Customer Reviews

Pilgrim's Progress

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the most well done ... well done ... well done wonderful video.

I am so happy I bought it, and like the other reviewer I just want to share it with everyone. There is nothing I would change about it. My 3 year old, 4 year old, myself and my husband watched it. My husband and I cried and my children loved it and wanted to watch it over and over. Ofcourse NO COMPLAINT here. I think it is the best movie they could see and so incredibly well put together.

I will mention that there are some animated characters that a really young child might find scary, but perhaps not. That was the wonderful and different thing about the movie too. There were characters that were obviously meant to be bad-mean-spirited, and even still they weren't half as demonic as you see on TV and most Disney. My kids have been scared of many cartoon characters that in my opinion are more demonic and creepy than half the adult movies out there. In many movies, some cartoon characters are purely demonic and evil... but even in this movie, though the intent was that some characters symbolized the evil influences we experience in this life, they were tastefully done and not overwhelming. My children were not scared (at the moment they said "that guy was a scarey one" but they were not scared in the sense that it haunted them and they couldn't handle watching it.

Hope that helps and perhaps it's just a matter of child to child - but YOU MUST SEE AND EXPERIENCE THIS MOVIE. For many, it truly could be eternally life changing.

Blessings In Christ!

This Movie was great! I can't say enough about it..... I have seen it 20 times and I share it with all my loved ones (and some not so loved)every chance I get. I hope more people fined out about this great movie it speaks to your spirit and soul. A must see in my book and I hope God leads me in my pilgrimage to the end.

This animated movie was faithful to the book for what it featured, that much I'll give it. The story as always should be inspiring. Unfortunately this short film doesn't deliver, at 35 minutes it can't.

First off, it is old animation. It was originally made in 1950 and adapted to VHS in 1978. After that it is all downhill. The adaption to DVD is very poor quality, it looks like an old used VHS tape. The animation is obviously 1950s, which isn't bad if that's what you expected when you bought it. The animated characters are typical of the 1950s, think of the cartoons you saw then, and definitely not Disney. There was nothing that conveyed the feeling of the real trials and triumphs Christian endured. It seemed more like one long bus journey, tedious with some annoying features. Even the Appolyon was silly not frightening. The music was nothing special, but not terrible.

My grandchildren, ages 6, 8, and 11, lost interest after only a short time and they all loved the book. Adults may enjoy it once, but not again. I will be looking for another version that will truly inspire.

The story is great. The production is not. The artistics were very weak, and it really distracted from the story itself.

So, you know how the book is always better than the film? You know that look of disappointment which washes over a person's face when they ask if you've read something, and eagerly you say, "I've seen the movie"? Well, here's what you've been waiting for - a movie that's actually better than the book.

Now, I'm not basing this on the language gap. John Bunyan's work is, of course, a cultural leap from our own - no fault there. We make the same leap for Shakespeare, for Beowulf, and even for the King James version of the Bible. The problem is not linguistic. The problem is that John Bunyan is a true hellfire and brimstone man, and his work lacks any semblance of mercy. In his pages we are faced with the strict doom of judgement, the crack of the gavel, the waxing knell of wrongdoing which begins in our chests as a faint quiver of the gong, and rises to a deafening roar: "THOU HAST SINNED, FOR THOU ART SINNER."

Perhaps I'm biased against the Calvanist message of total depravity. Okay, I admit it; I am. I tend to believe in the inner worth of all things, and despite our shortcomings - yes, even despite our potential for atrocities - I believe that the only thing condemnation ever does is carve a one-way path to... well, not heaven. Only when we're aware of what's good can we hope to embody it ourselves. Only when we believe that we ourselves have every right to aspire to such a thing can it ever be done. Condemnation disempowers the very capacity for goodness which it warns us to possess.

On to the movie. Here we find the very same allegory - the thought-stirring images, the pathos and truth, the characters whom John Bunyan first envisioned - but we find them reborn. The movie buys back these elements from their tiresome original form, gives them strength and sets them free. It lifts the dense fog of shame, replacing it with legitimate warnings and the call to accountability. Through the remaining mists, we see the sun breaking in with a vision of beauty, sweeping one's heart into the longing for (and commitment to) that which watches and waits above. Am I exaggerating? Actually, I'm putting into words what this film meant to me as a child. I can't guarantee that you, dear reader, would feel the same. But I can guarantee that while I have no intention of reading John Bunyan's book again, my children will grow up watching the film.