As was a common occurrence for many during the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Jason Moody had a lot more time on his hands now that he did not have to be in the office for JP Morgan Chase, along with having a lightened workload. Now he and a team of seasoned veterans are looking to have a Biblically-inspired anime show to be Angel Studios' next big hit.
A longtime fan of anime, the Japanese style of computer-generated animation that has spread all over the world, Moody began to draw random anime characters and create short stories around them for his kids.
"My daughter, who was 15 at the time, and my other kids, were just like, 'We love this'...She was like, 'This is a show about the Bible that I would actually watch,'" Moody recalled to Townhall, realizing that he maybe had a vehicle to bring themes and elements from the Bible, specifically from the book of Genesis, into the genre. From that, "Gabriel And The Guardians" was born.
Three years later, Moody and fellow creator David Cunningham are now trying to have what started out as drawings created from more free time to a fleshed out show to become a reality through Angel Studios, who brought "Sound of Freedom" to the big screen. Due to how the production company operates, the "Gabriel And The Guardians" team are now in the interest-gathering phase to bring the show across the finish line. (Watch the trailer at the bottom of this story.)
Moody, Cunningham, and Albert Moore stressed that while the show's settings and characters are inspired from the Bible, it does not rip stories straight out from it. Cunningham said his problem with the state of Christian entertainment is what places like Disney are struggling with today: They beat you over the head with a message at the cost of storytelling.
"Disney has turned into a woke company that cares more about pushing an agenda than they care about telling good stories. I would argue that Christians were doing the same thing for a very long time. Christians are now just starting to realize that telling a good story is what we need to be doing," said Cunningham.
Moore, who started at Disney and stayed for 14 years, said he saw the company's magic decline as they started to care more about sending a message than they did about storytelling even though they shifted from 2D animation to 3D. The visuals were better but the stories fell flat.
"When we came together, we decided first and foremost, it was going to be good storytelling. Set the artwork aside, even though the art is important to us, we all three decided...to tell good stories," Moore explained.
"You can have belief in your art but it has to tell a story. Because if it doesn't, it's just propaganda," Moody added.
And it's that commitment to telling a great story that has paid off so far. As part of the Angel Studios approval process, "Gabriel And The Guardians" had to pass the company's focus group. The show became one of nine projects that were approved out of countless submissions in that year. In fact, their idea was so good they managed to score, to the team's surprise, some big names in the animation world to sign on to the project in a short amount of time: Johnny Yong Bosch, James Arnold Taylor, and Matt Lanter.
"Gabriel And The Guardians" was first teased at GalaxyCon in Austin, Texas, and Moody was happy to see the trailer land with the younger audience in attendance as well as the older test audience from Angel Studios. The teaser trailer makes it clear at the start where the series is drawing inspiration from.
As for the themes of the show? The creators pointed to the tagline: "Find Your Identity. Seize Your Destiny."
"So this idea that we are, at our core, designed with an identity but who we become and who we are is something...[that] will be the summation of the choices we make, good or bad," Moody said.
To help make "Gabriel And The Guardians" a reality, you can visit their page here and sign up to express interest for the show.