“One of the reasons I was so excited about Young David is David’s one of the few people in the Bible where he says he’s a a man after God’s own heart,” Erick Goss, CEO and founder of Minno, a platform for wholesome and Christian kids’ entertainment, told The Stream. The studio has done an “amazing job of actually incorporating what might that look like in the life of a child. Even in this first episode of ‘Warrior,’ there’s a sense that David is engaging threats to his flock, but with the Lord. And I think for each one of us as believers in Christ, there’s a sense of ‘[W]hat does it mean [that] we have the Holy Spirit in us?'” 

Goss is talking about the new 5-episode series on David’s life as a young boy. The first episode of Minno’s Young David, “Warrior,” premieres Friday, November 10. Subsequent episodes will be released on the second Friday of each month. 

What Young David Will Teach Kids

Goss explains how the series will explore what it means to have God at the center of one’s life. “Does it mean for us to actually trust that God is guiding and engaging us in everything that we’re doing? What would it mean for me as a person to walk each day knowing that ‘The Holy Spirit is in me and promises to be with me to help me be strong and courageous’? And so, if we can see that in the lives of kids and help them have a Christian imagination in regards to ‘What does it mean to live my life in partnership with God,’ that would be amazing. That would be really what we’d love to see happen.”

Doing Something More

While the 5-minute episodes are geared toward kids ages 2-12, parents and grandparents will enjoy watching as well. “You can take the whole family and everybody will enjoy it. I have not had an adult yet tell me they were bored watching it.” Angel Studios and Sunrise Animation Studios is in partnership with Minno to produce the series. 

Young David is short in part because the level of animation within the series is very expensive. They were able to get world-class animators from Pixar, Sony and Disney to come together around the project. “We wanted to do something more to … showcase what’s possible with the expectation if they experience this, this will give us the opportunity to continue to make investment in high quality children’s media.” Goss thinks of Young David as the first of many shows or movies that they can do in what he calls the “biblical cinematic universe.” Goss continued,

People talk about the Marvel cinematic universe. Well, you could see with the quality of the storytelling in the animation that’s done, there’s a … lot of stories that we can tell from the Bible using this type of format. But if we do something like that, we want to make sure that we can treat it world class. And you know, right now there’s not a better distributor in the world around theatrical than Angel Studios and [their] being innovative in what they’re doing. It’s a real privilege to be partnering with them. But I also think both Angel and Minno are really thinking about how can we work with Slingshot [Productions] to really advance this in a way that this could really become something that could really serve families globally.

Illustrated Children’s Books, Too

Minno will also be releasing illustrated books to accompany each episode. Those will be available by this Easter, Goss said. Minno will also produce church curriculum for kids based on the series. That will be available next year. 

Helping Parents be Spiritual Heroes to Their Kids

So much media content is available for kids in today’s culture, and not all of it is good. “There’s so much bad content and content that’s not congruent with Christian values, the primary focus within the church has been to protect and keep out. And that’s primarily because we do not have a lot of great Christian assets to expose our kids. And so, one of my passions at Minno is, ‘What can we do to create a media company where we can create media that can actually help parents be spiritual heroes in the lives of their kids?’

“I think for parents, the key is, ‘How can I use media to actually help my kids better understand the world and understand the things that are true, and understand how we as a family believe God is working in the world?’ I think for younger kids, [it is] really important to expose them to the truth. That’s why we created Minno, to help kids be grounded in the truth.”

Watch the trailer: 

Nancy Flory, Ph.D., is a senior editor at The Stream. You can follow her @NancyFlory3, and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.