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The Miracle Maker (2000)

Date: 8 Mar 2011 20:45:39

The Miracle Maker is a stop motion-animated film about the life of Jesus Christ through the eyes of a young girl, Tamar, the daughter of the Biblical Jairus who is raised from death by Jesus. The daughter of Jairus is not named in the New Testament. It has many stories about Jesus and others that that were told in the bible mentioned throughout including Jesus being tempted by the devil and the Good Samaritan. Some clips of the film (when stories are being told especially) are animated cartoons instead of stop motion. IMDB

One of the best life of Christ films
Of the many life of Christ films, this should be rated as one of the best. Some viewers have called it a "claymation" film, it is not. This is a stop motion puppet film. Anyone who has the DVD version can view the "making of" film and see that the figures are flexible puppets made of foam and plastic and not the crude figures done for "claymation". There is a vast difference in stop motion puppets and claymation figures.

What sets this film apart is that through the puppet medium, the figures look like people from the time and place of the original happening, not Hollywood actors in costumes and make up. Since the viewer does not associate a certain actor with the part, it is much easier to accept the puppet as the "real" character. You don't see Jeffrey Hunter, the actor in "King of Kings", playing a part but see more acceptable versions of Christ and the apostles.

The combination of 3D and 2D animation works well in separating the parable stories from the "real" action. It is a jolt at first, but becomes very acceptable as the film goes on.

Don't let the "puppet" idea keep an adult viewer away from this wonderful film. It is a concept that makes the Bible stories wonderfully accessible to all age groups.
IMDB Reviewer

Absolutely Fantastic Example of Good Animation!!
I woke up this morning to the alarm on my bedroom TV. I could hear familiar voices… Ralph Fiennes?… Richard E Grant?… William Hurt?… When I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, I realised that the program on BBC2 was an animated version on 'Jesus of Nazareth'.

Not being a particularly religious disposition, this was not the reason that prevented me from getting up out of my nice warm bed. Alas, it was the unbelievable animation that bedazzled me. I come from a design/multimedia background, and so I found this example of animation very interesting, and the more I watched it, the more I was amazed.

The flow of the animations; the realism of the characters' features; the expressions on their faces; the interlaced, drawn animation 'dream-sequences'; all these aspects aggregated to form a top class exhibition of animationary excellence.

And to top it all off, the dialogue and storyline were superbly written in a way that would appeal to young AND old. I a twenty-nine year old man, but I have to admit that watching this brought a tear to my eye, and a lump in my throat.

Whether this was an empathetic reaction to the plight of Jesus, or an inherent appreciation of the animation quality… one can only guess.

10 out of 10 (and I only caught the last half hour!!) I shall be ordering a copy of this on DVD as a Christmas present. Thats the easy part… the hard part is deciding which one of my four favourite neices to give it to!
IMDB Reviewer