Sunday School Musical
Posted on October 23, 2008 at 10:00 am
Speaking of Disney’s HSM juggernaut, Faith Fims’ new DVD release “Sunday School Musical” is out this week. I have not seen it yet, but the trailer is very appealing. I love church choirs!
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I just saw it. This movie was well produced – with the limited finances that most christian films usually have. I have many comments about this film, that I’ll just keep to myself, but the most disturbing thing is that it is not pointing anyone towards God. It points you to a bubble gum bubble. One of the prayers is “God make this bubble take away my trouble”. At first I thought it was just an error or something, but then they repeated this same comment about a bubble taking away trouble at a climatic moment in the show. Other thing is – what in the world is a ‘fortune cookie’ doing being taught at a christian school? Lastly – these children all seem to think that they are ‘grown’. There are many moments that they are talking to thier parents, teacher, preacher in a very disrespectful/selfish way …and although this is normal for many teenagers – it never gets addressed or resolved!! I just did not see how this film is leading anyone to christ! Or even showing these ‘good morals’. I have never seen teens having a little kissy kiss in the middle of a church sancturary.
Thanks so much for this very thoughtful comment, Brabham. I, too, am distressed when I see a dumbing-down of spirituality because of a misguided belief that it is the only way to reach young people. It does them a double disservice because it misleads them and underestimates them. I am sorry to hear that this film makes that mistake.
Very disappointing. The mediocrity of acting and all the rest of the technical aspects of the film would always be forgiveable especially when budget is a concern. I agree with Brabham, the whole plot of the film and the characters are not pointing to Christ at all. If anything, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference with how the world would act or maybe even worse. Like that scene where in the word is being preached and they were passing out notes. I would be ashamed to show this film with the unbelievers. I think they were trying too hard to copy the world when it should be the other way around. Don’t waste your money on this.
Thanks very much, Lynn. It is always a mistake to try to achieve success by copying someone else’s voice, I suppose, and it is difficult to achieve the right balance between being aspirational and finding some connection to kids. Just setting it in a church cannot guarantee that it is genuinely spiritual.
Yes. Fireproof would be a good example. Kirk Cameron was the only good actor in the film (perhaps because he was the only real actor). But everything else that the film lacked were overshadowed by the powerful message of the unadulterated (not watered down) gospel. These films should not be made for the believer’s entertainment but for edification and most especially should be made to draw unbelievers to Christ. Otherwise, it’s pointless. This is a cool site that you have by the way 🙂
The irony is that the movie isn’t meant to convey a Christian message but was meant to dupe unsuspecting Christians into buying it. It apparently has served its purpose pretty well. Most of the people who commented here don’t seem to realize they’ve bought a secular product.
It was produced by Faith Films, a thinly disguised offshoot of The Asylum. They are not a Christian company. Asylum primarily produces “mockbusters” (cheesy B-films that capitalize on the release of mainstream blockbuster’s) and horror films but they even have a couple erotic films in their catalog. Their films mostly go straight to DVD or are aired on cable networks such as SciFi. Like all B-films they are jam packed with bad dialog, sexual innuendo and rampant cleavage.
Not that I care (since i find religions that promote proselytizing to be just as offensive as smut) but most so-called Christians would absolutely die if they knew who they were purchasing this product from. The concept was hatched when members of the company attended a seminar about how to design products to capitalize on the Christian market (that’s right, you’re a market…just like everyone else). The seminar gave the example of a “Christian” High School Musical as the “ideal” product. It was filmed in 14 days by a director who filmed a number of other secular films for the company.