{"id":21422,"date":"2014-09-02T14:58:08","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T21:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=21422"},"modified":"2014-09-02T14:58:08","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T21:58:08","slug":"that-studio-that-made-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs-is-now-working-on-an-animated-movie-about-the-first-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/09\/that-studio-that-made-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs-is-now-working-on-an-animated-movie-about-the-first-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"That studio that made Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs<\/i> is now working on an animated movie about the first Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"devonfranklin\"<\/a>Sony Pictures has had some success this year with \u201cfaith-based\u201d films such as Moms\u2019 Night Out<\/a><\/i>, When the Game Stands Tall<\/i> and Heaven Is for Real<\/a><\/i>. Now their animation division is getting in on the action.<\/p>\n

The Wrap<\/a> reports that Sony Pictures Animation \u2014 the company responsible for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs<\/a><\/i>, The Smurfs<\/i> and Hotel Transylvania<\/i> \u2014 is teaming up with DeVon Franklin, a preacher and former Sony executive who now heads his own production company, to develop The Lamb<\/i>, an animated version of the Nativity story featuring \u201can all-animal cast.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the film does get made, it would be only the second Bible-themed animated feature to be made by a major studio, following The Prince of Egypt<\/a><\/i>, which was produced by DreamWorks in 1998 \u2014 though the independently-produced Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie<\/a><\/i> also got a wide release in 2002.<\/p>\n

Disney, for its part, has produced a handful of Bible-themed short cartoons, including The Small One<\/a><\/i> (1978) and three films about Noah<\/a> (including, most recently, the Donald Duck segment in Fantasia 2000<\/a><\/i>), but nothing feature-length.<\/p>\n

Most feature-length Bible cartoons tend to be the work of foreign or independent producers. One of the better animated Bible movies, The Miracle Maker<\/a><\/i> (2000), got a theatrical release overseas before premiering on television in North America. A rather poorly-animated version of The Ten Commandments<\/a><\/i> came to theatres in 2007. And multiple cartoons about Noah\u2019s Ark are currently in the works<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sony Pictures Animation is developing The Lamb<\/i> with preacher (and former Sony executive) DeVon Franklin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2187,2480,559],"class_list":["post-21422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-devon-franklin","tag-lamb","tag-nativity"],"yoast_head":"\nThat studio that made Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is now working on an animated movie about the first Christmas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sony Pictures Animation is developing The Lamb with preacher (and former Sony executive) DeVon Franklin.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/09\/that-studio-that-made-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs-is-now-working-on-an-animated-movie-about-the-first-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"That studio that made Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is now working on an animated movie about the first Christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sony Pictures Animation is developing The Lamb with preacher (and former Sony executive) DeVon Franklin.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/09\/that-studio-that-made-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs-is-now-working-on-an-animated-movie-about-the-first-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-02T21:58:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2014\/09\/devonfranklin-199x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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