By Mallory Mattingly
Movieguide® wants to see Hollywood return to its Christian roots, and it seems like many moviegoers would like that too.
In a recent Instagram video, Movieguide®’s Kaelii Williams reflected on the “Golden Era of Disney” when they openly spoke about faith in their projects.
“Did you know Disney used to talk about God in their movies?” Williams asked.
The video then cut to Disney’s 1948 short film THE LEGEND OF JOHNNY APPLESEED. In the film, Appleseed sings, “The Lord is Good to Me.”
“The Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord for giving me the things I need, the sun and rain and an apple seed. Yes, he’s been good to me,” the lyrics to the song read.
“I don’t know about you guys, but we need to roll it back to the golden era of Disney. This is what culture needs right now,” Williams declared.
Related: Why Is Christian Content Booming? It’s What the People Want
It seems that moviegoers around the world would appreciate that as well.
The Global Faith and Entertainment Study, conducted by HarrisX alongside the Faith & Media Initiative, “surveyed nearly 10,000 entertainment consumers across 11 countries as well as 30 in-depth interviews with entertainment industry leaders.”
The study found that “people want an accurate representation of religion and faith in entertainment.
In fact, “80% ay it is important that the entertainment industry improves their portrayals of faith to make them more accurate.” Additionally, “68% of global viewers want more diverse perspectives about various faiths.”
Dritan Nesho, CEO of HarrisX, revealed why these findings are important.
“People feel that they are underrepresented in the content, and when they are represented, they feel that more often than not, they’re misrepresented rather than adequately represented,” he said, per Deseret News. “There is a large swath of the global entertainment consumer that yearns for this kind of content. What they yearn for is better representation, more accuracy in the storytelling and the character development, and actually more diversity.”
Actor, producer and author Rainn Wilson spoke at the Spirituality and Faith in Entertainment breakfast in London last year and said, “I believe and I know that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. So why does the storytelling oftentimes not reflect this reality?”
“There are people who have a great hunger for elevated spiritual conversations — inspiring, unifying conversations that are for all people of all faiths to find wisdom and work together to make the world a better place,” he added. “Whether you’re making a feature film or a limited series, a TV show or working in digital media, there’s a lot of potential there to not only garner a large audience, but a potential to make a serious impact for the positive in the world.”
Christian media, specifically, has experienced a renaissance in recent years.
Earlier this year, the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) and the Barna Group found that “over 60% of American adults are captivated by Christian media,” per the Washington Stand.
Content like THE CHOSEN and HOUSE OF DAVID have hit record viewership numbers on Prime Video, while THE KING OF KINGS, an animated kids movie about the life of Jesus which released earlier this year, set box-office records.
“I know there is an enormous yearning in the audience for this kind of content that is both faith-inflected — doesn’t mean that it has to be evangelical, or it has be, you know, beating you over the head with a religious message — but just that it acknowledges that faith is an element in human life and history,” Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo said at the time of THE KING OF KINGS’ success.
It’s obvious that consumers want entertainment that brings faith into stories. Will Hollywood answer that call?
Read Next: Movies with Strong Christian Content Are Flourishing
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