Hoedeman's Vision

Hoedeman (this name is awesome because in Dutch it’s pronounced “who da man?”) is one of the best children’s animators of our time, not only because of his beautiful and original work, but because he had a mind like that of a child. He wasn’t afraid to retell the stories that we often keep away from kids because he knew that a child is one of the greatest theologians of our time.  Hoedeman uses stories from the past and retells them in his own creative and original ways; ways both children and adults can enjoy together. It’s a terrible feeling when a parent has to drag their feet to take their child to go see a dumb movie, but it’s wonderful when the whole family can sit down and enjoy a movie because of the wonderful story-making that has gone into it. Good stories just draw people in. Adults get pretty stuffy about their literature; that’s probably why they make children’s books for parents and children to enjoy together. When books and movies have good, entertaining, solid, stories behind them, people are just drawn to it, no matter which demographic it may be for.

Christians get really overprotective of their stories- with understandable cause, but Hoedeman pulls off his lovely adaptations of Bible stories in creative and inoffensive methods. I love how in Tchou-Tchou he had Adam and Eve represented as little children and Satan was the dragon. But it wasn’t a clear Biblical story, it just had implications of it. When the children chose to see the dragon as an object of play rather than a threat, the story changed voice. Same with The Sand Castle. It had many references to the Bible but it was not a direct story pulled from the pages. It had parts of creation, maybe some parts from Noah, I even thought of the tower of Babel... there are just so many connection. And to top it off, Hoedeman uses objects like sand and blocks as his animation tools. It’s like he himself sat down in a sandbox and just started playing and creating his own world. I think the world needs more things like this.