Western Animation / The Miracle Maker

John the Baptist: "Make a way in the desert... Prepare a straight path for the Lord! Who is coming..."

"John... John. When we were children we played by this river. Our mothers called and we ran to them... We followed them. Now, there is another call. My Father in Heaven. And I must follow."

— Jesus Christ

The Miracle Maker is an animated film released in 1999 in Wales and 2000 in the United States, relating the missionary of Jesus, largely through the eyes of Jairus' daughter Tamar. It features both 3D puppet animation and 2D traditional animation for parables or dream sequences, and serves as a sort of a Spiritual Successor (no pun intended) to Testament: The Bible in Animation, for all intents and purposes the Jesus episode the series never had.

Despite being an animated film, it features several examples of Nightmare Fuel and generally unpleasant scenes, as well as intelligent Alternate Character Interpretation and an All-Star Cast, led by Ralph Fiennes as Jesus.

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This film provides examples of:

• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The film adds legitimate historic context not included in the gospels themselves, either through new dialog by characters or comments from the crowd.
    • When Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, the movie alludes to the mutual ancient grudge between Jews and Samaritans by having children complain about the Samaritans throwing rocks at them.
    • Some of the men present at the tribunal where Jesus is being tried protest that the proceedings are against Jewish law, since they don't have the proper number of men and the affair is taking place at night.
  • Satan vanishes from the story after tempting Jesus in the desert, but in the film makes a surprise reappearance during Jesus' agony in the garden. He also returns later in the film to whisper in Jesus' ear while Christ is on the cross.
• Adaptational Villainy: Zigzagged with Herod Antipas, who shows no interest in Jesus and is simply a Smug Snake who enjoys mocking him. However he does seem less decadent than he is usually depicted and is committed to governing his people. The film also glosses over his murder of John the Bapist, but it does depict him as more emotionally unstable and prone to Suddenly Shouting.
• Affably Evil: Pontius Pilate.
• All There in the Manual: The novel by Murray Watts (who wrote the screenplay) goes into more detail about the background of different characters and names individuals who are not otherwise identified in the film, such as Phineas, the Jewish official who denounces Jesus as an enemy of God and who joins Ben Azra in trying to flatter Herod.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Jairus' wife gives him one when he claims that God is his life and not any man:

  "And your daughter? Is she in your life?"

