Today in class we talked about how the Brothers Grimm fairy
tales were steeped in Christianity and how they had a fear of God that
translated into their tales. We also
said that cartoons and animations now a days have strayed from that path and
have become even pagan. Although this
statement might be true for a majority of films, I believe that many animations
and cartoons are still steeped in our Christian past. So in this blog I just want to go over a few
films that I thought were greatly influence by Christianity or the Bible. The animations that I will be looking at are
solely Pixar but I’m sure this applies to other companies as well.
The first animation that came to my mind was Wall-e. For me, Wall-e is pretty much Pixar’s
rendition of the flood in the Bible. The
planet has become corrupt and uninhabitable (due to the large quantity of
garbage). So the people must leave the earth and wait for it to be cleansed of
its corruption. Then, to check to see if
the planet is again inhabitable they send a “dove” back into the world to check
for any sign of life. This dove is Eva
whose attributes and appearance is strikingly close to that of a dove. She retrieves a plant and heads back to the
ship to tell the great news of the earth’s cleansing. They return to earth and inhabit it once
again. They start completely new and
begin all over again to start the new earth. Now, of course tons of other
things happen in the movie but im just narrowing it down to a where the allusions
of the bible are clearly seen.
Finding Nemo is
another one. How Nemo’s sin of disobeying
his father’s instruction and touching the “butt”(boat) leads him to exile and
is forced away from his father. But
regardless, his Father has such strong love for him that he risks his life so
that he and his son can be back together again. This may be a little more of a
stretch but I feel like this alludes to God’s love for us and how even though
we are sinners he still wants us to be with him. There is also another part in
the movie which I find rather interesting, when Marlin (nemo’s dad) is trapped
inside a whale. What he learns inside the
whale is faith to let go and in doing so no longer relying on his effort. And
when he does his he is freed by the whale.
These where just two films that I looked at which showed biblical
allusions and themes. There are still
great animations and things out there that are still steeped and influenced by
Christianity. If anyone has any more movies
that they thought had allusions or themes I would love to know.
The director of both of these movies is Andrew Stanton, an outspoken Christian. One of my favorite quotes of his about WALL-E is this: "What really interested me was the idea of the most human thing in the universe being a machine because it has more interest in finding out what the point of living is than actual people. The greatest commandment Christ gives us is to love, but that's not always our priority. So I came up with this premise that could demonstrate what I was trying to say—that irrational love defeats the world's programming. You've got these two robots that are trying to go above their basest directives, literally their programming, to experience love."
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of animations with Christian allusions or symbols, but not a Christian message. To that I can point to the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. The animated movie Metropolis has a lot of biblical allusions, and both series of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime is SEEPED in Christian themes (they fight the seven deadly sins!). Now, I don't think these works are Christian, per se, but they definitely have pieces in it. I'm almost positive for all three counts the creators weren't Christians themselves (I know that for a fact for Evangelion).