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Prime Video‘s new animated religious family series The Chosen Adventures is a kid-friendly spin-off of Christian historical drama television series The Chosen. Over the course of 14 short episodes, the show imparts various lessons from Christianity and Judaism through the struggles, lives, and exploits of young Abby (Romy Fay), her best bud Joshua (Jude Zarzaur), and their animal pals as they meet and learn from Jesus (Jonathan Roumie). Does this series have enough juice to appeal to a wide audience ,even with its religious bent, or is The Chosen Adventures ultimately too preachy to properly hold a child’s attention and enjoyment?
THE CHOSEN ADVENTURES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A Capernaum-based fisherman named Eli greets his wife and their daughter, Abby, on the dock after a day of work. They walk through their town with Abby peppering her parents with all sorts of questions about nature, life, pets, and God along the way.
The Gist: Abby (Romy Fay) is an extremely inquisitive nine-year-old girl living along the Sea of Galilee in Capernaum with “Eema” (Zehra Fazal) and “Abba” (Danny Nucci). What they lack in wealth, they make up for in genuine love for one another, although Abby does occasionally test their patience with her incessant inquiries about anything and everything. Dissatisfied with her parents’ inability to answer certain questions, Abby seeks knowledge at the local synagogue, where even the rabbi (Mark Harelik) is reluctant to entertain her.
On her quest for comprehension, Abby encounters a trouble-making sheep and wise-cracking pigeon, who she rather astutely names Sheep (Paul Walter Hauser) and Pigeon (Yvonne Oriji), who she introduces to her somewhat timid best friend, Joshua (Jude Zarzaur). Together, they go for a little adventure in the woods, where they meet a craftsman who introduces himself as Jesus of Nazareth (Jonathan Roumie). For the first time, Abby has someone with the patience, experience, and wisdom to answer all of her questions, while teaching her additional important life lessons along the way.
Photo: Amazon MGM StudiosWhat Shows Will It Remind You Of?: The Chosen Adventures takes the Biblical characters and stories (as well as some of the actors and creators) from The Chosen and combines that with the child-friendly animation, humor, and storytelling of shows like VeggieTales and Cocomelon.
Our Take: The Chosen Adventures was definitely made for religious-minded adults to share with their children. But even with the episodes’ vibrant colors, textured animation, short 11 to 13-minute runtimes, and plucky young protagonist, I’m not sure that it’s enough to consistently retain the attention of most children. I think younger viewers will at least enjoy the antics of Sheep and Pigeon and perhaps learn a thing or two from the stories, but I don’t know if the show and characters overall have enough originality, depth, and entertainment value to hold kids’ attention more than other animated series out there.
If anything, this show seems like it might be a bigger hit with Christian adults (and perhaps also Jewish adults as well, since this title tries to respectfully and sincerely aspects of both faiths) who will enjoy the cute portrayals of Jesus and his teachings while also benefitting from the historical references and more grownup-oriented one-liners and jokes (“Why does Eema sometimes scream into a pillow?”) that appear throughout the series. The Chosen Adventures is not a show for everyone, but the specific target audience here will likely be charmed and amused by it.
Photo: Amazon MGM StudiosWhat Age Group Is This For?: Apparently, in this show, Jesus seeks to teach kids who are aged seven to twelve, so perhaps The Chosen Adventures‘ viewers should be in that age range as well… Although once kids hit their tween years, they may start to find this series a bit less captivating and funny compared to other animated titles out there.
Parting Shot: Abby’s mom and dad sit down with her to read a story as their dinner cooks, basking in each other’s presence when Sheep bleats and suddenly appears between them, gobbling up the story from Eli’s hand. Abby asks if she can keep the animal, declaring, “He’s a good sheep… Deep down.”
Sleeper Star: Paul Walter Hauser and Yvonne Orji voice the most engaging members in the series, Sheep and Pigeon, respectively. They’re comic relief characters who are sure to be most popular amongst viewers of all ages (but especially with kids).
Most Pilot-y Line: This odd little exchange where Abby randomly psychoanalyzes a literal sheep immediately upon meeting him, saying, “You’re standing there because you don’t get the attention you want.” Then Pigeon psychoanalyzes Abby right back: “Interesting. She’s using you as a proxy to project an inner struggle.”
Honorable mention for this more adult-oriented one-liner: “The only sharks in Capernaum are the ones collecting taxes.”
Our Call: The Chosen Adventures has some generally fun, informative, and thought-provoking moments, but it was ultimately created with a particular target audience in mind. Unless you’re a big fan of The Chosen or specifically in the market for a title that’s both faith-filled and child-friendly, the general public can probably opt to SKIP IT.
English (US)