Sunday School Musical hopes to catch the High School Musical crowd
posted by
Joanne Brokaw
|
7:14am Thursday August 14, 2008
Just when I thought I’d seen it all, the parallel Christian universe surprises me yet again.Move over “High School Musical” – the church has created its own clean teen stage sensation, “Sunday School Musical.” Seriously.Here’s the project synopsis, from the Arts Alliance American site:
“This original production currently being filmed in Los Angeles joins the library of successful family oriented musicals such as ‘Grease,’ and the ‘High School Musical’ films. The inspirational storyline centers around a group of teens who when faced with the news of their local church being torn down enter into a song and dance competition with the hopes of raising the money to save the building. The direct to DVD production is complete with 21 songs, featuring 7 originals, which are composed by Don Raymond.”
OK, before you all get riled up about how we need more clean entertainment, let me say I agree with you. In theory.What I find astonishing is that Christians, who have a relationship with the Creator of the Universe, can’t even come up with a creative new name for the project? They just change a few words and viola, Christian alternative.Pu-leeeze.I saw a ton of this copycat merchandising at the Christian festival I just attended, in God’s Garage Sale (a.k.a. the merch tents). Take any brand name product tag line, change a few words and you have a “new” Christian slogan. The Coke slogan becomes “Jesus, He’s the real thing.” Subway becomes “HisWay” complete with arrows on the letters. Intel Inside? “Jesus Inside.”Really? Is that the best we can do? The thing is, this might be a cute little movie, based on the trailer. But I just can’t endorse more copycat Christian art. Come on, people! We should be leading the world in creative art, not sanitizing current trends.(Thanks again go out to Dave Weiss, for spotting yet another great story.)RELATED POST Check out Guest blogger Pastor Dave Weiss answers the question “What is Christian Music”
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What’s funny is in telling my son about this, he reminded me that when he was acting in a local production of Disney’s High School Musical, making fun of his preacher dad (me) he said next “you’ll want to do a show called Sunday School Musical.” What’s scary is, the trailer, while a little bit “After School Special” (Yes I’m that old) looks like the film could have some entertainment value but with the title it will just look like another cheesy Christian knockoff. Joanne, you’re right, we can do better and we should. That’s what A.M.O.K. is all about. I’d love to challenge your readers, especially those that are artists to stretch themselves beyond Christian alternatives, to lay beautiful new creations before the Lord to be used to his glory.
i love u guys from hsm i,ve got hsm1 hsm2 the extended addition and hsm the concert i cant waight till hsm3 comes out it,s gonna be a big hit in da movies
One of the greatest embarrassments of modern Christianity is that it seems incapable of anything original. At it most promoted it rips off other super successful secular projects and then tries to make it look like their own. Many of these promoters are quite shameless in the ways they stop just short of plagiarizing other peoples’ work (and often they don’t bother to stop short). This is just one more example. If this is the best Christianity has to offer young people, there is no hope of attracting them in any meaningful and lasting way.
I’m with you to a point jestrfyl. I guess about the only thing I would say to challenge you is it’s fine to complain about the state of things, as you can see above, I did that too, but the better question is, if we can see this, and it troubles us then God is giving us a passion for something different, and if God is giving us a passion and a burden then what are we going to do about it? What are WE going to do to change the state of things? What are we going to create to make a difference? When we feel this passionately about things, it really comes back on us. The church has become ineffective in a lot of ways, I believe, because the church has been long on complaining and short of making a difference, long on showing what we’re against and short of showing who we’re for. This is the real issue. This is not meant as a put down for you jestrfyl but as a challenge to you, me and everyone reading this post to do the things we were created to do.
God bless,
Dave
Dave,
This has been a challenge for my entire ministry (I am a UCC clergy person). For that reason I have written curriculum for mixed generations, tried writing hymns (mixed success), and finding new and different was to reach people (a real mixture of things). My solace from all this adaptation of secular to sacred is knowing that many of our revered Christmas Carols and songs were once popular drinking songs. But I do like to think that once in a while the Church in all its expressions can do things that no one else has tried. Weber & Rice did it long ago, films like “Prince of Egypt” pulled it off, and there have even been a few TV shows that have done some cool things (I am a fan of “Saving Grace”).
