I have to say, I've been an admirer of Veggie Tales for a while--it's well-done and not stealth (usually), and independently produced, and it certainly raised the bar for religiously themed programming. [Remember all that hokey Hey Davey claymation from the 60's?] Anyway, I was looking for some Veggie Tales links (stay tuned, I'll try to get them up before the Second Coming), religious and otherwise, when I came across Hoop Dogz, an animated series based on the Ten Commandments, for kids ages 3-9.
Now, one of my all-time favorite films [sic] is the Decalogue, a ten-hour series made for Polish TV by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski, so I'm a sucker for Ten Commandments movies. But while they've been well(if thinly)-reviewed, so far, the Hoop Dogz series only covers two commandments.
The titles alone are worth a look: Hoop Dogz: God Good, Idols Bad! and Hoop Dogz: Stealing's Uncool!. It's as if Moses was trying to relate to his teenage son.
Interview with HoopDogz creator David Campbell, who also made Stanley for The Disney Channel. [christianity.com]
The horror! The horror!
I personally find Veggie Tales are ghastly, right up there with Left Behind. And I kinda liked the old Davey and Goliath bits.
How am I going to hide this from my Larry and Bob addicted child? We can barely eat salad these days without enduring a lecture.
I loved Stanley!
it's really hard to find kids stuff that takes the Biblical material seriously enough yet can still be fun and all that. hopefully this new series can achieve that balance too?