Rating: 
Summary: Treasure in jars of clay (so to speak)
Review: I, like many others, was skeptical about a new life of Christ movie, and a Claymation production to boot! Though I am not one to heap gratuitous praise on movies, I must say that it is one of the best movie portrayals of the life of Christ that I have seen. The animation is nothing short of brilliant. The switching between 2D drawings and 3D claymation is sometimes distracting, but not so much as to spoil the effect. The thing has a pocket-sized look. It is not epic in scale, but it is meticulous enough to more than make up for it. There is a sense of randomness that draws you into this little world and helps you to forget for a time that these are just clay figures.The script is down to earth, but retains an elegance in the thoughtful voice characterizations of Ralph Fiennes, Ian Holm, William Hurt and the rest. It's also tight as a drum. In a mere hour and a half you are treated to a breathtaking number of events in the life of Jesus. Sure, there are some things I would like to have seen that are not shown, but I respect the narrative integrity of the screenplay. It arouses nostalgia for the great movies of the '30s and '40s, when directors and writers knew how to pack a lot of story into a small space of time, unlike many reverentially slow and cumbersomely staged biblical adaptations. I also like the fact this movie is straight-down-the-line orthodox. It has a good sense of balance of the divine and the human in Jesus. I like the humorous visualizations of the parables of the wise and foolish builders and the log and speck in the eye. I'm sure Jesus must have meant those to have an element of humor. I would recommend this to anyone tired of those dull, pallid biblical adaptations which have become more the rule than the exception in religious movies. This gives a lifelike, sympathetic visualization of Jesus in his times. Of course, anyone who wants to know more about Jesus should read the Gospels; there's no substitute for that.
Rating:
Summary: The best non-denominal Christian movie
Review: Although it took me some time to get used to the clay-mation of the video, I found enthralled by this movie which masterfully captured Jesus in a human point. I read a review where someone thought it had a 'dark' tone, which took me by some surprise at first; compared to other movies I have seen of Jesus, I found this the most 'light'. In fact, this is the first movie I have seen where Jesus *smiled* and even laughed. I loved it! I have to admit my favorite part was when either a Sadducce (sp) or Pharisee (sp) called out to Jesus, to trick him, "Teacher!" And they had Jesus turn his head and sigh heavily, obviously thinking, "*Not* again, will they ever stop?" I couldn't stop laughing.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!!
Review: Finally a recent film of Jesus that is accurate,entertaining and well done. The animation is great and the Idea of showing the story through a little girls eyes was a great idea!!
Rating:
Summary: biblically accurate,entertaining,artistic.
Review: I truley enjoyed this movie and recommend it as first rate family viewing. Even allowing for "artistic license", this work is highly accurate in my opinion. I especially appreciated that the artists portrayed Jesus in a masculine rather than non-masculine way as is so often the case. My favorite scene recounts the story in which the Lord delivers Mary of Magdala from her many demons. The setting for the story is very Jewish and "first century". Thank you, Mr. Sokolov and Mr. Hayes for a real treasure! Have you thought of crafting a similarly accurate telling of the Genesis Flood?
Rating:
Summary: The best Jesus movie in the past decade
Review: Now that is a pretty strong statement for me to make. After all I am a huge Christian Bale fan and I loved his performance as Jesus in "Mary, mother of Jesus"...but how can I compare "Mary..." with the superb "The Miracle Maker" and I dont mean the story of Helen Keller. I remember hearing about the Miracle Maker and just rolling my eyes. "Great," I was thinking. "A boring claymation story of Jesus' life. Why cant they leave well enough alone?" When Easter came, I had completely forgotten about "The Miracle Maker" being on tv. My mom was flipping through the tv channels and she called me over to see this "crazy" thing on tv. Well it was the "Miracle maker", I was enticed from the first glance. I caught it at the time Jesus was getting baptized by John and wow, I was impressed. This isnt like all the other claymation stories. There is a high level of technology put in to make the claymation Jesus...real. It is like a cross between an animated cartoon Jesus and the real life human being Jesus. It is a big trip. The actors do a fine magnificent job at their roles. If you had to pick only one Jesus movie, this would be it!
Rating:
Summary: Good for Sunday School
Review: I am 10 years old and saw part of this movie, the part where Jesus died on the cross, in Sunday School. I was raised a Christian and find it to be very biblically correct. Lots of times in it people say exactly what they say in the Bible. I was very disappointed when I found out it only came out on Easter. I can't wait till it comes out on video.
Rating:
Summary: Very good for Young Children
Review: My 4 yr old daughter very much enjoyed watching this movie. I appreciated the validity of scripture in a format that was presented in a non-threatening way for children to view and understand. Even I came away with new insights.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome; very powerful; a must have
Review: I have seen many different videos betraying the life of Jesus and this claymation by far surpasses them all. The Miracle Maker not only showed the deity of Jesus, but also revealed the humanity of Jesus through His dealings with the command people. I found myself identifying with many of the disciples' struggles as they dealt with Jesus. My heart was moved as I saw the attention to detail towards the Bible. I believe this video will become a very powerful tool used by young and old to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Rating:
Summary: Jesus the Miracle Maker
Review: As I was watching this program on ABC, I was reminded of Jesus and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. After their encounter with Jesus, the disciples said in Luke 24:32 "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road..." That's how I felt. It touched me very deeply, and I was pleased that it remained true to the scriptural texts. What a wonderful surprise on the day in which Christians celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Rating:
Summary: Far More Than a Children's Video
Review: This film which I viewed on ABC proved to be very impressive for a claymation production. Having been to Israel several times, I noticed various scenes which were true to the land of Israel and Jerusalem in particular. In Jerusalem, the outer walls and city gates in addition to stone flat roof houses within the city were very reminiscent of the style in Jesus day. In the scenes of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, you could see the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount across the Kidron Valley, which Jesus would have been able to view as he went through his time of agony before his crucifixion. The scene where Jesus was asked about who should the Jews pay tribute, to Caesar or God; he actually showed a silver denarius of Tiberius Caesar which would have been the coin used. When he was laid in the tomb, the producers used the "Garden Tomb" in Jerusalem as there model; which is thought by many to be the tomb of Christ. Also, after his resurection, Jesus is shown with nail holes in his wrists instead of his hands. In biblical times, people were nailed through the wrist and this was considered to be part of the hand. I could go on, but basically this film is extremely accurate in many ways and I loved the way Christ was used to interact with Jarius' daughter. It truly revealed the love of Jesus for children in a very special way. This is a film for the entire family and one to be enjoyed for years to come.
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