Rebecca Grace
AFA Journal staff writer
September 2008 – Nim’s Island
The adventure of Nim’s Island is available on DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. It’s a fun, yet quirky, story of a young girl, Nim, and her father who live on a secluded island and are befriended by animals.
Their island adventures are similar to those of the fictitious hero Alex Rover, whom Nim adores. Through a strange turn of events in which Nim’s father goes missing, Nim meets and discovers that the creator of this famous adventure hero is really a reclusive woman named Alexandra who never leaves her big-city apartment. Both lacking in courage, Nim and Alexandra strengthen each other as they take on crazy island adventures.
On the positive side, Nim’s Island reminds viewers how exciting it is to be a child with an imagination. It also depicts a strong father/daughter bond and the value in encouraging each other.
However, the positive is negated by the negative. The film contains two mild profanities, four uses of God’s name in vain, one use of “bloody” and one use of “crap.” There is also some adventure violence as well as some alcohol and female immodesty, including cleavage and bare midriffs.
Nim’s Island is rated PG.
The Touch
Based on a true story, The Touch is a movie about forgiveness and love. Faith and life collide when the Gospel becomes practical in the life of Hannah Moore, a victimized woman with nowhere to turn.
Hannah hits rock bottom just as the local First Baptist Church is fighting among its own members to open a shelter for women. Moving beyond the walls of the church is a leap of faith for both Hannah and self-centered churchgoers.
But when all involved are touched by the power of love, real ministry takes root in the needy community – both on and off the screen.
The Touch is a movie about First Baptist Church Leesburg, Florida. Since 1994, the church has built a Ministry Village to care for local poor. The village includes a shelter for abused and displaced women, a 30-bed facility for men with drug and alcohol addictions, a benevolence center, a group home for abandoned children, an emergency shelter for children and teens, a pregnancy care center, and a medical care center with 28 volunteer physicians for patients without insurance.
Over 100,000 people had been helped since the village’s inception.
The Touch is a peek into this church’s ministry to the poor. The film is powerful and a stark reminder about the reality of abuse. It addresses the hard-hitting issues of incestuous sexual abuse, pornography, rape, prostitution, drug and alcohol use and prison. There are various sexual connotations and comments throughout the movie. Some of the women in the film wear immodest clothing and there are a couple of scenes inside an exotic dancing bar. Audio from a porn video is also heard, and girls are shown in a medical examiner’s office after being raped.
In the unedited theatrical version, which is scheduled to release in late fall in nearly 400 theaters, there are approximately eight mild profanities and about 15 uses of rude terms such as “butthead,” “slut,” “crap,” “whore,” and “dang,” among others. Some of the language has been edited out of a DVD version cleaned up for churches and Christian bookstores.
While all of these elements are real in the lives of women like Hannah, the film could have addressed her struggles with more discretion.
Adventures from the Book of Virtues
The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett recently came to life on DVD in three installments – Adventures From the Book of Virtues: Adventures in Faith; Adventures From the Book of Virtues: Adventures in Honesty; and Adventures From the Book of Virtues: Adventures in Courage.
The animated PBS series features stories told through the eyes of youngsters Zach and Annie as they deal with the daily pressures of life. Their animal friends are always eager to teach them a virtuous lesson about honesty, compassion, respect, humility and courage.
Adventures in Faith includes the stories of “The Good Samaritan,” “Androcles and the Lion,” “Harriet Tubman” and “Daniel and the Lion’s Den.” Adventures in Honesty and Adventures in Courage feature such episodes as “George Washington and the Cherry Tree,” “William Tell” and others.
While the DVD series teaches moral lessons, most of the lessons are taught through magical fables, legends and mythology. A few Bible stories are intertwined. Mixing the two could cause confusion for young viewers when it comes to discerning what is true and what is not.
Some of the episodes contain romance, cartoon violence and scary characters. Several of the stories are engaging and redeeming, despite the old-school animation, but the DVD series is still not a must-have for the family. 
