Fantasy series are as popular as they’ve ever been on television, but as producer and writer Chris Wall sees it, few are viewable by the entire family.
In fact many — like “Game of Thrones” — are so vulgar they’d make a sailor blush.
Wall hopes to help change that.
He is executive producer and showrunner of a new family-friendly animated fantasy series, “The Wingfeather Saga,” based on a bestselling children’s book series by Christian singer Andrew Peterson.
It will be released by Angel Studios, which produced “The Chosen.”
Although the series is crowdfunded, Angel Studios had no trouble raising money for the first season, pulling in $5 million from some 8,000 investors in one month.
Crowdfunded
In fact, it broke the record previously held by The Chosen for fastest crowdfunded TV series to reach $1 million.
“The Wingfeather Saga” passed that mark in 48 hours.
Season 1 currently is in production.
“There’s a scarcity of this kind of material,” said Wall, a veteran of the family-friendly genre who was a producer for “VeggieTales” and “The Slugs & Bugs Show.”
“The Wingfeather Saga” tells the story of a family living in a fantasy world who must flee evil creatures known as “Fangs of Dang.”
They search for their place in the world while opposing a mysterious ruler, Gnag the Nameless.
Angel Studios describes the story as having the wit of “The Princess Bride,” the epic world of “The Lord of the Rings” and the “deep magic” of the Narnia series.
It won’t be overtly Christian but will have a Christian worldview, Wall noted, adding it’s important for viewers to understand what they are getting.
“If we position the series as Christian fantasy, we will disappoint a number of viewers — because there are dragons, there are legends and fantasy.
“That could be problematic for some families. But if we present a secular fantasy, the secular viewer will go, ‘Wait a minute, I can tell there’s a hand at work, like in Narnia.’ And so we’re somewhere between that.”
Christian values
The world of “The Wingfeather Saga,” Wall said, is similar to Narnia or “The Lord of the Rings.”
“Why would you call Lord of the Rings a Christian fantasy series? Because Tolkien was a believer, yes, and because the material speaks of Christian values: self-sacrifice, family, good over evil, sacrificial love. And what Wingfeather shares is exactly that. There is value in family and there’s an importance in our identity — who we are, who the Creator made us to be.
“And while it’s not overt, it is clearly a subversive play, where it’s understood there’s a Christian worldview at work here.
“The consequences of the choices characters make fall within what we understand.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — Reviews of films, books, music or other media that appear in TAB are intended to help readers evaluate current media for themselves, their children and grandchildren in order to decide whether to watch, read or listen. Reviews are not an endorsement by the writer or TAB Media.
