I had hoped for my 3yr old son: an interest in learning about the Lord, His involvement in the lives of those who trust Him, His love and miracles, and his Passion and Resurrection. My son often recites (in surprising detail) various scenes from the tale. One of my fellow brothers in Christ calls my son "The Little Preacher" because my son enjoys capturing the attention of those around him so he can retell various scenes from the story of Jesus. I understand some reviewing this telling of the story may prefer stricter adherence to various nuances and literary exactness from Scripture - I can appreciate that as I am a literal believer of Scripture. There is never a perfect retelling of any Biblical story that will appeal to everyone's preference. As already mentioned, this achieved what I had hoped for my son: help him develop an interest in learning about the Lord, begin building a faith in the Lord, and understand a need in his life for a relationship with the Miracle Maker. On a final note, this retelling of the story of Jesus is great for all ages; it enables the family to come together and enjoy a common story. The mixture of claymation and cartoon was very intriguing and added to the enjoyment of this retelling of Jesus' story.

2012-04-19 12:23:50

From a child's point of view

I am in a Bible class at school and the teacher showed this movie for us. He asked us to write a critique of it as how we thought it would come across to children. I personally enjoyed the movie and thought the Clay-mation and animation used together was creative, but I felt it might be a little confusing for children. Jesus was portrayed very well, but there were a few parts that I thought might be too intense for children. I liked that that movie was pretty much Biblically accurate, which is so different from most Jesus movies these days.Overall, I enjoyed the film, even though I had a few concerns concerning the children viewers. I recommend this movie to anyone and I hope they enjoy it as much as I did.

Bill Treadway 2012-04-19 15:23:18

FINALLY! A GREAT ANIMATED FILM ABOUT CHRIST!

I don't care what most critics say. "The Miracle Maker" is going on my TenBest List for 2000. I don't care if TV movies are not supposed to be on aTen Best List. In my defense, I will say that it was a theatrical feature inEngland and Europe, where they have the courage to release challenging andoriginal films like this one. Shame on Artisan for not giving this thetheatrical release it deserved. Unfortunately, in this age of films aimedmore and more at teenagers, films like "Pollock", "Dr. T and the Women" and"The Miracle Maker" get lost in the shuffle.While it is normally a caveat to condense a rich and lengthy story such asthe life of Jesus Christ in a short running time, we already have a filmthat really goes into great detail about Jesus: Franco Zefferelli's 1977masterpiece "Jesus of Nazareth". But this is a perfect film for enlightenedchildren and even the parents will love it.The switching from claymation (which is not really clay, but that isunimportant right now)to regular animation is stunning, not distracting asit would be in a lesser film. It is easily the best animated film I've seenall year. Kudos to Mel Gibson and his production company, Icon, for puttingthe time and effort to making a wonderful film like this. I only wishArtisan had gotten behind it better, along with another Icon production"Felicia's Journey". I recommend both to anyone who wants to see pure cinemaat its' finest.**** out of 4 stars

2012-04-18 23:33:36

Just plain miraculous!

Saw this on ABC-7 and was shocked ... it was incredible! The animation and production were top-notch and innovative, and the portrayal of Jesus was both true to the Gospel record and sure to be a surprise to everyone. It really brings across how luminous yet attractive a person he is - and, by implication, how attractive God really is - a character without equal before or since. You are drawn to him inexorably, as he teaches, heals, laughs ...The characters are all nicely fleshed out, and although there are some slight departures from the Gospel records, they are not worth squabbling about (although I would have liked to see more detail about the guards at the tomb, etc.). There are also some unexpected touches of humor.Ever wonder why most secular books on Jesus use those eerie, morose, almost alien, old paintings of him on their cover? Just as these serve to distance you from his humanity and warmth, this movie reminds us of just these qualities that drew scholars, religious leaders, and "sinners" alike to him. You will never think of Jesus in the same way again.Although the voice of Mary Magdalene and the video transfer could have been better, the film is still great.