Dangerous Journey

Dangerous Journey is an adaptation of John Bunyan's 17th-century classic The Pilgrim's Progress in an illustrated format designed for the religious education of youthful audiences. Told as a dream, it relates the story of Christian, who abandons home and family to flee from sin and destruction and travel the straight and narrow to the Celestial City. Along the way he encounters allegorical figures such as Faithful, Evangelist, and Hopeful, as well as Ignorance, the giant Despair, and the monster Apollyon, as he confronts a series of hardships and tests before arriving at his destination. Divided into nine segments (with recaps and previews, allowing for group discussion), Dangerous Journey nicely captures Bunyan's extremely visual writing style, with Alan Parry's enchanting illustrations backed by Paul Copley's beautiful narration, bringing fresh appeal to a classic that is admittedly difficult for modern audiences. Despite the caveat on the DVD jacket that the content might not be appropriate for very young children, I would advise parental discretion for those under 10, due to vivid portrayals of hellfire and grisly death that might not be palatable to all Christians (though kids who play video games such as Doom are likely to consider this pretty tame). As a seminal work of English literature, this is actually more appropriate for general collections, than for young people's religious studies. DVD extras include a leader's/scripture reference guide in PDF format. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (J. Reed)