There will be those who will be over the moon declaring legal war over how much separation exists between Noah’s Ark: A musical adventure (Cert. U) and any biblical story. This is to forget the realities of Flood myths being pan human and the idea that Genesis 6-8 was not original but borrowed from earlier Mesopotamian bibliography existing at the time. This is certainly not the case in its narrative, where a God is responsible for a single entity instead of the previous deities, which also rings true for this animated version as well. God however, like any normal parent holds deep sorrow in his heart looking at his children’s chaotic and dishonest practices, and at the same time offers a fresh start through the Ark to young babes. Such texts from the Ancient Near East don’t even come close to such moral integrity. One is left to conclude that the gods are vengeful beings.
With that said, this new perspective however does bring out differences that the Hebrew Bible holds in places with this amusing take on Noah. We meet a couple of stowaways on the Ark: resourceful mice Vini and Tom. They hear God telling Noah “Just figure it out” with regards to saving every couple from each species. This approach works very well; however, it becomes very obvious, however, that this Utopian principle, where Baruk shall lie down with lamb, will simply never work out. On the contrary the excessive hunger of meat eaters brings about forth the risk to this scenario.
It acts as an alarm for the mice to save themselves from obliteration. Music is the one and only weapon that the weak and humble use to get back at stronger beasts who oppress them. Considering the fact that the authors of the song “The Girl from Ipanema” are credited for these songs, none of the numbers is particularly impressive. But they help delay the death bell by convincing Baruk to be part of the concert.
It is soon apparent that the film’s Brazilian filmmaker, Sérgio Machado mines humor to illustrate his concern on climate change issues. He also attacks the other power, spiritual wickedness in high places that violations other people’s simple rights. There are some theological doubts that form the background of the whole piece. One young person even expresses his outrage at God for not being ‘woke’ enough and asks whether the Creator is even concerned about family selection being confined to heterosexuals. ‘What about other kinds of families?’ If anything, the film manages to overemphasize the modern relevance of the Ark. There is instant photography, text messaging, liking, Tik-Tok use, followership, etc.
Let’s be serious here for a minute. This graphic novel completely ignores its literary roots where the flood narrative allegorizes God’s grace. It is closer to Evan Almighty (2007) where individual persons are shown as the lone changers of the world. The perception of God as a figure who moves from vengeance to mercy can be traced in films like Darren Aronofsky’s Noah (Arts, 4 April 2014) where we see such qualities bestowed on Noah himself or recognized within him. In the book of Genesis, people, irrespective of the disastrous consequences of the flood, seem to be unchanged in their propensity to make human nature worse. Yet God continues to pardon them in the hope of an eternal covenant with the entirety of society symbolized by a rainbow.
In her new reflection on Genesis, Marilynn Robinson (Books, 5 April), says that its authors, though through an alien story, show the nature of evil and the response of God to evil. Again, Robinson notes, the stories did not end, they were never, ever allowed to end, or at least all of the earlier stories would become uncaused and distinctly pointless. Such a fact allowed the history of humanity to remain controlled by early forms of God’s purposes being incessantly thrashed, but His love incessantly pursuing.
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