So blessings on all who try and refine their original ideas. May God make us all bold enough to think and act in unexpected and surprising ways.
If you compare the other stuff this company puts out (e.g. Nat’l Lampoon sex-oriented comedies and assorted prurient fare – in addition to squeaky-clean stuff like ‘Charles in Charge’), it looks more like simple, non-Christian-related business. Just a way for people who aren’t primarily concerned about others’ souls to make money off of unsuspecting (and perhaps undiscerning) people who feel they must have a “Christian” element to every medium they consume. Honestly, isn’t HSM harmless? Why do we need an alternative? I don’t think it really matters if SSM has any QUALITY as its own movie; it will just be perceived – as it is even now – as ‘just another one of those poor imitations Christians make,’ regardless of quality, those involved or their motivations. I don’t think we’ll bother to stock it at our Christian book store. Even if there turns out to be a demand, we refuse to carry a lot of cheap imitations of “the world’s” stuff (e.g. t-shirts with “christianized” slogans).
Great article and great comments.
Of course, the answer is to create great art from within the Church (and I use that term to mean the Body of Christ rather than the concept of the local church serving as a patron of individual artists, although that’s not a bad idea either). While there is more than enough copy-cat art being foisted on the world in the name of Christ, there is also a tremendous amount of viable, cutting edge, downright awesome art being created by believers which earns them a place at the table of ideas in the marketplace.
I could point to singer/songwriters like Derek Webb, Jason Gray, Andrew Peterson, and Sara Groves. I could point to visual artists like painter Vicki McCall or sculptress Tracy Sugg. I could point to theatre companies like Cornerstone Theater in Ft. Worth, TX or Lamplighter’s Theatre in Smyrna, TN. I could point to authors like Charles Martin, Tosca Lee, and Melanie Wells. The list could go on, but you get the idea.
For what ever its worth, the world has a tremendous amount of its own copycats. Our pool is just a little smaller, so it seems much more pronounced.
Just my thoughts.
I watched this movie with my 10 year old daughter. She loves high school musical, but this was awesome. Its good to see a movie made into a ‘christian ‘movie so we can watch it in peace, knowing there are good values for our kids to watch. We enjoyed it and recomend it to every family that is worried bout all the garbage that is out there. We hope to see more movies made into a true valued movie!!
Two homeschooled families who love HSM sat down tonight to watch this very fun-looking HSM take-off flick. We didn’t mind it was a copy of HSM but were looking forward to it!
As we watched the movie, I heard our 13 year olds remark of the bad attitudes all these kids had during most of the movie. The movie begins with bad attitudes and hearts as 2 choirs compete and the better choir brags and puts down the other team. Then when the main character learned he has to move, his ‘best friend’ and him get in a fight and again need attitudes adjustments. The two main characters also get mad at their parents for something that is out of their control – which is moving in with an Aunt because of a lay-off and the previous death of the mother. My kids noticed that the parents apologize but the teens don’t. These are only a few examples
And the music isn’t as catchy as HSM. It’s more old style beat boxing rap with both traditional and gospel choirs type music
But I still gave it 2 stars because there were a few shining moments. The main character speaks about trusting God, though all along it didn’t seem that way. He grows in grace. Then he brings the two rival groups together and shows compassion. The ending song makes up for some of the songs that needed their lyrics given attitudes adjustments.
But for the most-part we were very disappointed with the movie and it is mediocre at best. There’s little talk of God, but a lot of “God stuff” You know, the fluff of Christianity but no backbone – until the main character hears a sermon and from that point on, I liked the rest of the movie. But I’m not planning on seeing it anytime soon. I mean, how good is it when even my kids were picking up bad attitude, the lack of Godliness in it and at the end said, “The teens in the original HSM series treated each other better than those in this move!” For the most part, I have to agree.
