Christmas Movie ‘Jokes’ About Aborting Savior of the World…No One’s Laughing.
Movieguide® Contributor
Netflix’s latest animated pic for kids, THAT CHRISTMAS, makes some edits to the story of the birth of Christ…and it’s not cute.
“The film, THAT CHRISTMAS, marks Hollywood director Richard Curtis’ first foray into holiday movies since LOVE ACTUALLY,” CBN reported Dec. 10. “Just like the 2003 romantic comedy, Curtis wrote and directed this newest film and there’s one sequence in particular causing a stir among viewers.”
THAT CHRISTMAS answers the question, “What happens when a bunch of politically correct-crazed kids get together and make a school play about the nativity story?”
Jesus “wouldn’t have wanted us to do the same boring Christmas story year after year, right, parents?” a character named Bernadette asks the play’s audience. “He’d want a strictly vegetarian, multi-cultural fun fest with lots of pop songs and stuff about climate change,” she said of the “hipster” who was “into woodwork.”
Instead of three wise men, three wise women visit baby Jesus while shepherds herd vegetables instead of sheep.
READ MORE: THAT CHRISTMAS REVIEW
CBN said, “The most egregious part of the production, though, comes when the young girl playing the role of Mary, Jesus’ mother, sings, ‘Papa Don’t Preach,’ a 1986 Madonna song about deciding whether to have an abortion. The girl sings as she’s hoisting a watermelon with a face carved into it, intended to represent baby Jesus. At one point, another student accidentally knocks the watermelon out of the girl’s hands and it falls to the ground, splattering onto the audience.”
Comparing a watermelon and its destroyed pieces to an infant’s body, in an animated movie meant for kids nonetheless, is disturbing, no matter how lightly it’s represented. The red-colored fruit is obviously meant to resemble blood.
Though “when Bernadette asks some adults for their thoughts on the program post-show, they agree it was not very good. One adult tells the teen, ‘I don’t think Jesus and jokes go together, dear.’”
The scene can be viewed here:
The movie currently has a score of only 62% on the Rotton Tomatoes Tomatometer and a 6.8/10 ranking on IMDB.
READ MORE: LOVE ACTUALLY MOVIE REVIEW
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