5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Christmas & Christian Message Weak in this DVD, November 24, 2008
This review is from: The Legend of the Candy Cane (DVD)
I have heard of the "Legend of the Candy Cane" but have not read the book upon which this movie is based. For a "Christian" movie, I was quite disappointed with the weakness and almost "microscopic" portrayal of God in this DVD.
For kids with a steady "diet" of Hollywood and Disney based movie features, this DVD may be OK. It is certainly not an anti-family movie and in the end it does portray somewhat of a "typical" family with 2 parents and siblings.
My husband and I are very selective about the media (in all its forms - music, video, books etc.) and with such selective criteria, sometimes the selections seem rather sparse. In this DVD, there is a wolf which behaves as if it is a rabid wolf rather than your average hungry wolf; perhaps this is done for the effect of "drama" or suspense, but how necessary is it really to the story? Yes, there are frightening things in life, things which threaten to harm us; Scripture tells us that the enemy is out like a wolf that will scatter the flock, but wolves behave more stealthy than the glaring, yellow-eyed and foaming at the mouth wolf in this video.
The central focus of the "Christmas story" in this film is more about the "romantic Cupid-style" love depicted in our popular media rather than the love of God, who humbled himself by coming to the earth as a man, born to a virgin whose purpose was to redeem mankind from sin through His death on the cross and resurrection.
Also, there is a church in the film but it makes no discernible impact on the lives of the townspeople. The people of the town lack hope and the mysterious Candy man who comes to town does not offer Christian hope because he does not share the message of Christ with them in any meaningful way (i.e. the Christian message is muted in symbolism but not clearly stated). Sure, there are some good points made, but no real overarching moral lesson is evident in this DVD.
One of the characters finds her "heart broken" and longs for greater adventure and discovery than what is available to her where she is and she sings a longing song for travel to LA and NYC, hardly a depiction of Biblical hope.
There is a side-story in which the various animals are interacting; one scene in particular where the dog is mocking/ "making fun of" the mountain goat who is afraid of heights, the scene is drawn out, it seems, "just for laughs" but there is no explanation or correction to the mocking behavior of the dog, although the dog does receive consequences to his action. While the "pay back" to the dog is not portrayed as malicious, it is still a form of revenge, a "tit for tat," if you will, showing the dog "a little of his own medicine."
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Legend of the Candy Cane, December 6, 2008
This review is from: The Legend of the Candy Cane (DVD)
I would recommend renting this DVD before buying it. I was totally disappointed with it. This could have been a good christmas story to be watched for generations to come but the produces gave only a brief mention of the candy cane symbolism. It didn't follow the story book at all. Instead they chose to dwell on relationships and talking animals. This is not a video I would be proud to call Christian. Once again it makes Christians out to be unintelligent.
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