God's Trombones: Trilogy Of African-American Poems

Based on poems from a 1927 collection of African-American poems by James Weldon Johnson, these three short pieces from Will Vinton Studios, collected and repackaged for home video, offer a wonderful mix of dynamic narration and colorful clay and glass painting animation. Johnson's poems were inspired by the African-American preachers he had heard (whose thunderous yet mellifluous voices sounded to him like "God's trombones"), and, recited by James Earl Jones and Dorian Harewood, they retain their fervor and majesty. Jones lends his wonderfully sonorous voice to "The Creation," a colorful swirl of imagery blending together as sun, stars, earth, animals, and man come into being to offset God's blues ("I'm lonely--I'll make me a world.") In "The Prodigal Son," the famous story of the son who left the country and got ripped off big-time in the city is portrayed with superb claymation and amusingly narrated by Harewood, with clever additions to the Biblical text ("young man--your arm's too short to box with God.") Finally, in the haunting "Go Down Death," also narrated by Harewood, God instructs Death to go down and take the dying sister Caroline to her final resting place on Jesus' breast. Lovely animation, outstanding narration, and timeless stories make God's Trombones a wonderful addition. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (R. Pitman)