History WesternAnimation / Superbook2011

* StrictlyFormula: Each episode follows more or less the same pattern--one of the kids (usually Chris) experiences a moral conflict, then Superbook pulls the kids into a Bible adventure whose plot corresponds to the conflict in question, the kids interact with the Bible characters and learn AnAesop, then Superbook takes them back to the modern world where the lesson is then applied to try and resolve the initial conflict. The modern-era conflicts do tend to vary, however.

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: None of the Bible characters ever seems to question [[ChangedMyJumper the obviously anachronistic clothes Chris and Joy wear]], or Gizmo's obviously inhuman appearance. Regarding the latter, the closest that the series gets is when shepherd boy David assumes Gizmo's wearing armor, while Moses--who's just seen Gizmo use a built-in vacuum cleaner to collect manna--only wonders aloud which of Israel's tribes Gizmo belongs to.

** "Elijah and the Prophets of Baal" doesn't show the titular prophets cutting themselves during their noisy worship rites on Mount Carmel like they did in the source material (though they are shown holding swords while they're dancing around).

** Two of these happen in "Peter's Denial." First, Joy gets hit with one after Chris [[WeDoNotKnowEachOther casually and callously pretends not to know her]] in order to be able to fit in with a group of cool kids; she winds up fleeing and then standing outside weeping uncontrollably. Second, as in the source material, Peter stumbles out of the judgment hall and falls to his knees, weeping bitterly, after realizing he'd just denied Jesus three times, exactly as Jesus had earlier warned him would happen.

** There's also "Peter's Denial," where Chris hurts Joy by [[WeDoNotKnowEachOther pretending not to know her]] in order to hang out with some cool kids. Following a HeroicBSOD, which is a much more serious reaction than what she'd normally have toward Chris's selfish antics, Joy's response is akin to that of a jilted girlfriend ("If he doesn't want to be with me, then I don't want to be with him"). However, much later, Joy rather strongly urges Gizmo to act quickly to save Chris after he falls off a boat and is in danger of drowning, despite Gizmo pointing out Chris's earlier callous treatment of her.

* EnergyBeings: Whenever God appears physically, He is shown either as a bright disembodied ball of golden light or as a translucent humanoid light-figure, though [[TheFaceless His face is never seen]].

* TheFaceless: Only twice has God been shown in person in the series, in the episodes "In the Beginning" and "Revelation," and in both cases His face is never seen. In the former episode, He is depicted as a holographic light-being with a humanoid body and is only shown from behind or at torso-level with His face just out of sight, and in the latter episode He is shown as a sun-like orb of pure light on Heaven's throne with Jesus standing on His right side.

* ExcitedShowTitle: Several episodes have this across the different seasons.
** Season One: "The Test!", "Let My People Go!", "A Giant Adventure!", "Roar!", "He is Risen!", and 'Revelation: The Final Battle!"
** Season Two: "The Fiery Furnace!", and "Esther: For Such a Time as This!"
** Season Five: "Baptized!", and "Rescued!"

** It should also be noted that while the trope's application is often zigzagged with human Bible characters, it doesn't appear to apply to supernatural beings. The series implies quite often, for instance, that Jesus Himself is an exception to the trope (being the Son of God and all), [[SecretSecretKeeper but simply keeps silent about the kids' time-travelling]]. Michael also appears to know the kids' real nature, given that upon their arrival in Heaven he assures them they don't need to be afraid as they won't be harmed there ("fear" and "harm" being concepts that ought not to exist just yet at that point since Lucifer hasn't yet launched his rebellion). And while God Himself has never directly interacted with the kids [[spoiler:except for the brief moment they appear before His throne in "Revelation"]], it's safe to assume He well knows about them, seeing as He's omniscient (plus the implication that Superbook itself is a manifestation of God's Spirit). On the evil side of things, Lucifer also seems to be aware that the kids are time-travelers and also knows about Superbook (consider his aggrieved reaction and brief showing of his GameFace when Chris mentions Superbook in "Revelation").

* ArtisticLicenseMusic: As seen in his image on the [[Characters/Superbook2011 Characters page]], Chris's guitar is reminiscent of a superstrat, but it seems to lack any visible pickups, the bridge has no saddles with which to grip the strings, and the tremolo arm is fixed directly inside the body rather than on the bridge (which makes it completely useless as a tremolo).

* ArtisticLicenseHistory:
** Despite what "Miracles of Love" seems to imply, the Second Temple of Jerusalem was not built by King Herod, in fact being constructed on the original temple mount site over 500 years prior after Cyrus the Great allowed the Jews to return. King Herod did extensively rebuild the structure during his reign, but that was still some three decades before when it's said to be "new" in the episode.
** In general, as one may expect for an Evangelical Christian series with TimeTravel as its primary plot device, the Bible (particularly all ''Textus Receptus''-derived versions of the Bible, i.e. the King James Version) is taken as absolute historical fact and all events depicted on the kids' travels occur exactly as the verses describe them, even those scholars agree to be largely mythical (the Exodus and the Flood) or added in retroactively (Jesus's "let he who is without sin" speech found in John 7:53)

* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: Any time the kids attempt to interfere in any of the bad events of an adventure, [[ButThouMust something ends up preventing them]] from doing so. For example, in "Roar!", Joy tries to reach King Darius to prevent Daniel from being sent to the lions, only to arrive too late (she still manages to talk to Darius afterward, prior to him spending the night in fasting).

