LIGHT OF THE WORLD - Mark Reviews Movies

Light of the World, The Salvation Poem Project

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 4, 2025

Surely, there are several ways to tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth, and Light of the World occasionally hints at some intriguing ones. Eventually, it falls back on a purely religious interpretation that rushes through Jesus' teachings and focuses heavily on his earthly fate. For a figure who has influenced countless people and the course of history itself, the movies generally don't seem to know what to do with Jesus except the usual.

This will, of course, be fine for the faithful, to whom co-directors Tom Bancroft and John J. Schafer's finely animated movie is catering. Bancroft has worked in animation for more than three decades at this point, while Schafer has far less experience. That time is on display in this hand-drawn effort, which is reminiscent of a very specific period of Hollywood animation—with its bold lines and fill-in-the-gaps coloring giving the look of characters who are more caricature than representational of actual people. This movie would have felt quite at home in the late 1990s or early 2000s, in other words, although it also might have been lost along with so many others during those transitional days into computer animation.

At this moment in time, the movie's mere existence as a piece of traditional animation puts one immediately in its corner. We don't get many movies like this anymore, so when one does come along, it's with no small amount of hope.

Using it to tell one of the most famous stories in the world, obviously, is a smart move, if the medium's continuation is part of the goal of the filmmakers here. There's a built-in audience for any version of Jesus' story, and as odd as it sounds, the movie almost feels a bit cynical in the way it only seems to have that particular audience in mind in terms of its storytelling. How much more could the people behind this movie have done with just a bit more narrative imagination?

It could and would still be a religious piece, too. As an example, take the scene in which Jesus (voiced with amiable charm by Ian Hanlin) tells his disciples the parable of the Good Samaritan. From its start, the screenplay by brothers David M. and Drew Barton Armstrong establishes itself as interested in the potency of stories, as a mother tells her children the Creation tale from the Book of Genesis. Like that prologue, Jesus' tale of a wounded man, attacked and robbed on the road, who is aided by a member of his tribe's sworn enemy is presented in even sharper lines and angles. With its brushed coloring, it has the appearance of a cave painting or something similar brought to life.

Moments like those aren't too common, unfortunately, because the script is mostly set on going through the narrative of the Gospels with some bits of humor and, striking when they do appear, humanity included. The focal point is John (voice of Benjamin Jacobson), the youngest—meaning he's a pre-teen here—of Jesus' disciples, who comes from a fishing family who come into financial trouble on account of taxes to Rome. John is an ardent believer that a prophesized messiah will arrive to free the people of Judea from Roman rule and announce himself king. When he realizes that humble carpenter and pacifist Jesus is the person he has been waiting for, the boy and his older brother James (voice of Dylan Leonard) join the man.

The depiction of Jesus here is smart at first, because this is a meager, friendly, and thoughtful man. There's a scene later in the story, after John the Baptist (voice of Jesse Inocalla) is captured and killed, that has John realizing the eccentric prophet was, in the end, as ordinary, vulnerable, and mortal as he is. Putting aside his miracles and similar divine elements, Jesus here is, as well, as silently weeps for his dead friend, becomes quietly introspective as his path toward death is made clear, and pleads in the garden that, if this is his fate, he will have the strength to face the suffering.

This is one of those capital-M Mysteries of Christianity—that Jesus was both divine and human—and an idea that the filmmakers seem fascinated by, until they aren't. At a certain point, the movie simply presents a montage of miracles and unheard teachings, begins preaching instead of examining its ideas, and becomes so compelled by Jesus' impending doom that the movie's earlier cheery tone starts to feel disingenuous. To be sure, the movie does some creative things to present Jesus' torture and crucifixion in a more family-friendly way, especially when an interrogation is shown by way of silhouettes on a wall. This is, perhaps, an unavoidable component of the story, although such an assumption is part of the reason the movie winds up feeling so hasty and tonally inconsistent.

At times, Light of the World hints at a grounded and stylistically compelling way of telling this story. It doesn't fulfill that promise.

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