Customer Reviews

Testament: The Bible in Animation - Joseph

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

 

 

This is a 30-minute animated film of the biblical story of Joseph. The clay animation is nicely done, and the writers did a good job with the condensation and adaptation of the biblical text--capturing the most important parts of the story and sticking relatively closely to the biblical account.

I couldn't help noticing, though, that Joseph and his youngest brother, Benjamin, look much more European and much less Semitic than the "bad" brothers who sold Joseph into slavery. Because of this, I hesitate to recommend this film for children. But I've used it in college and high school religion courses and simply drew students' attention to this issue.

I also recommend "Ruth," "Abraham," and "Jonah" from the same series.

If you are a Christian who likes the classic Christmas claymation TV specials like RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, or even better, LITTLE DRUMMER BOY, then you will be quite pleased with this DVD! It looks like the same style, done with a little more detail and skill, and it is very accurate to the Bible!

This is a great little DVD, made by the BBC in the 1990s. Actually, this company made three of these Bible stories, and they are all worth owning, especially at this low amazon.com price. The other two are RUTH and ABRAHAM. Search the amazon.com DVDs with the words TESTAMENT, BIBLE and then either RUTH, ABRAHAM, or JOSEPH.

This company also made about 7 cartoon, drawn animation Bible DVDs, which are also virtually all very good, but these claymation ones are truly priceless for any Christian Bible story lovers and/or their kids!

WOW! For those who appreciate a unique medium and a biblically accurate production, this is a DVD for you! We watched this with our 8 year old son and all of us were glued to it. We referenced our bible to check for accuracy and we couldn't find any discrepancies. For those who love the Word of God and really want their children to, please bless them with this and others from this series. Appropriate for all ages.

This is the biblical the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob from the Old Testament in the bible. He is the one who received the coat of many colors from his father, and his own brothers sold him to slavery out of jealousy. It is a great version of this story, very intelligent, not made just for kids. The 3D model stop animation is very high quality and stylized, and the story flows in such a way as to keep an adult very interested. There are some changes made to keep the story flowing, but nothing to offend. Just like a regular movie, they have to trim to keep the story moving. I try to enjoy these and other biblical films as inspiration, but read my bible for authenticity.

I was very impressed with the sets, costumes, and the character modeling. They proved that this is possible in an animation project. The range of emotion and personality they obtain was better than many projects I have seen on film with live actors! I was amazed and watched it 3 times the day it arrived.

The "Testament: Bible in Animation" series, produced over 10 years ago by Christmas films in Wales and Russia for the BBC, is not made for kids, but for all ages. I believe HBO family channel ran these for awhile a few years ago. There are other DVD's in the series that are stand alone title's, also about 30 minutes each. The series includes 8 titles, "Daniel", "David and Saul","Moses", "Jonah", "The Creation and Noah", "Elijah" (my favorite), "Ruth", "Joseph", and "Abraham". The last 3 are in model stop motion animation, (like the holiday TV specials). They are not puppets per say, but models shot one frame at a time, a process that can take a film crew months to shoot a few minutes.
If you want a good deal, there is another set from the same company that has 4 of the 30 minute stories from this Testament series in a 2 DVD box set. "Testament: The Bible in Animation Collection" is the title to search for, and Amazon.com is where I bought it. The price is almost the same as buying one individual story. That set has Jonah, Abraham, Elijah, and the Creation/Noah story. I recommend all in the story.