Have you ever thought that our favorite characters from the Bible are like superheroes from comic books? That is exactly the impression you get when you look at some of the characters from the Animated Kid's Bible, a beautiful collection of computer generated images that illustrate our favorite Bible stories. The personification of these characters is well done with an eye to what kids enjoy now and what they are likely to enjoy watching in the future. The artists responsible for the creation of the characters in The Animated Kids Bible have taken the characters out of the realm of Michelangelo's style of drawing into the 21st century with characters that look like they could draw a cult following among lovers of Manga or anime. This is a particular style of three dimensional computer generated imagery which we have seen it in movies such as Shrek, Ice Age and a Bug's Life.
The first set of episodes released by The Animated Kids Bible are devoted to the majestic and transcendent stories from the book of Genesis, which is broken down into six exciting episodes - "Creation", "The Voyage of the Ark", "Towering Pride and True Lies", "Rain of Fire", "Brothers at War" and "Joseph the Dream Reader". The characters are contemporary with the look of martial artists, a look which is a popular for male characters in graphic novels and animation in general today. The men are well muscled and tend to have bald heads or neat coiffed hair as opposed to the long wild locks we have been used to seeing on Biblical characters in the past. The females in the Animated Kids Bible are reminiscent of Disney female characters and Eve for example, is beautiful and shapely and could easily pass for a character from any of today's animation blockbusters.
One of the most amusing villains is in "Creation, the story of Adam and Eve. The serpent, is reminiscent of other great malevolent characters we have seen in major blockbuster films that contain 3D computer generated imagery, i.e. The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Ring of Fire. The snake in this case is a malevolent yet charming personification of the idea of temptation.
This is not to say that the animators of this very special digitally based Bible have not stuck to the original concepts for these characters, as they were originally described in the Bible. For instance the character of Noah still boasts his characteristic long white beard and so does the older character of Moses. Mainly all of the narratives in the Kids Animated Bible are written as adventures in which the familiar personalities from the book of Genesis are optimistic heroes. There are no real tragedies in this particular telling of the Bible but rather the emphasis is on fortitude, courage and faith, which are also characteristics of classic comic superheroes.
Tom Broadbridge is President of The Kids Bible Company a diversified Media company whose main focus is The Animated Kids Bible Collectable Series.http://www.thekidsbible.com
