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Blind Side, The (2009)
Planet 51 (2009) Twilight Saga: New Moon, The (2009) Red Cliff (2009) Messenger, The (2009) Oh My God (2009) 2012 (2009) Pirate Radio (2009) Box, The (2009) Fourth Kind, The (2009) Men Who Stare at Goats, The (2009) Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by S... Christmas Carol, A (2009) Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) Amelia (2009) Antichrist (2009) Astro Boy (2009) Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant... Saw VI (2009) Motherhood (2009)    
Fantastic Mr. Fox, The (2009)
Ninja Assassin (2009) Old Dogs (2009) Princess and the Frog, The (2009)
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Prayer
In My Life
Disney
Animation, as we know it today, grew from the idea that motion
pictures could be used not just to entertain in the way a magician's
tricks do, but could tell a story, much like the theater had done
for centuries. Film animation was pioneered by people like newspaper
cartoonists J. Stuart Blackton and Winsor McCay (right: Gertie)
in the early 1900s. The first animated films were a breakthrough
in art and technology, with the idea behind photographing a series
of drawings or objects to give the illusion of movement. Many
of the first films centered around the "magic" of a moving drawing
and a string of character gags with very little story structure.
It was a brand new idea at the time that dazzled its first audiences,
but the novelty eventually wore off and audiences wanted something
more.
Walt Disney took the art of animation past the concepts of movement
and gags to a new level of draftsmanship and storytelling. He
kept saying over and over, "I think it is possible to understand
this medium of ours and improve it." This is yet another manifestation
of why so many inventions come from the Judeo-Christian world,
and precious little from other cultures. One of the most valuable
attributes of the Judeo-Christian ethic is the concept that nature
(and, by extension, life itself) was created, by God, for a purpose,
and that man fits into this Divine plan. That leads us in the
West to the tantalizing conclusion that nature is understandable,
that if we but work long and hard enough, we can see the mind
of God through the workings of nature, just as a creator's art
reveals the mind of that Creator. At its core, our belief system
announces that life has a pattern to it, because it was conceived
with a purpose behind it. Other theologies, notably the Greeks
for example, believe that Life was created by accident, or on
the whim of a mercurial troublemaker, and contains as much ulterior
purpose as the pattern one's corn flakes make after they've sneezed
into their morning breakfast. The core belief that nature is understandable,
has led us as a species to undertake to understand nature, to
analyze it and ultimately to control it, by recreating it to suit
our own purposes.
Disney
was part of this belief system based upon the idea of progress,
and the citadel of success he built through his career offers
comforting proof that this belief system pays dividends. Disney
had faith in his ability to grow, to continue his understanding
of things, as we all have faith in our ability to improve, because
we believe that there is something to improve toward. When America
is said to be built from "the pioneer spirit", here again we have
the idea of faith guiding us to a better place. If Americans didn't
believe that there could be a better place to get to, they never
would have crossed the ocean in the first place, let alone barren
deserts and ferocious wilderness. How many of Disney's contemporaries
believed that animation needed to be improved, or even could be
improved? To many of them the question wouldn't have made any
sense. Ask a Borneo headhunter about reaching towards a higher
goal, through an increased control over himself and his environment,
and see if they look at you with the same vacant stare that Paul
Terry or Leon Schlessinger (former directors of TerryToons and
Warner Brothers Studios) would have offered. "Why change?" Because
we can!! 
The
artists at the Disney studio, under Walt's encouragement and guidance,
reached for ever higher levels of realism and believability in
their work. They studied the anatomy of the human figure and the
complexities of nature. They analyzed how natural things move,
to a degree that catapulted their achievements beyond what most
other animation studios did at the time. Basic principles of weight,
timing, color, and believable form and structure in animation
which are now taken for granted were mostly developed by the Disney
studio. While the industry felt that animation belonged at the
bottom of the bill, in a short format designed to warm-up audiences
for the feature film attractions, Disney saw no reason why cartoons
could not be expanded to feature-length format and treated like
any other movie. The whole idea behind creating a full-length
animated feature was thought ridiculous and unprofitable, until
Walt proved them wrong with his widely successful first feature
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. 
Many
things about Walt Disney the man remain a mystery to us today.
One thing we can see, as indicated previously by Walt himself,
is that a deliberate attempt was made to tell stories with lessons
and virtues that correlate with the stories and teachings of his
religious upbringing. He made films, not only to entertain people
in times of war and distress, but to inspire Godly values in us
in order to make a better world. Bob Thomas' biography of Walt
tells us he considered himself a religious man whose belief in
God never wavered, even though he was not an avid church-goer.
It is suggested that, though he retained his relationship with
God, he was turned off by the stuffy legalism of the church as
an organization. (This attitude was reflected in his 1960 live
action film Pollyanna.) Though Walt did not personally animate,
draw or directly write any of his best known works, it was his
vision and knack for spotting good talent that drove his staff
of artists. Basically, he was a storyteller, and sought to improve
the world by telling good stories and preserving our history and
folklore. Like the parables of Jesus, another storyteller in His
own right, there are themes in many of Disney's features that
illustrate the truth of humanity and spirituality. Some of the
most spiritual of the Disney Company's films, both before and
after his death, also tend to have been the most successful.
Disney's feature films have taken us all over the globe, from
New York to China to France and elsewhere. They've taken us into
the past and into worlds that exist only in our dreams. By analyzing
the films over a period of nearly 70 years, it's fascinating to
see the history of the 20th century unfold. Artistic styles and
techniques used to capture images change and become more advanced.
Spiritual themes and philosophies move from pre-dominantly Western
to Eastern, female roles shift from passive princesses to independent
warriors, pop culture references shift from subtle to broad. Styles
and attitudes have changed, but most of the films and stories
themselves are practically timeless. As films, some are better
than others, but they are all a testament to the visual miracles
that can be produced when artists work together in the medium
of animation. The word animate literally translates as "to breathe
life into." Animators breathe life into their drawings because
God has breathed life into them, and all of us, whether we choose
to acknowledge that or not. Thus, God can speak to us through
story, through cinema, and ultimately through art and animation,
in ways we don't always recognize. Any art, seen in this context,
has a glorious opportunity to exist as an act of worship and "sub-creation"
in the image of God.
So why this connection and why bother writing of it? Are movies,
animated or otherwise, purely "escapist entertainment" with no
relation to "real life," or this there more underneath the surface?
What are we "escaping" from anyway? Could cartoons, widely looked
upon as "kids stuff", even allow adults to ponder the meaning
of life? Could the success of these films have something to do
with our hunger for meaning and hope? Could God be speaking to
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