Baptist Bulletin, Oct. 2005

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan became history's all-time best seller next to the Bible itself. Now we can be blessed by the story through this film version, based on Bunyan's classic. Although especially suited for children ages six and older, the recording can also be enjoyable and effective for adults. Both the graphics and narration are excellent. The 135-minute recording is divided into nine 15-minute segments, enabling the user to either view the whole story at once or use shorter sections as a series over a period of time, such as in a class setting. The recording comes with a leader's guide for parents and teachers and tells about John Bunyan and The Pilgrim's Progress. Then it summarizes each of the nine sections individually, with information on the main characters and major settings. Each section also includes a Scripture guide and a discussion guide. A hardback 126-page full-color storybook is also available from Vision Video.

Video Librarian, Nov./Dec. 2005

Dangerous Journey is an adaptation of John Bunyan's 17th-century classic The Pilgrim's Progress in an illustrated format designed for the religious education of youthful audiences. Told as a dream, it relates the story of Christian, who abandons home and family to flee from sin and destruction and travel the straight and narrow to the Celestial City. Along the way he encounters allegorical figures such as Faithful, Evangelist, and Hopeful, as well as Ignorance, the giant Despair, and the monster Apollyon, as he confronts a series of hardships and tests before arriving at his destination. Divided into nine segments (with recaps and previews, allowing for group discussion), Dangerous Journey nicely captures Bunyan's extremely visual writing style, with Alan Parry's enchanting illustrations backed by Paul Copley's beautiful narration, bringing fresh appeal to a classic that is admittedly difficult for modern audiences. Despite the caveat on the DVD jacket that the content might not be appropriate for very young children, I would advise parental discretion for those under 10, due to vivid portrayals of hellfire and grisly death that might no be palatable to all Christians (though kids who play video games such as Doom are likely to consider this pretty tame). As a seminal work of English literature, this is actually more appropriate for general collections, than for young people's religious studies. Highly recommended.

School LIbrary Journal

Dangerous Journey is based on John Bunyan's 1676 classic, The Pilgrim's Progress, an allegory of the Christian's road to heaven. The story is divided into nine 15-minute segments taken from the main event in the original book. The video is animated with watercolor and ink paintings, and set in pastoral 1600 England with the characters in period dress. A male narrator varies his voice for each character, and dramatic symphonic music fills the background. This introduction to the basic themes of the Christian life and pilgrimage for young children is suitable for church and Sunday school classes as well as for home use.

Dangerous Journey Study Guide