Miss Ruby is missing and Ali and her furry friends must embark on a sea journey to find her and retrieve a great treasure in Pahappahooey Island: Do It Afraid, the newest episode of this Christian television series. Along the way they will each have to face and overcome their greatest fears if their quest is going to be successful.

Pahappahooey Island uses traditional puppetry, and from the perspective of production values, it’s quite well done. It’s in the storytelling—and more importantly the spiritual message—that things get a little muddled.

I suppose it’s inevitable that any Christian program for children will be compared to VeggieTales. It’s a tough act to follow for any show. Leave aside the use of puppets instead of computer animation, and many of the elements are here. A little adventure, a little music, some simple spiritual truth. I think they even tried for a story that would have some appeal to adults, but they didn’t really hit the mark.

Still, the target audience here is children, so I can’t complain too much if it’s not my cup of tea. Which makes the spiritual message here all the more troubling. Oh, the basic message is fine—sometimes we have to do things we’re afraid of—but some of the other details set a tone that I’m not comfortable with.

The first thing that rubbed me the wrong way was Miss Ruby—voiced by prominent televangelist Joyce Meyer—casting the characters interfering with Ali and her friends as “enemies.” That’s a pretty stark label for a children’s program. I guess it goes along with the concealed sword hidden in a scroll that was part of the treasure, a scroll that contained the “words of the Creator.”  I guess if words fail you, it’s good to have a weapon to fall back on.

The sword comes in handy, though, as the only apparent way to resolve the final confrontation is through force of arms,  thus freeing Ali and her friends from a trap laid by an evil snake and his sidekick. Having won freedom, our heroes immediately turn around and put the evil-doers in their own trap. So I guess that’s, “Do unto others as they would have done unto you!”

Setting sail back to Pahappahooey Island, Ali and the rest of her merry band immediately set aside the scrolls containing the “word of the Creator” and dig into the rest of the great treasure… golden yo-yos. Here endeth the spiritual teaching.

I’m probably over-analyzing this simple story; but honestly, there are better choices out there if you want child-friendly programming with a spiritual message. Pahappahooey Island strikes me as more of a shallow effort to wring $15 a DVD out of a captive audience. For that price you do get a bonus episode, but speaking for myself, one was sufficient.

Pahappahooey Island is unrated but apart from a somewhat mixed spiritual message, otherwise harmless.

Courtesy of a national publicist, Michael screened a promotional DVD of Pahappahooey Island: Do It Afraid.