As noted on the predecessor series' page, the remake was the first animated series to air on Creator/{{Freeform}} since 2005 (that network also aired the original show in the 1980s), although it's most often broadcast on ''Series/The700Club'' telethons and simultaneously uploaded online by the official [=YouTube=] channel. This series has also been shown in Japan as of 2018, bringing the franchise full circle.

* OurAngelsAreDifferent: This being a Bible-themed series, angels are depicted as the WingedHumanoid variety; some, like Michael and Lucifer (before the latter becomes Satan), are shown to wear armor and carry flaming swords. In "In The Beginning," during the war in Heaven, angels are shown as vanishing into streams of light when cut down by Lucifer's sword, though it's left vague whether they actually perish or not.

* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: In "Rehab and the Walls of Jericho", literally every single inhabitant of Jericho excluding Rehab (who helped the Israelite army) and her family is exterminated by Joshua and the Israelites with the kids' and Gizmo's help without so much as a HandWave of justification. [[FridgeHorror And to think this was the portion of the Canaanite Conquest the show was most comfortable depicting...]]

* SeenItAll: Implied somewhat with John the Revelator in "Revelation." When he was among the twelve disciples, he saw Jesus performing all manner of miracles, was empowered to perform miracles himself, and saw the resurrected Jesus ascend bodily to Heaven; and now, as an older man, he's been shown all manner of incredible things in vision, to include, in his words, the events of the end of days, the horrors of famine and war, the splendor of angels and the glory of God--and he's telling Joy and Gizmo this while they're standing in a pavilion just outside the throne-room of Heaven itself. With all of that, the idea that the kids are time-travelers who've been brought there by a sentient tablet-computer, or the sight of Gizmo using gadgets such as his wrist-chronometer and rocket-thrusters, doesn't elicit any stronger response from John than upraised eyebrows; in fact, when Joy tells him about Superbook, he suggests that its activity sounds just like the working of the Spirit of God, the very force that brought him into his vision in the first place.

* PerceptionFilter: According to the series' website, this trope is the reason why recurring Bible characters, such as Jesus's disciples, tend not to remember Chris, Joy and Gizmo when they meet during different adventures, some of which may take place years apart; in order to keep the focus on the Biblical narrative and not deviate too much from the source material's historical accuracy, the Bible characters don't retain long-term memory of the kids from one episode to another (such as when Peter and John, who the kids have met with Jesus several previous times, fail to recognize them in "Philip," requiring the kids to cover by saying--truthfully--that they've heard the disciples preaching and seen them with Jesus on past occasions). One notable long-term example of this trope in action is Mary, Jesus's mother, who the kids first meet in the Season One episode "The First Christmas" and then again in the Season Four premiere "Jesus Feeds the Hungry." In answer to the question of why Joy doesn't initially recognize her and she doesn't remember Joy at all in the latter episode, the website explains that since the events of the two episodes take place 30 years apart from Mary's point of view, she's naturally much older now than when Joy first saw her and, in turn, she would naturally expect Joy to be a grown woman by that point. Incidentally, this same trope is also the reason why, in "Elisha and the Syrians," Elisha doesn't comment on Joy openly using her cell-phone, which should obviously be an anachronistic item (Superbook has allowed her to bring it back in time since it's a key element of the episode's moral dilemma); according to the website's FAQ, Elisha simply doesn't take particular notice of the phone so the episode won't detract from the larger Bible narrative with minor details such as this.
** It should be noted, however, that this trope's effect is somewhat zigzagged among some episodes, either in cases where the kids themselves lampshade the likelihood of someone noticing their appearances after any short TimeSkip or a Bible character sees them after said forward-jump in time. For example, in "Jacob and Esau," they first meet the brothers around the time Jacob swindles Esau out of the family birthright, and are then taken forward in time to when Jacob's been living with Laban for fourteen years; in the latter instance, the kids disguise themselves in period-appropriate clothes so as to blend in better and thus avoid having to answer any uncomfortable questions Jacob might ask regarding how come they look the same as when he last saw them fourteen years prior. As well, in "Solomon's Temple," they meet Solomon just when he's about to be anointed king of Israel, then are taken forward in time twelve years, at which point he's been busy with the temple's construction; Solomon outright asks them where they've been in all that time, to which Chris quickly responds that they've been travelling ([[MetaphoricallyTrue TIME-travelling]], but Solomon doesn't need to know that).

* ShownTheirWork: One of this series' main draws is its adherence to historical accuracy. For example, as outlined in [[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnhh8w this video]], the episode "Roar!" has a brief visual shot of Babylon, which includes the famous [[https://archaeology-travel.com/photo-album/ishtar-gate-in-the-pergamon-museum/ Ishtar Gate]].

* StrictlyFormula: Each episode follows more or less the same pattern--one of the kids (usually Chris) experiences a moral conflict, then Superbook pulls the kids into a Bible adventure whose plot corresponds to the conflict in question, the kids interact with the Bible characters and learn a valuable lesson, then Superbook takes them back to the modern world where the lesson is then applied to try and resolve the initial conflict. The modern-era conflicts do tend to vary, however.