OKAY, this is not a good movie, they can’t act, the songs are OKAY but the title makes it worse. but what do ya expect, and also, this ”Faith Films” is an ”The Asylum” production company, (www.theasylum.cc)
The asylums movies are mockbusters, they make bad rip offs, to make money of people who maybe make the wrong choice in cheap movie stores.
Check out almighty thor (ripoff the marvel movie ”thor”.)
it is all bad. man i wish they would stop do these kind of things.
This movie was ONLY made because they wanted to make money!
These movie makers are not even christian, they just want
to make off some money, cuz they know there will be many parents
brain washing kids into getting to church!
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posted August 14, 2008 at 8:55 am
What’s funny is in telling my son about this, he reminded me that when he was acting in a local production of Disney’s High School Musical, making fun of his preacher dad (me) he said next “you’ll want to do a show called Sunday School Musical.” What’s scary is, the trailer, while a little bit “After School Special” (Yes I’m that old) looks like the film could have some entertainment value but with the title it will just look like another cheesy Christian knockoff. Joanne, you’re right, we can do better and we should. That’s what A.M.O.K. is all about. I’d love to challenge your readers, especially those that are artists to stretch themselves beyond Christian alternatives, to lay beautiful new creations before the Lord to be used to his glory.
posted August 14, 2008 at 9:40 pm
i love u guys from hsm i,ve got hsm1 hsm2 the extended addition and hsm the concert i cant waight till hsm3 comes out it,s gonna be a big hit in da movies
posted August 15, 2008 at 12:44 am
One of the greatest embarrassments of modern Christianity is that it seems incapable of anything original. At it most promoted it rips off other super successful secular projects and then tries to make it look like their own. Many of these promoters are quite shameless in the ways they stop just short of plagiarizing other peoples’ work (and often they don’t bother to stop short). This is just one more example. If this is the best Christianity has to offer young people, there is no hope of attracting them in any meaningful and lasting way.
posted August 15, 2008 at 8:30 am
I’m with you to a point jestrfyl. I guess about the only thing I would say to challenge you is it’s fine to complain about the state of things, as you can see above, I did that too, but the better question is, if we can see this, and it troubles us then God is giving us a passion for something different, and if God is giving us a passion and a burden then what are we going to do about it? What are WE going to do to change the state of things? What are we going to create to make a difference? When we feel this passionately about things, it really comes back on us. The church has become ineffective in a lot of ways, I believe, because the church has been long on complaining and short of making a difference, long on showing what we’re against and short of showing who we’re for. This is the real issue. This is not meant as a put down for you jestrfyl but as a challenge to you, me and everyone reading this post to do the things we were created to do.
God bless,
Dave
posted August 15, 2008 at 8:57 am
Dave,
This has been a challenge for my entire ministry (I am a UCC clergy person). For that reason I have written curriculum for mixed generations, tried writing hymns (mixed success), and finding new and different was to reach people (a real mixture of things). My solace from all this adaptation of secular to sacred is knowing that many of our revered Christmas Carols and songs were once popular drinking songs. But I do like to think that once in a while the Church in all its expressions can do things that no one else has tried. Weber & Rice did it long ago, films like “Prince of Egypt” pulled it off, and there have even been a few TV shows that have done some cool things (I am a fan of “Saving Grace”).
So blessings on all who try and refine their original ideas. May God make us all bold enough to think and act in unexpected and surprising ways.
posted August 15, 2008 at 12:31 pm
If you compare the other stuff this company puts out (e.g. Nat’l Lampoon sex-oriented comedies and assorted prurient fare – in addition to squeaky-clean stuff like ‘Charles in Charge’), it looks more like simple, non-Christian-related business. Just a way for people who aren’t primarily concerned about others’ souls to make money off of unsuspecting (and perhaps undiscerning) people who feel they must have a “Christian” element to every medium they consume. Honestly, isn’t HSM harmless? Why do we need an alternative? I don’t think it really matters if SSM has any QUALITY as its own movie; it will just be perceived – as it is even now – as ‘just another one of those poor imitations Christians make,’ regardless of quality, those involved or their motivations. I don’t think we’ll bother to stock it at our Christian book store. Even if there turns out to be a demand, we refuse to carry a lot of cheap imitations of “the world’s” stuff (e.g. t-shirts with “christianized” slogans).
posted August 15, 2008 at 1:22 pm
That’s kinda how I saw it, too, Mike!
