Chris Heimerdinger (that last name is almost as funny as my first name!) is a staple at our house. Or, I should say, his books are. I grew up reading the first half of the Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites series (I’m only 30) and now have my older girls hooked on them. My oldest even has the books we don’t own yet on her wish list at PaperbackSwap. So when the opportunity presented itself for us to review the newly released DVD Passage to Zarahemla, written, directed, and produced by Heimerdinger, I couldn’t pass it up. My daughters would have killed me or severely disabled me at least.
Passage to Zarahemla stays true to Mr. Heimerdinger’s signature style of suspenseful plots where modern characters collide with ancient scriptural people. Recently orphaned siblings, Kerra and Brock, steal a car and flee L.A. to stay with long lost relatives, the McConnells, in the small rural town of Leeds, UT. Kerra discovers a portal in the woods behind the McConnell farmhouse that links modern day Utah with the inhabitants of ancient America. She meets a Nephite warrior, Kiddoni, who is preparing along with his people to fight the evilly sinister Gadianton Robbers. Kerra and Brock encounter their own modern day Gadianton Robbers when gang members from their former neighborhood in L.A. come looking for them.
We watched the movie for family home evening on Monday night with all of our children ages 12 to 18 months. I was a little worried because the rating is PG-13 but found there was no profanity, vulgarity, or sexuality. The rating is because of the frightening appearance of the ancient Gadianton Robbers who I think were true to the description given in the Book of Mormon “great and terrible was the appearance of the armies of Giddianhi, because of their armor, and because of their being dyed in blood.” (3 Nephi 7:4) The 3 and 5 year old were somewhat frightened of their appearance but quickly got over that. (Too much watching of the Harry Potter films :P) I could have opted to watch the less intense version of the film which is included on the DVD. I really like that it is an option for those with younger or more sensitive children.
Compared to other recent LDS based films this fantasy/action/adventure is a nice change of pace. The special effects were pretty good, especially considering the budget they had to work with. The music was great! My daughters have already asked for the soundtrack. There were a few cheesy parts like the kissing scene at the end (Cookie made the comment that they couldn’t kiss because Kerra was wearing lip gloss and it would take it off. Ha, three year olds!), but all in all a great film that the whole family can enjoy together.
We give it four out five chocolate kisses.
It looks interesting. I remember reading those Tennis Shoes among the Nephites books when I was a young teen too. I checked netflix and they don’t have it. Sometimes they do have some of these LDS films on there. Maybe I will have to see if it makes it to our Beehive Bookstore.
Glad to hear you gave it 4 choco kisses, I want to see that one.
Sounds interesting. I really liked those books, too. We’ll have to check it out!
Cookie is so right, and that is why I rarely wear lip gloss. =)
i made a mission comp. who was english as a 2nd language read Tennis shoes books out loud, because she was hating the prescribed english reading. those were the days….
I want to know how you put words onto your lovely photos so it says your blog address?
I forgot to borrow it from you later:) It was great seeing you guys!
What a cool review! I was grateful to see it and read it. I hope I can continue to produce to stories that enthrall your family. Sorry about the cheesy kiss, probably made more cheesy by the special effects, but hey, it looked cool. 🙂 I’m busily writing the next Tennis Shoes book, “Thorns of Glory” so I better get back it. Thanks for a wonderful and heartwarming reveiw. And you are welcome to leave a reveiw of my songs from the CD as well. Pieces of all of them are available when you watch the “Behind the Scenes” documentary on the DVD, and you can download three of them for free from the code on the DVD. The music was one of my favorite things that I’ve ever created.
Chris Heimerdinger
Dear blogger,
Thank you for your positive review of Passage to Zarahemla. You have been wonderful! I just wanted to let you know that there is a Passage to Zarahemla widget, and we would love for you to host it on your blog if you are interested. The widget contains the trailer, the making of the movie (great behind the scenes info), a link to the blog, a little about the movie, music that is downloadable, and a buy now option. A widget is a portable web application that you can very easily install on your blog. Do you think you would be interested in having this widget on your blog? Let me know and I will send you the link so that you can easily embed it. Thanks again for your review and hope to hear from you soon. (Please email me your response)
Cheers!
Alayna Ferrin
Public Relations
Cobalt Communications Group
E. alaynaf@cobaltcg.com
Web: http://www.Cobaltcg.com
Blog: http://www.CobaltSocialMedia.com
Those books were so good! As my daughter is getting a little older and wants more mature books than the ones she has been reading I should recommend these.
http://www.pioneerbook.com/ldsbooks/index.html