Nim’s Island
July 8, 2008 by Christian Parenting Daily · Leave a Comment
SYNOPSIS: Based on the popular children’s novel of the same name by Wendy Orr, NIM’S ISLAND follows the adventures of Nim Rusoe, a spirited young girl who lives on a remote island with her scientist dad, Jack, and a host of animal companions, including an iguana, a sea lion, and a sea turtle. Nim’s idyllic life gets shaken up, however, when her father goes missing while on an ocean outing.
GENRES: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
TIME: 1 hr 36 mins
RATED: PG for mild adventure action and brief language
OUR THOUGHTS ON THIS MOVIE
(Recommended Age Group: all ages)
Nim’s Island is a very pleasant story that the whole family can enjoy together.
Although there’s nothing all that objectionable in the movie it’s perhaps what’s not in the movie that’s more important. Let me explain. This is a story where against all odds, amazing events collide and everything works out perfectly. Now we all know it’s just a movie so we can all agree to suspend reality a bit, right? Right, but the fairytale like storyline provides a wonderful opportunity to talk about what’s missing and that’s prayer.
Talk with your kids about the total absence of prayer in this movie. Point out that in real life things just don’t all magically work together for a happy ending . Life events, left to themselves tend to be very random and uncoordinated. However in Romans 8:28 the Apostle Paul tells us that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Even though this movie does not contain prayer, it illustrates the kind of things that can take place when we love, obey and trust God. Movies like this kind of infer that something like fate is lending a hand because this girl needs or deserves it. In truth, there is no impersonal power called fate that lends a hand to those who need it. However our very personal and loving Heavenly Father has promised to help us through rough times and work everything out as we love and follow him. And since he knows everything, is everywhere and can do anything, he truly is qualified and able to make every little detail of any real life story work out wonderfully.
When discussing this with your family, you might want to tell them about a time or two where you prayed and saw God work out the details.
As a bonus discussion, the movie has a Jonah like plot device that involves a blue whale swallowing someone. You could use the opportunity to talk about Jonah. Nim’s Island tells the story like it’s a children’s tale and obviously not meant to be factual. However the story of Jonah is actual history, it really happened. It is impossible for a blue whale to swallow something that large but the Bible doesn’t say that it was specifically a whale, it says great fish. There are a couple of sea creatures that God could have used. For information to fuel a great discussion with your kids check out these links.
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