This morning Glen Keane, Disney animator for 35 years and producer of Tangled, shared his motivation and purposes behind creating characters like Ariel, the Beast (from Beauty and the Beast) and Rapunzel (from Tangled). Before the congregation at Real Life Church in Valencia, California, he shared that when he came to know Jesus early in his career, he thought of quitting Disney and becoming a pastor. It was on the advice of his church's pastor that he remained and we've been blessed because of it.
Glen revealed that as he draws, he considers scripture he has previously read. He imagines how the characters connect to God's word. With Ariel, from The Little Mermaid, Keane shared how she made him think about a longing for a different world. That longing relates to our desire to know God and one day see Him in His new world of heaven. She was willing to change because the new world and living in it matter enough. We change to please our Savior because His world is worth the effort..
In Beauty and the Beast, Keane divulged the way the Beast became new was a result of a choice. The Beast chose to become loving. This makes Keane think of how we have the choice to seek out Godly ways of living or not.
In the movie, Tangled, Glen Keane served as executive producer and animator. He shared a Bible verse that inspired the film's beginning. The start shows a miraculous flower as a gift from above, the flower imparts its healing abilities into Rapunzel when her pregnant mother drinks a tea made from it. As a result, Rapunzel receives a gift, healing hair. The verse to which he referred the congregation is found in James 1:17, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." This verse inspired Keane as he created the movie Tangled.
He shared that much like Rapunzel's ability to heal, we become conduits of God by touching the lives of others. As he created this film, he was continually thinking about God as the source of all blessings. Keane said, "He works through us."
If you haven't yet seen this film, parents should be aware, it isn't some Christian film where the story is spelled out in a clear fashion for all believers. It is a Disney film packed with the traditional Disney magic and silly characters. As parents, we can arrive with open eyes seeking to see God moments or not. This is a practice we can apply to any film we view. Perhaps, behind the scenes there was someone like Glen who thought out those ideas before you or maybe you'll use your own God-given gift of insight to see something few others saw.
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Comments
why does everything with a moral need to have "God moments"?
Can't we just teach morals through stories without being "inspired" by the Bible...?
This was very informative. I bought Glen Keane's books, Adam Racoon, in the late 1980's for my children!. Outstanding books with excellent themes(I even cried while reading a couple to my kids).This is a good article on just being careful for us parents who like to stay in line with the Bible!
Just me - You can certainly learn morals in many circumstances. There is nothiong wrong with that. The thought being presented here is that things without an obvious "God moment" might contain one if we look deeper. If we are Christian parents trying to help our children to grow and have faith themselves having open eyes to those times enables us to be better parents.
My friend is a buddhist and a student animator. She is deeply inspired by Glen Keane, yet feels no disconnect through knowing he's a christian.
She feels most at peace listening to ancient Buddhist chants, aboriginal music and stories told to her by her late grandmother growing up in the Tibetan countryside before the Chinese occupation.
She fuels this feeling of balance, sincerity and peace through her drawing. So rather than feeling different from the mentor who inspired her, she feels everything is connected and that we all see the universe unfolding in the same way through different eyes.
This movie felt a little too doctored for my taste. Because nothing will be too pure for a certain Christian audience, and things were a little to spelled out through dark and light/good and evil (as Disney always does, but hey, that's what's sells in a mainstream american audience). Though a Christian may believe there is good and evil in the world, I know that not everything is that simple and that there are patches of gray and complication everywhere in between. Other parts of the world have animated movies that capture those nuances in human nature and plot depth, almost all but Disney. That strangeness, that raw in between nature wasn't in this movie, and I was hoping Glen Keane would provide insight seeing as how "authentic" he is in his art would express this. But I guess not.
k
i agree with just me=-)
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