A new animated kids film is slated to tell the story of Jesus’ birth like never before.
“The Star” is a movie about a donkey named Bo who yearns for a life beyond the mill and who ends up escaping and following a star in the sky that leads him to become one of the “accidental heroes in the greatest story ever told.”
The film will tell the traditional nativity story — but through Bo and other animals’ perspectives. And embedded in the cinematic journey is a story about the donkey discovering his own destiny and purpose along the way.
“The thing we’re doing with this movie that lets us [have creative license is] that it’s the story of the nativity, but from the point of view of the animals,” Tim Reckart, director of “The Star,” recently told Faithwire. “That’s a story that nobody has told before. We’re calling it the greatest story never told.”
Executive producer DeVon Franklin added that “having the animals involved gives you some space to infuse creativity.”
See an impressive list of cast members who star in the film below:
In the end, Franklin said that the film offers many lessons for viewers’ own lives, specifically when it comes to Bo’s internal feeling that there’s something greater for him to pursue — and his quest to fulfill that undiscovered purpose.
“We all have a destiny, a calling or a purpose … [often] we don’t realize how it is all working towards it,” Franklin said. “That’s what’s kind of great about Bo’s journey.”
Franklin hopes audiences walk away from “The Star” feeling both “hopeful” and “purposeful.”
Reckart added that the team behind “The Star” is excited to unveil the project when it releases nationwide on Nov. 10, explaining that the bar has been raised in recent years when it comes to these types of films.
“We wanted to be as good as the field is,” he said before noting some of the challenges that came alone with the movie-making process. “The difficulty in dealing with a scriptural thing is finding a way to get a solid three-act structure, an emotional through line and comedy and adventure that may not necessarily be there in the biblical story, without tampering with the biblical story.”
“The Star” grew out of another project Franklin was working on a few years back called “The Lamb.” The idea was eventually shelved and the team moved on to explore the gospel narrative told through the animals’ eyes.
Franklin said that “The Star” captures the “genesis of the Christmas season … and so much of our faith,” including many of the elements of the biblical story that are well-known to Christian audiences: the census, Joseph’s initial reluctance, the wisemen and so many of the other elements that truly distinguish the story.
When it comes to making faith-based feature films in Hollywood, Franklin said authenticity is key.
“You’ve just got to be clear of intention about what you’re really aspiring to do and own that. I think that Hollywood is, to a degree, democratic,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s an industry that’s a business. If you own who you are and you’re clear about that…I’ve never had an experience in which you’ve had someone push against that.”
Find out more about “The Star” here.
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