Episode 20: There's a Bad Word in the Bible

Young Adult Movie Ministry

Details, credits, errata: This week is a Sam and Alissa special, in which we discuss an obscure but hugely influential direct-to-VHS kids’ movie, Rick Garside’s 1985 Jumanjoid stop-motion extravaganza Hoomania, which is sort of the ur-Adventures in Odyssey and was billed as “A journey into Proverbs!” when it debuted in Christian bookstores across this great nation. (Hey kids! Proverbs!) It’s surprisingly pleasant and lacks the sadism of the eventual Focus on the Family offerings, and the production design is worth checking out. It can be bought or rented for a dollar from Christianbook.com, or watched on YouTube for free, though the audio on the latter only comes out of one speaker and c’mon, it’s a dollar. We’re talking about Hoomania, an International Christian Visual Media Crown Award winner for Best Children’s Film, here.

Our episode art is a still from the movie, in which our hero, Kris, is sucked into the Hoomania game and given the ten-cent tour by several of the game pieces.

Our theme song is Louis Armstrong and His Hot 5’s Muskrat Ramble, made freely available by the Boston Public Library and audio engineering shop George Blood, LP through the Internet Archive. Hoomania is copyright 1985 Side by Side films. The single frame above and brief audio excerpts are used herein for purposes of review. No other copyright is intended or implied. All other content is copyright 2020 Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson.

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