As a writer, stories matter. Recently, I was asked what some of my favorite movies and stories are. This is an incredibly difficult question to answer because there are so many. Here are a few movies and stories, in no particular order, that make the short list and why. Be sure to tell me what your favorites are and why.
Movies
Disclaimer: LOTR and The Hobbit are some of my favorites, but that should go without saying.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
This movie crams various fairy tales into a singular, worthy story with foundational truths and glaring moralities most people will miss if not careful. Puss, Kitty Soft Paws, Goldilocks, and Jack Horener are all in a race to get to the last wishing star. Each of them desires their innermost wish to be granted. Yet each of them finds out, except Thumb Boy, that they already had what they hoped the wishing star would give. Unfortunately, each of them was too blind to notice. Why? Life is tough, and sometimes this can direct our focus inward and on what we don’t have, rather than outward and on the many things we do have. God calls us to be content; this movie proclaims that in booming fashion. While that is likely not the intent, when viewed through a biblical lens, it is evident. Hebrews 13:5, Phillipians 4:11-12
The Wild Robot
This movie started, as most do, as a book. It is a phenomenal story! It details the journey of the task-completing robot Rozzum 7134. Roz hoped to be delivered to a human, yet ended up crashing on an animal-inhabited deserted island. Through accident and circumstance, it acquires a task: eat, swim, fly. It is a powerful story of motherhood and highlights the emotional distress, pain, and sometimes haphazard approach to one of the most important blessings in this world. Sometimes moms know what to do, sometimes they don’t.
Other times, they feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and like they are failing, but the Wild Robot shows us that with moral footing, love, perseverance, and support from others, even the most complicated tasks can be achieved. At one point, Roz famously exclaims, “I don’t know! I’m just making stuff up! I don’t know what I’m doing,” and this calls us back to Proverbs 3:5-6.
Sketch
This movie takes concepts of love, pain, and terrible loss and creates an imaginative and illustrious experience that has a wow factor. What I enjoyed most about this movie is that it does not shy away from pain and loss. While dad and brother are trying to forget and pretend like it never happened, the sister spills her pain out in various monstrous, artful renditions. After some time, these creative outlets come alive and terrorize. Essentially, life will bring pain and loss. It is not for us to pretend it doesn’t exist or to try to forget. Rather, we should face and embrace it before it festers, comes alive, and causes additional pain and loss. Even if that means we have to fight the darkest part of ourselves. God does not dismiss our pain; He experienced it. Isaiah 53:3-5
Disclaimer: Parents should be cautioned that there is a few potty words, I strongly believe the movie could have done without.
Books
Disclaimer: The Bible and The Pilgrim’s Progress are some of my favorites, but that, too, goes without saying.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Poor Henry Jekyll. Here is a story that battles between the two natures inside each of us. Dr. Jekyll was a man of wealth, importance, pristine societal influence, and intellect. Yet with all that, he still could not keep his darker nature from overwhelming the scene. In fact, the more Hyde made his appearance, the more Dr. J was overcome with trepidation, anxiety, and strangely enough, an unexplainable sickening delight. One nature was mild-mannered, proper, and widely accepted for the many feats of accomplishment. The other nature was dark, self-gratifying, deceitful, wild, unruly, sinful, and murderous. What is the moral? The nature that is fed is the nature that eventually shows up. Romans 7
Animal Farm & 1984
Both of these books are classics. If you have not read them, you should. George Orwell (Pen name) presents two very similar stories in each book. That of communism. Animal Farm shows us what it looks like when people are expected to follow blindly, trust without verification, and work without purpose or end. Distilled into a single sentence, Animal Farm warns of the evils of communism and prods the peasants to hold their leaders accountable, even at the cost of death.
1984 further elaborates on communism and details the journey of Winston, the MC. This story warns the proletariat that truth is vital to the survival of any people, and without proper accountability, everything can come to ruin. Both stories tried to convince us that life and truth come from those ruling over us, but God is the source of truth. This truth is everlasting, unchangeable, and rock solid. John 14:6
Disclaimer: Be cautioned that there is some adult themes in 1984 that highlights the depravity of man.
Brave New World
Now here is a story that ends in what to some may seem anti-climactic; yet, the story conveys a rather unsavory notion. Those who have religion (God), exercise restraint and fully embrace their broken and sinful natures–not as a means to practice debauchery, rather to abhor it–are the truly civilized. Those who would give up all that humans were created to be for a shallow, make-believe, relatively pain-free, self-gratifying, and promiscuous existence with deconstructed norms are the real savages.
This is a story where holy matrimony, fathers and mothers, and life-long committed monogamous relationships are non-existent. Babies are fabricated in the lab and conditioned in utero to fulfill a pre-ordained slice of society deemed fit by the world controllers. Some Alphas, some Betas, Gammas, and those poor, poor Epsilons… Huxley–albeit perhaps in the fictional sense- was a prophetic voice many should take the time to read. Romans 1
What is interesting is that John the savage, in the end, though he tried to fight it, gives in to the drug-induced sensuality sessions of those around him. The uncivilized ways of those ‘civilized people’ in this Brave New World, those whom he carried contempt for. The reader is left with John turning about on his feet, calling out to the various corners of the Earth. “North, Northeast, East, etcetera. Why? Well, I can only presume that in a world wrought to the core with lies, selfishness, and plagued with evil, one must speak what one knows to be truth, even if that truth is simplistic and the only thing that keeps one sane. Read my full review here: Brave New World Book Review
The Lord of the Flies
I was incredibly shocked when I was introduced to the Lord of the Flies in this story. Poor piggy, am I right? William Golding tells a fantastic story about the nature of man if left to himself with no moral grounding, leadership, or purpose. When a group of youngsters ends up shipwrecked on a deserted island, they immediately celebrate their newly unshackled freedoms. Yet, what is supposed to bring happiness and self-expression without restraint turns into a fight for survival, pain, and devastating loss. Without direction, unity, and meaning factions develop and fighting ensues. Some will seek the good of the whole. Some will seek the good of themselves and convince others that it is for their benefit.
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