Thanks for giving feedback from the retail perspective, too!
Joanne
host of the Gospel Soundcheck
posted August 17, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Great article and great comments.
Of course, the answer is to create great art from within the Church (and I use that term to mean the Body of Christ rather than the concept of the local church serving as a patron of individual artists, although that’s not a bad idea either). While there is more than enough copy-cat art being foisted on the world in the name of Christ, there is also a tremendous amount of viable, cutting edge, downright awesome art being created by believers which earns them a place at the table of ideas in the marketplace.
I could point to singer/songwriters like Derek Webb, Jason Gray, Andrew Peterson, and Sara Groves. I could point to visual artists like painter Vicki McCall or sculptress Tracy Sugg. I could point to theatre companies like Cornerstone Theater in Ft. Worth, TX or Lamplighter’s Theatre in Smyrna, TN. I could point to authors like Charles Martin, Tosca Lee, and Melanie Wells. The list could go on, but you get the idea.
For what ever its worth, the world has a tremendous amount of its own copycats. Our pool is just a little smaller, so it seems much more pronounced.
Just my thoughts.
posted December 28, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I watched this movie with my 10 year old daughter. She loves high school musical, but this was awesome. Its good to see a movie made into a ‘christian ‘movie so we can watch it in peace, knowing there are good values for our kids to watch. We enjoyed it and recomend it to every family that is worried bout all the garbage that is out there. We hope to see more movies made into a true valued movie!!
posted March 15, 2009 at 12:36 am
Two homeschooled families who love HSM sat down tonight to watch this very fun-looking HSM take-off flick. We didn’t mind it was a copy of HSM but were looking forward to it!
As we watched the movie, I heard our 13 year olds remark of the bad attitudes all these kids had during most of the movie. The movie begins with bad attitudes and hearts as 2 choirs compete and the better choir brags and puts down the other team. Then when the main character learned he has to move, his ‘best friend’ and him get in a fight and again need attitudes adjustments. The two main characters also get mad at their parents for something that is out of their control – which is moving in with an Aunt because of a lay-off and the previous death of the mother. My kids noticed that the parents apologize but the teens don’t. These are only a few examples
And the music isn’t as catchy as HSM. It’s more old style beat boxing rap with both traditional and gospel choirs type music
But I still gave it 2 stars because there were a few shining moments. The main character speaks about trusting God, though all along it didn’t seem that way. He grows in grace. Then he brings the two rival groups together and shows compassion. The ending song makes up for some of the songs that needed their lyrics given attitudes adjustments.
But for the most-part we were very disappointed with the movie and it is mediocre at best. There’s little talk of God, but a lot of “God stuff” You know, the fluff of Christianity but no backbone – until the main character hears a sermon and from that point on, I liked the rest of the movie. But I’m not planning on seeing it anytime soon. I mean, how good is it when even my kids were picking up bad attitude, the lack of Godliness in it and at the end said, “The teens in the original HSM series treated each other better than those in this move!” For the most part, I have to agree.
posted February 14, 2010 at 12:11 pm
woooooooow lyk the moves ,yal n th e DISS nice one there dray….. i love the movie kinda lykd the songs too
posted June 22, 2011 at 1:00 pm
OKAY, this is not a good movie, they can’t act, the songs are OKAY but the title makes it worse. but what do ya expect, and also, this ”Faith Films” is an ”The Asylum” production company, (www.theasylum.cc)
The asylums movies are mockbusters, they make bad rip offs, to make money of people who maybe make the wrong choice in cheap movie stores.
Check out almighty thor (ripoff the marvel movie ”thor”.)
it is all bad. man i wish they would stop do these kind of things.
This movie was ONLY made because they wanted to make money!
These movie makers are not even christian, they just want
to make off some money, cuz they know there will be many parents
brain washing kids into getting to church!
Not cool. I agree with you!