• Art Shift: While the film is predominantly told in stop-motion animation, all parables, flashbacks, dream sequences, Imagine Spots, and appearances by Satan or other demons are told in the form of 2D cartoons.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Tamar, who features in one tale in The Bible where she is not even named, becomes a viewpoint character and Audience Surrogate.
  • The centurion who witnessed Christ's death in Matthew 27 with his men is introduced earlier in the film as the assistant Pilate asked for. He and his men also appear when Jesus starts a riot in the temple to restore order, but the tension is cut when an interloper decides to ask Jesus about paying taxes to Caesar.
• Awesome Mc Cool Name:
  • James and John, "The Sons of Thunder". In-Universe recognition is given to the awesomeness.
  • Overlapping example with Try to Fit That on a Business Card: Gaius Velius Quintilus, Chief Centurion of the 12th Legion, Prefect of the Detachment of the 9 Legions, and Tribune of the 13th Urban Cohort. Pilate lampshades this when he notes that he appears to have gotten the experienced agent he asked for.
• Broken Bird: Mary Magdalene.
• Bus Crash: The gruesome death of John the Baptist is vaguely alluded to during a scene with Herod where sycophants try and justify how necessary it was, which Herod correctly reads as an attempt to court his favor.
• Canon Foreigner: Asher Ben Azra, leader of the Sadduccees who has been sent to file a report on Jesus. He plays a similar role to that of Zerah in Jesus of Nazareth, a character played by Ian Holm, who here plays Pilate.
• Chekhov's Gun: The way Jesus lifts the bread for the blessing is how Tamar recognises him following the resurrection.
• Composite Character: Mary Magdalene is equated with the unnamed sinful woman who washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and dries it with her hair.
• Crucified Hero Shot: Obviously. No points for guessing where or whom.
• Deadpan Snarker: Several characters, especially Pontius Pilate.
  • For example, this exchange when Caiaphas, Annas, the Pharisees, and Asher Ben Azra present Jesus for trial:
  Pilate: Jesus? Oh, is this the man?
  Annas: He opposes paying taxes to Caesar!
  Pilate: In other words, he shares your opinion.
• Despair Event Horizon: Once he hears Jesus preach about paying to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, Judas begins the march to his inevitable suicide, from selling him out to the pharisees, to hearing Jesus Shaming the Mob when they arrest him in the garden, to failing to rescue Jesus from the pharisees after they have him in custody.
• Evil Gloating: Herod with the captured Jesus, whilst crowning him with thorns.
• Foreshadowing: Tribune Quintilus mentions to Pilate that he's crucified 117 rebels in Galilee. This is less than a week before Jesus is also crucified.
• Freak Out: Judas hears Jesus preaching in the temple to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, which shatters his dreams of violently overthrowing Roman rule. In his disillusionment, it occurs to him that he can still salvage his dream of living in luxury by obtaining money and fleeing the country, which leads him to the pharisees with the offer of leading them to Jesus.
• Heroic BSoD: Jesus after hearing of John the Baptist's death, and whilst in Gethsemane.
• Hypocrite: The high priest accuses Jesus before Pilate of opposing the paying of taxes to Caesar, which is not only a lie—Jesus publicly declared that one should pay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar—but Pilate idly notes that Jesus' supposed opinion is one the high priest shares.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Tamar's illness.
• Irony: The high priest accuses Jesus of opposing taxes to Caesar, which is not only Hypocrisy, not only a Blatant Lie, but the only reason the high priest and the pharisees even have Jesus in custody is because of Judas' disillusionment, which in the film is the direct result of Judas hearing Christ instructing the people to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
• La Résistance: The rebel cell, composed of Barabbas, Joram, at least one other, and Judas Iscariot (by association) see themselves as this. This is an element shared in King of Kings,where Judas joins Jesus believing he is a warrior prophet, but he later betrays Jesus after seeing Barabbas locked up and realising Jesus has no intention of starting a violent protest.
• Large Ham: Several characters, including ones which are only hammy at certain moments, but special mention goes to Joram, whose lines are all shouted.
  • During a conversation between the rebels about possibly involving Jesus in their operations:
  Judas Iscariot: The people love Him!
  Barabbas: You're young. You've got fine ideals, Judas.
  Joram (loudly interrupting): Oh YES, his ideals — are to have a house like Herod's courtiers, with baths and couches!
• Leitmotif: The music that plays when Lucifer offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world is reprised whenever Judas has visions of Jesus as a warrior prophet.
• Motif: The house built upon the sand, here imagined as house of great luxury where a man feeds on grapes. Not only does it appear in the parable, Judas' fellow rebel Joram taunts Judas for desiring a luxurious home of his own. When Judas is disillusioned by Jesus talking about giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, his ensuing Imagine Spot features Judas obtaining wealth from the pharisees and fleeing... to settle in a luxurious house where he will feed on grapes.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Judas Iscariot, after Jesus' trial against Caiaphas.
• Mythology Gag: Thomas the apostle is famed in the bible for doubting the resurrection of Christ. In this film, Thomas double-takes and questions Jesus when Jesus selects him as an apostle.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • Tamar, the sickly and dying child of Jairus.
  • Also in an unusual case, Pilate's lieutenant is given the same name (Quintilus) the noncanon character received in Jesus of Nazareth.
• Nightmare Face: Mary Magdalene, when possessed. Earlier, she sees two Roman soldiers transform into snake like humanoids.
• The Quisling:
  • Simon the Pharisee, who remains loyal to the Romans in order to keep his estates.
  • Matthew, a tax-collector, is openly called a traitor before Jesus appoints him an apostle and he performs a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Herod, as a client king under the Romans, is an example of this, concerned that Jesus' example will cause Jewish revolt and for the Romans to crush him.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Literally, in Gethsemane.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons:
  • Judas is ecstatic to accompany Jesus and his crowd of disciples to Jerusalem, believing "the kingdom of Heaven" is at hand. He mistakenly thinks this will take the form of a violent revolt that overthrows the Romans.
  • A double-whammy with Prophecy Twist when the high priest prophesies that the death of one man will save the people. He has come to this conclusion by believing Jesus—the man to be killed—is a threat that must be destroyed.
• Rule of Symbolism: Jesus shares a parable of a wise man building a simple house upon the rock while a foolish man builds a luxurious abode upon the sand. After he concludes, the camera turns to Judas and his zealot friends Barabbas and Joram far away in a cave chattering about the new rabbi from Nazareth. Joram repeatedly laughs at Judas, who sees Christ as a conqueror, for dreaming of a luxurious abode of his own—none of them heard the parable.
• Rule of Three: Satan tries to tempt Jesus three times. The first two times, Jesus dismisses him with words from the Scriptures. The third time, Satan gets wise and uses a quote of his own.
• Shaming the Mob: Downplayed. Jesus demands to know, as he's being arrested in the garden, why the crowd didn't come to arrest him when he was preaching in the street and the temple. It doesn't do anything to stop the crowd, but it does nudge Judas further down the path towards inevitably crossing the Despair Event Horizon.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Mary Magdalene.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Jesus to Lucifer in the desert: "You shall worship the Lord your God! And no one else shall you serve! NO ONE!"
• Small Role, Big Impact: John the Baptist is a One-Scene Wonder but we continue to hear about him long after his appearance.
• Smug Snake: Herod. Though he expresses regret at having killed John.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Judas, though it may be more a case of What Happened to the Mouse?.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: When Jesus leaves for the wilderness.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Barabbas thinks Judas is being this, but Joram laughingly notes that Judas' real desire is to live in comfort and luxury.

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