The publishers’ description is as follows:

Take a wonder-filled journey with Jesus and His disciples.

Animated straight from the pages of the popular Read and Share® Bible, The Jesus Series introduces children to the life of Christ. Unlike the 3-minute, bite-size story format of the Read and Share® DVD Bible Volumes 1-4, this DVD is an uninterrupted half-hour presentation of Jesus’ ministry along the shores of Lake Galilee and the villages near Nazareth. Children will see Jesus call His disciples, feed 5,000 people, heal the sick, teach about God’s kingdom and introduce the Lord’s Supper.

This DVD completes The Jesus Series by presenting the life of Christ in a way that little ones can understand and build a solid foundation on.

My opinion of this DVD is… well… mixed. And one of its best features is also one of its biggest downfalls.

The Good:

• The story aggregates a number of story segments from the Bible into one continuous storyline that children can easily follow.
• I enjoyed the simple, uncluttered animation, which still had fun details like moving water!

The Bad:

• There is content added that is not in the Bible. It’s well done, it’s consistent with the impression the Bible gives of those involved, and it is important to the story flow (especially for little ones)… but it is not the Bible. This is not horrible, just something to be aware of, and make sure you discuss with your children.
• Maybe it’s just trying to cover too much ground in too little time, but I can’t imagine most children would follow a lot of the jumps, and I found myself explaining “the big picture” of a lot of it to my children as we watched.
• Lack of drama, excitement, something… The music wasn’t lively, the characters weren’t lively. The whole thing was rather monotone – when Jesus’ life and ministry was anything but!
• There was a huge emphasis on Judas. With the brevity of the piece, and the number of more “adult” concepts left out entirely, it was very odd how much of Judas there was – especially as much of it was fabricated (see first point).

This DVD wasn’t BAD, but I would pick something else if I was choosing…

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