The Miracle Maker, a little-known animated Gospel film with Ralph Fiennes as the voice of Jesus, deserves a place in any Christian family's Easter viewing. Its beautifully crafted mix of stop-motion and traditional 2D animation engages the imagination without dominating it in a way that live-action cinema can't.

It's also a masterful piece of adaptation, compressing the story of Christ into 88 minutes. It somehow retains the compactness of the Gospel accounts, yet feels fleshed out by subtle touches and connections within the existing material rather than overmuch invention.

For this discussion, Thomas and James are joined by Timothy Reckart (animator and director of the Oscar-nominated stop-motion short Head Over Heels, and of the feature-length Christmas movie The Star).

Watch Tim Reckart's short film Head Over Heels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96D-bRx5KuU

Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com