El mejor día del año

This is very niche, super Christian and should be marketed as such. We bought it in the supermarket as a fantasy movie for a very irreligious UK child and family. The movie was branded "enchanted kingdom" we were very disappointed, expecting a fantasy genre. It is weird, unbelievably slow and tear jerking. It was so awful, so terrible, different from most movies and freaky - we watched it all in absolute horror, waiting for the twist in the tale, expecting it to drift into an outright horror movie. I never write reviews but felt this movie needed one to clarify what it is about. A little girl ghost/vision character repeatedly calls the lead female "girly" which I find very creepy. The chaste Christian romance was icky. My 9yr old said it was terrible beyond words.

Camp Grace was built by a rich Christian man in honor of his lost love. Yellow Day is one day at camp inspired by a dying young girl. Yong man (Drew Seeley) is a new counsellor at camp looking for his dream girl (Lindsey Shaw) after an unique first date in a locked church. He gets help from an imaginary girl (Ashley Boettcher).

Christian movies don't have to be bad movies. They can incorporate religious messages into compelling drama. This is not the way. I don't like the animation and the animated story. It seems more interested in promoting Yellow Day. (I'm assuming it's a real thing.) The romance becomes a forced story writing element more than something that fits naturally. I don't know if a romantic pursuit is worthy of religious revelation. Here's my pitch. Stay mostly in the church. Let the date do the religious heavy-lifting. It would require some top notch writing, but it's worth it.

This might be tolerable as a family-friendly film with acceptable animation, production and narrative... But, it is very heavy on the Jesus stuff... Avoid if, like me, you can only take that stuff in very small doses. I'm afraid I couldn't get past the first 20 minutes of this and my 8 year old daughter found it a bit slow too.

It's understandable that Yellow Day is branded too Christian by most secular critics, who still give kudos to the acting or the music or the animation, or the cinematography or the multiple layers in the story. But Christian critics have highly recommended it for family viewing. Yellow Day is a wild ride with multiple insights: fun and serious, joyful and needful, happy and sad - just like the real Christian life. It is chastely romantic on many levels - the widower, the long married, the unrequited love, and the love at first sight. The acting is real; the Little Girl (Ashley Boettcher) is absolutely the adolescent Christian girl - bright, cheerful, sweet and willing to share her Faith; the Good Man (Drew Seely) is that good, nice, uncool but lovable guy who loves Jesus; the Woman in the Church (Lindsey Shaw) is the genius, cautious, cool girl whose rough times have led her to Christ; Whit (Akeem Smith), is the handsome, funny, smooth-talking guy who is unwittingly being led to Jesus; Taylor (Megan Holder) is the sunshiny, smiling, savvy Christian girl who is always underestimated by the non-Christian; the counselors act like counselors because they are counselors and the campers act like campers because they are campers. We see, in true stories, how their actions bear much good fruit, and how the promises of the beatitudes are fulfilled in their lives. The unconventional post-Disney animation displays the world of God's Grace in a gorgeous and intelligent manner, that world which is around us at all times. When the Good Man visits Camp Grace, God brings him into this world where he meets the Little Girl. Taking her up on her offer to help him find the Woman in the Church who comes there every year, the Good Man goes on a journey - the journey common to all Christians who strive to follow the Word. May the Light of Christ be with you!