Justifying a Current Obsession

Could also be called - that blog about the 10th Kingdom.

I recently re-discovered a miniseries called the 10th Kingdom. NBC ran it in the year 2000 - part of a string of miniseries sponsored by Hallmark. I remember watching it at a freshman in high school and really liking it. It came up on Netflix a couple of weeks ago and I thought it would be fun to watch again. I wasn't sure if I would like it as much as I did when I was 15. (When I was a child I really liked the movie Drop Dead Fred and when I watched it recently I was bitterly disappointed.) Turns out I like the movie as much now as I did then. I've watched parts of it repeatedly and in an effort to justify wasting (scratch that, "using") all that time on the movies, I thought I might highlight some of the themes in the series.

First: a quick summary of the 10th kingdom.

The 10th kingdom is an epic adventure that follows a young woman, Virginia, and her father (Tony.) There is an alternate universe comprised of the 10 kingdoms. These kingdoms are based on the fairy tales of the Grimm brothers. Many well known stories are parodied or alluded to throughout the film (Snow White, Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Bo Peep, Jack and the Beanstalk, 3 little pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, etc.) Along for the adventure is Wolf, who falls in love with Virginia, a prince that has been turned into a dog, an evil queen, and many other colorful characters.

Second: Introduce main characters, the lesson we are to learn from them, allusions to that lesson elsewhere in literature or film, and finally that lesson as found in the Bible or Christian theology. I had a lot of fun doing this - tells you just how nerdy I am.

Virginia (Young heroine): "I'm just a waitress."
Lesson: Ordinary people can do extraordinary things
Literary Parallel: Frodo Baggins from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
Biblical Parallel: King David - Youngest of 8 brothers, a shepherd, yet he becomes the great King David of Israel, a man after God's own heart.

Wolf: "I might fight against what I am!"
Lesson: Even though we may have a dark past, true transformation can and does happen.
Literary Parallel: Jean Val Jean from Victor Hugo's Les Miserables
Biblical Parallel: Saul, a notorious killer of Christians, who was transformed into the Apostle Paul

Tony (Virginia's Father): "No longer is he selfishly driven by envy and greed."
Lesson: True heroism stems from self-sacrifice.
Literary parallel: Interestingly enough - the Spiderman movies explore this in a fascinating way.
Biblical Parallel: 1 John 3:16 "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."

The Queen (Villain): "Kill the girl or I'll do it myself."
Lesson: Doing evil multiplies until you are a slave to it and eventually lose your identity altogether
Literary parallel: Darth Vader from Star Wars
Biblical Parallel: John 8:34 "Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin."

Other characters also bring up the question of fate or determinism. On one level the theme of the movie is to live out your destiny - but a closer look reveals that the theme is often challenged within the movie. This is seen primarily in the character of the huntsman who inadvertantly murdered his own young son. He was offered a magic bow that would never fail to hit the heart of a living thing when shot. All he had to do to possess it was to shut his eyes and shoot. The arrow landed in his young son's heart. His consolation was that it was his "destiny" to kill his son and his subsequent destiny to commit the many murders he has since then. This is repulsive to the main characters and causes us as the audience to question the reality of destiny. This also leads to the question of whether or not we are held personally responsible for our destiny. The end of the movie again raises this question, but I will not reveal exactly what happens in case any of you want to watch it.

One of the funniest parts of the whole series is a scene where Tony, the father, frustrated with yet another riddle, questions the frog as to the purpose of its existence. In the fairy tale world many of the characters seem to exist for only one purpose and often do not question that purpose. That is why the transformation of the wolf character is such a strong theme throughout the movies because he is in contrast to the entire world in which he is set.

The series incorporates so much, but it is generally entertaining and raises a lot of good questions. I think that is why it does not get old after multiple viewings. Each time raises a new question for me to ponder and explore. Also, parts of the movie are extremely funny. I leave you with one such scene:

These are the children of the troll king who are in pursuit of Virginia and her company. While in the 10th kingdom (New York) they discover a boombox playing the song "Night Fever" by the Bee Gees, which they really enjoy.