No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:13 NRSVue
We have seen two of the animated short films nominated for this evening's Academy Awards, The Girl Who Cried Pearls and Forevergreen. Both of them are stop-motion stories and both of them are quite lovely. It is a remarkable art form in our world of CGI and AI and whatever new "I" I don't know about.
One reviewer offers a summary of the latter of these two:
“Forevergreen” is a storybook come to life, even though it’s a rather familiar story. It plays like a more energetic, and even more emotionally-manipulative version of Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree.” That it ends with a biblical quote — I’d say which one, but it’s a spoiler — only cements the film’s identity as a blunt morality tale.
I've already been the spoiler, naming the verse above which comes from the story of Jesus and his disciples as they share in the meal we have come to term The Last Supper. I'm not so sure that the message of self-giving love is all that blunt, at least in terms of the biblical reference. As a form of evangelism I feel that the Christian filmmakers who I think are Disney animators have been quite restrained.
I've discovered that people who may love certain allegorical stories such as the Chronicles of Narnia are totally unaware of what may seem to be overt religious imagery such as the sacrifice of Aslan, the lion. It's quite possible to enjoy them and even be moved by them without that awareness. In the case of Forevergreen the verse comes at the very end in unassuming print. There is no final Last Supper or Crucifixion image, which would have been over-the-top.
You can click here and decide for yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4EPW7JUMTM
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