Watch: A new Journey to Bethlehem featurette focuses on the movie's donkey
Watch: A new Journey to Bethlehem featurette focuses on the movie's donkey
It's the first featurette to focus on a cast member who does NOT sing.
There are no donkeys in the biblical version of the Nativity story—none that get an explicit mention, at any rate—but they loom large in popular depictions of the Nativity. Nearly every film about the birth of Jesus shows the very-pregnant Mary riding a donkey on her journey to Bethlehem, and in some animated films—like the Disney short film The Small One (1978) or the feature-length Sony film The Star (2017)—the donkey is one of the main characters, if not the main character.1
So it’s not too surprising that the latest featurette for the Christmas musical Journey to Bethlehem focuses on the donkey who accompanies Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, and whose name in this film is Fig. No, the donkey does not sing—unlike all the other cast members who have been profiled so far. But musicals tend to be comedies, or at least to have comedic elements, and this donkey does add a comedic element to the film, as we saw in the film’s first full-length trailer almost a month ago.
You can watch the featurette below:
For once, I have nothing to say about this featurette. It’s pretty self-explanatory.
Although I do note that the publicists haven’t exhausted the movie’s human actors yet. We have yet to see a featurette on Antonio Banderas’s Herod, for example. I’m sure we’ll get one eventually, though. The film is coming to theatres November 10, which is still four and a half weeks away! Plenty of time to get new featurettes out.
In the meantime, I find myself wondering what it would be like if someone were to make a live-action movie that depicted the Nativity from the donkey’s point of view… a more dramatic movie, something in the vein of Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar or Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, perhaps…? Nah, just kidding. Or am I…?
Past posts on Journey to Bethlehem:
‘Has The Road to Bethlehem not been filmed yet?’ (August 19, 2022)
‘Adam Anders’ Nativity musical now filming in Spain’ (February 23, 2023)
‘Adam Anders’ Nativity musical gets a title’ (April 3, 2023)
‘Watch: The teaser trailer for Journey to Bethlehem’ (April 28, 2023)
‘Watch: Earnest and jokey moments mix in the official trailer for Journey to Bethlehem’ (September 14, 2023)
‘Watch: Actors, producers discuss Journey to Bethlehem in a new featurette’ (September 20, 2023)
‘Watch: The lead actors talk Mary and Joseph in a new Journey to Bethlehem featurette’ (September 29, 2023)
‘Watch: Mary’s sisters sing about marriage in a new Journey to Bethlehem featurette’ (October 3, 2023)
‘Watch: Herod’s son is ready for his close-up in a new Journey to Bethlehem featurette’ (October 6, 2023)
Other examples include Rankin-Bass’s Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977) and Vic Atkinson’s The Little Brown Burro (1978). I’m sure there are many others. It does seem like there were quite a few of them in the late 1970s, though, doesn’t it? Or do I just remember those ones because I happened to be in their target demographic at the time?