DVD Review - The Eric Liddell Story

The Torchlighters video series is a series of animated DVD's dedicated to “Highlighting the honor, integrity and life-changing experiences of those well-known and little-known Christian men, women and children who in response to God's call, dedicated their lives to a life of whole-hearted commitment and passionate service to Jesus.” The series is targeted primarily at children between the ages of eight and twelve. It is a production of Christian History Institute along with International Films and Voice of the Martyrs. Previous entries in this series include brief biographical films of Jim Elliot, John Bunyan and William Tyndale. The fourth installment is The Eric Liddell Story.

I have watched all of these films with the family and we’ve enjoyed them. Like the others in the series, The Eric Liddell Story has moments that frightened the children—primarily when the Japanese Air Force was bombing China and the life of the story’s hero was in danger. But the film is definitely family fare. The quality of the animation has not really increased and it is a long way from the kind of animation you might see in the big-budget films on the silver screen. Still, my children didn’t seem to notice and they enjoyed learning more about Liddell. The film took them from his childhood in China, to his rise as one of the world’s fastest men, to his Olympic triumph and to his missionary service in China. It closes with his internment in a Japanese camp and stops short of his death there of a brain tumor. The story was narrated by a Chinese character representing one of the men who was saved through the ministry of Liddell.

Like all of the Torchlighters titles, this one is a 30-minute feature and also includes a previously-recorded documentary on the subject’s life. Like the others, it is a worthy addition to a family or church DVD collection. Future installments in the series promise to deal with the lives of Gladys Aylward and Richard Wurmbrand. And I look forward to watching those ones as well.

The video is available through Vision Video [2].