Beginning with Toy Story in 1995, Pixar Animation Studios has taken American cinema by storm, setting a new standard of excellence in animated filmmaking and earning a fortune in the process. Their movies are not only highly entertaining but wise. Pixar has an all-too-rare gift for telling stories which speak about the reality of life and complexities of the human heart – and making us laugh while doing so.
Mockingbird’s brand-new publication, The Gospel According to Pixar, looks at how each Pixar film portrays the basic concerns of everyday life and seeks to connect them with a Christian understanding of the world. Using imaginative stories about fish, monsters, and cars, Pixar films touch on such deeply human themes as love, identity, suffering, forgiveness, fear, freedom, guilt, purpose and belonging – to name just a few. These common concerns allow for easy avenues of dialogue between the films and Christianity, which The Gospel According to Pixar explores in hopes of communicating the Gospel in a fresh and persuasive way.
Written for a broad, all-ages audience, it can be used as a teaching series, a study guide, or simply as a commentary. And like the films themselves, we hope The Gospel According to Pixar is as moving as it is fun. Edited by Todd Brewer and David Zahl, and also featuring entries from blog contributors Bonnie, Nick Lannon and L.R.E. Larkin, we could not be more proud of it. The table of contents looks like this:
- em>Wall-E:Post Apocalyptic Robot Love
- The Incredibles: (Secret) Identity and the Problem of Being a “Super”
- UP!: Guilt, Absolution and a Whole Lot of Balloons
- Monsters, Inc.: Fear and Love (and Fur) in Monstropolis
- Finding Nemo and Finding Freedom: Only the Losers Win
- Cars: The Loneliness of a Short-Track Racecar
- Ratatouille: Passion, Purpose and Pest-Control
- Toy Story 1, 2 and 3: Magic Markers and the Nobility of Belonging
To read some of the short previews we’ve posted over the past couple of years, click here.
To purchase your copy – available in both print and electronic form – go here. And please spread the word to, you know, infinity and beyond…
p.s. If you happened to have grabbed a copy of this series at our Spring Conference, be aware that this publication is three times as long (75 pages) and incorporates two more of the films (Ratatouille and Toy Story 3). Night and day.
COMMENTS
3 responses to “Announcing The Gospel According to Pixar!!”
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Nice work Todd, David, Bonnie, Nick & Lauren! I can't wait to get my hands on a copy!
Why is A Bug's Life always the forgotten Pixar film?
Brandon – guilty as charged! I think Bug's Life, while a good movie, is less relatable to everyday people. The ants vs. the grasshoppers is a worthwhile parable, but Flick's story fails to capture my imagination. Flick is sort of a unique or promising, but misunderstood and frustrated inventor. I find in myself that I can relate with misunderstood and frustrated, but promising or unique are far more distant qualities.
That said, I would still rank A Bug's Life above CARS- the one Pixar "failure".