The Story Keepers

The Story Keepers is originally a 1995 American-Irish, animated, religious, straight-to-video series. It was co-created by Andrew Melrose and Brian D. Brown. The co-production was by Shepherd Films, Zondervan, and Focus on the Family. The VHS/DVD series ran between 1995-1997 and 13 episodes were produced in total. A couple more VHS/DVDs, which are holiday DVDs titled The Christmas Story Keepers and The Easter Story Keepers were also released, but they just contained and consisted of the last four episodes made into compilation films. The series later began airing on television in 1997.

Plot
In the first century, particularly 64 A.D., Italy, in response to the stories about Jesus being told and the mention of him being king rather than Caesar, Emperor Nero punishes and persecutes all Christians, by having them thrown into slavery or fed to the lions. In their own response to this, the Christians decide to rebel against Nero by fleeing by way of going underground. One Christian named Ben, who is also a baker, and his wife, Helena, take in five kids, four of whom are orphaned: Zakkai, Justin, Marcus, Anne, and Cyrus, and they join them in their escape, all while having adventures along the way. The Christians' goal is to protect the stories about Jesus and prevent them from fading into oblivion, hence they are known as The Story Keepers, who share the tales and tell them to anybody willing to take the time to listen.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Throughout most of the series, the animation flows smoothly. The art style is well-crafted as well.
 * 2) The writing manages to be well-written by combining an original story about Christians with the well-known tales about the Bible and Jesus.
 * 3) Many of the character designs appear to be nice enough.
 * 4) Many of the characters have their likability to them with certain ones well-developed.
 * 5) Stellar voice acting with a cast that includes Tim Curry as the voice of Emperor Nero.
 * 6) The intro is well-presented and the theme is nice for what it is.
 * 7) The morals and lessons displayed are taught well enough, as the theme of a religious/Biblical tale in each episode and the Bible's lessons correspond with those in the main plots.
 * 8) It received a follow-up series called Friends and Heroes, which even though it doesn't feature the same cast of characters as this, it is still set in the same universe.
 * 9) It is mostly wholesome entertainment for the whole family.
 * 10) It makes for a great way to introduce Bible stories to Sunday school students.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The animation quality is inconsistent in the first three episodes, as it appears to be done choppily at times and somewhat in slow motion, being more like something seen in an interactive story computer game. However, the animation improves afterwards.
 * 2) The Christmas and Easter DVDs could've been better, as they're just rehashes and double dippings of a few of the episodes that had already been featured on their own, individual VHS tapes and DVDs. There isn't even any original animation to serve as wraparounds at least.
 * 3) A series this great is too short-lived.