The Wingfeather Saga, an animated television show based on Andrew Peterson's hit fantasy book series, announces the premiere of the first season and releases an article about the project. Distributed by Angel Studios, The Wingfeather Saga features a renowned cast including Jodi Benson (The Little Mermaid), Kevin Mcnally (Pirates of the Caribbean), Henry Ian Cusick (Lost, The 100) and more. The new program will officially launch for free on December 2.
The Wingfeather Saga is an animated series based on the award-winning and best-selling novels of the same name, and remains the #1 crowdfunded animated family series. The story features rich fantasy, deep magic, whimsical characters, and was created by a team of Veteran artists from studios like Pixar, Dreamworks Animation, Disney, Valve and Blue Sky. Produced by Nashville, TN-based animation studio Shining Isle Productions. The Wingfeather series offers an innovative and patented "paint-motion" CGI animation rendering technique using the Unreal Engine.
Creator: J. Chris Wall
Stars: Jodi Benson, Kellen Goff, Enn Reitel
The Wingfeather Saga tells the story of the Igiby family and especially their three children: Janner, Kalmar and Leeli. It takes place in the land of Aerwiar, nine years after a nameless evil called Gnag the Nameless has devastated all that is good and just. And if that last sentence made you smile, get ready to laugh, because these heartwarming and serious books are also a lot of fun.
Peterson describes the genesis of the Wingfeather Saga as a story he first wrote for his own children. The first book is perhaps the funniest, with goofy names and a narrative voice that is distantly reminiscent of Monty Python. As the stakes rise throughout the series and the characters face ever greater evil and danger, the prose settles into a more sober tone. That's partly because Peterson chooses to deal with some very dark themes, unusual in books aimed at children. [i] But this also gives the books their unusual depth. Darkness and evil are presented not only as external threats, but also as internal realities that operate in the hearts of the characters. And those struggles are portrayed with a gritty realism that comes only from personal experience and a rare honesty.
Throughout the four books, many topics are touched on with remarkable insight: family, friendship, loss, grief, failure, forgiveness, and more. The fourth book, by far the longest, reveals Peterson at his creative prime. Tensions escalate more and more until a final resolution is reached. The defeat of evil, however, is not the end. A large symbolic act of healing actually serves as the series' thematic climax. For those who know and love the Bible's redemptive story, the resonance runs deep.
The educated Christian will recognize the major influences. J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis loom large. It seems to me that Peterson adapts elements from both Tolkien and Lewis, although the world of Aerwiar more clearly resembles Tolkien's Middle-earth than Narnia. For example, Aerwiar (pronounced "'ere we are" with a Cockney accent) has a long and detailed backstory that is referenced at many points along the way, and there are hints of a long future beyond the past. scope of the series. The world is detailed, earthly and there are maps. The author manages to make the reader feel that he is really visiting another place; a place that is internally consistent, with a real history and a real future and real characters making real decisions that we care deeply about.
The nature of divine involvement in Wingfeather Saga traces a middle path between Middle-earth and Narnia. There is a 'Creator' that the characters interact with (unlike in Middle-earth), but that Creator doesn't appear and all interactions with it happen 'offstage' (unlike in Narnia). Furthermore, the structure of the ending seems to be a timid classic case of what Tolkien called the eucatastrophe, a concept he coined and explored in his essay "On Fairy Tales." And works.
I was also struck by the power of music in Wingfeather Saga. A gifted musician, Leeli turns the tide of many battles with the power of the songs she plays on her harp-whistle. Since the author is best known as a composer and musician, this distinctive element cannot be accidental. Rather, we are getting a glimpse here of some of the ways in which Peterson sees the arts working in the world. I look forward to reading his most recent book Adorning the Dark for a fuller treatment of these issues.
Watch The Wingfeather Saga 2022 Tv Series Trailer
Comments
Post a Comment