annimated prophet

eid mubarak, eid marks the release of a new animated flick by the FineMedia Group: "Muhammad-The Last Prophet." they screened it in several theaters on this holiday. i saw it and only one of the kids i took started falling asleep towards the end, more because it was dark and after 9p.m. and not because of the film itself. i praise the intention and the quality of production. i think we need more of these films. and i hope the quality continues to improve. but i had some thoughts i want to share with yall. - thought 1: while essentially an animated version of "The Message" it has some differences. Hazrat Hamza or Hazrat Zayd are not shown this time around. and to make it easily digestable for kids, an anonymous companion is invented who basically narrates portions of the story to his child in a post-prophet muslim mecca. not a bad strategy. though it could have used a couple of cut aways where after an important event the child would ask the father a question and he would help the kid understand the lesson he learned through something the prophet said to them. that would have helped, since the prophet was not allowed to be shown. this should have been done especially for the battles. instead of sword fights where they show people killing. just because you don't show blood, does not mean its OK for kids, or they know whats going on. - thought 2: i want to find the producers and ask them why if the film is aimed at children, why not animate youth companions like Hazrat Sad, or Hazrat Zubayr or Hazrat Zayd or Hazrat Aisha? Why only Hazrat Bilal and not other important companions? i wonder if its because he was a slave that he is OK to be depicted. i hope not! i find it extremely offensive, that he is somehow not included in the undepictable class. whats up with that?!? and since when did Hazrat Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali and select others attain the same status as the Beloved Messenger of Allah. Peace be upon then all. maybe its because they are "those promised paradise," or"mothers of the believers," or "ahl-e-bayt" i don't know? why not show a young woman like Asma bint Abu Bakr helping her father and the prophet migrate? - thought 3: while i'm on the topic of undepictables, if the big conservative barrier of depicting humans in muslim art is already being broken, why not follow the example of those who broke this barrier before? why not depict the prophet with a veil over his face? why title the movie "Mohammad-the last prophet" when the prophet is not shown. the key topic is Islam not Muhammad. can this be considered false advertising? anyways... it wasn't all bad. my 7 year old cousin would recognise stories she learned in islamic school and blurt out exitedly: "hey, i learned about that!," especially with the whole spiderweb at the cave moment. there should've and could've been many more moments like that. it would've made for a much better movie. i give it 3 out of 5 stars. its a shoulda-woulda-coulda kind of film.