{"id":7680,"date":"2017-11-17T14:48:18","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T19:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=7680"},"modified":"2017-11-17T14:48:18","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T19:48:18","slug":"trailer-station-weekend-star-coming-man-invented-christmas-forever-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/11\/trailer-station-weekend-star-coming-man-invented-christmas-forever-girl.html","title":{"rendered":"This weekend &#8211; &#8220;The Star&#8221;; Coming: &#8220;The Man Who Invented Christmas&#8221; &amp; &#8220;Forever My Girl&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trailer Station:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"THE STAR - Official Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9NjvYZtwk00?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>This weekend: In Sony Pictures Animation&#8217;s <em>The Star<\/em><\/strong>,<strong> a small but brave donkey named Bo yearns for a life beyond his daily grind at the village mill.<\/strong> One day he finds the courage to break free, and finally goes on the adventure of his dreams. On his journey, he teams up with Ruth, a loveable sheep who has lost her flock and Dave, a dove with lofty aspirations. Along with three wisecracking camels and some eccentric stable animals, Bo and his new friends follow the Star and become unlikely heroes in the greatest story ever told \u2014 the first Christmas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wednesday, November 22\/Thanksgiving &#8211; <em>The Man Who Invented Christmas<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The Man Who Invented Christmas<\/em> tells of the magical journey that led to thecreation of Ebenezer Scrooge (Christopher Plummer), Tiny Tim and other classic characters from <em>A Christmas Carol<\/em>.<\/strong> Directed by Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day), the film shows how Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) mixed real life inspirations with his vivid imagination to conjure up unforgettable characters and a timeless tale, forever changing the<br \/>\nholiday season into the celebration we know today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mini-review:<\/strong> I previewed this one with my sister. We agreed it was charming and entertaining. A nice holiday film. <strong>Recommended.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Coming: Friday, Jan. 19, 2018 &#8211; <em>Forever My Gir<\/em>l<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Forever My Girl | Official Trailer | Roadside Attractions |  In theaters January 19\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5iEOQn8UUHI?start=2&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media: Trailer Station: This weekend: In Sony Pictures Animation&#8217;s The Star, a small but brave donkey named Bo yearns for a life beyond his daily grind at the village mill. One day he finds the courage to break free, and finally goes on the adventure&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3632,13,22,24],"tags":[9250,9192,9249],"class_list":["post-7680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-christmas","category-family-matters","category-media","category-movies","tag-forever-my-girl","tag-sony-pictures-animations-the-star","tag-the-man-who-invented-christmas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>This weekend - &quot;The Star&quot;; Coming: &quot;The Man Who Invented Christmas&quot; &amp; &quot;Forever My Girl&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/11\/trailer-station-weekend-star-coming-man-invented-christmas-forever-girl.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This weekend - &quot;The Star&quot;; Coming: &quot;The Man Who Invented Christmas&quot; &amp; &quot;Forever My Girl&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media: Trailer Station: This weekend: In Sony Pictures Animation&#8217;s The Star, a small but brave donkey named Bo yearns for a life beyond his daily grind at the village mill. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7681,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7680\/revisions\/7681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}