Religious Edutainment is that genre which seeks to teach children (and sometimes adults) the tenets and values of their religion. (Or at the very least, their care-givers' religion.) The name shares a root with a portmanteau of Education and Entertainment, and shares many of the same tropes.
Tropes often found in Religious Edutainment:
- Adventures in the Bible
- Aesop Enforcer: At least one character will serve as a Lighter and Softer version of this trope.
- An Aesop
- As the Good Book Says...
- Author Tract
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot
- Heel–Face Turn / Heel–Faith Turn: Also known in some religions as "repentance."
- Deus ex Machina: Literally. Generally justified.
- Divine Intervention
- Easy Evangelism
- God Is Good: All the time.
- Only Sane Man/Woman/Child: One character serves as the voice of reason and tries to set everyone on the right path when things get out of hand.
- Pals with Jesus
- Reasonable Authority Figure: For the same reason as "Only Sane Man/Woman/Child" listed above.
- Suspiciously Specific Sermon
- Writer on Board
Compare The Moral Substitute, with which this genre has been known to overlap. Despite that stereotype and Sturgeon's Law, though, Religious Edutainment can be very well made in its own right.
Examples
Christian- 3-2-1 Penguins!
- 100 Days to Heaven, a 2011 ABS-CBN television series aired from May 9 to November 18, 2011.
- 3 Palavrinhas ("3 Little Words"), a Brazilian series of Christian children's music videos.
- The 700 Club
- Adventures from the Book of Virtues
- Adventures in Odyssey
- The Adventures of Carlos Caterpillar
- Agua Bendita, a 2010 ABS-CBN television series aired from February 8 to September 3, 2010.
- The Apocalypse series
- The Babylon Rising series
- While Barney & Friends is a secular series, much of the production staff members were of the Christian faith (series creator Sheryl Leach (and her father in law, Richard Leach) is a devout Christian, and was successfully convinced to allow a Israeli Hebrew-language adaptation because the version's producer Itzik Kol gave her the idea of Barney speaking in "the language of the Bible") and the show shares many tropes with the "mascot teacher" Christian edutainment shows, plus the show used the explicitly religious Christmas hymn "Joy to the World" in one of the Christmas specials (albeit instrumental to allow a sign language interpretation). Plus, several staff members went on to create a Spiritual Successor, BOZ the Bear, which is more explicit Christian edutainment.
- Becky's Barn
- The Berenstain Bears (Several titles authored by the son of the original creators, as well as a children's Bible featuring the characters.)
- Bibleman
- Boys of Valor
- Caleb and Sophia
- Captain Bible in Dome of Darkness, a surreal video game designed to help kids memorize Bible verses.
- The Charlie Churchmouse Show
- Cherub Wings
- Circle Square (based around the "Circle Square Ranch" summer camps in Canada)
- Colby's Clubhouse
- Chick Tracts
- The Children of the Last Days series
- El Chavo del ocho isn't an example for the most part, however, one of its occasional musical segments is a song called "Oyelo, escuchalo" ("Hear Him, Listen to Him"), which has appeared at least twice.note The "Him" in question is Jesus; it reminds the viewers/listeners to look for Jesus.
- The Christ Clone Trilogy
- Davey and Goliath (one of the earliest religious edutainment TV series; it was made in the 1960s)
- Distroller
- Dr. Wonder's Workshop
- The Donut Man
- The Massterpiece Donut Shop
- Dooley and Pals (has two versions; the secular version aired on PBS)
- The Dragon Keeper Chronicles
- EWTN, or Eternal Word Television Network (a Roman Catholic network) has blocks of programming aimed at children
(e.g, The Friar) and teenagers (e.g., Life on the Rock).
- Faithville has yielded two spinoffs to date:
- Miss Charity's Diner
- Gospel Time Square
- Filling Station
- Fire By Nite (a youth/teen-oriented series produced by the Gospel Bill Show crew)
- Flying House
- Gerbert (a secular version was produced as the show's second season)
- Gina D's Kids Club
- Sing Along with Gina D
- The Gospel Bill Show
- Bill Gunter, U.S. Marshall also known as The Cimarron Trail; direct-to-video successor series
- The Gospel According to St. Bernard (12-episode miniseries involving a talking St. Bernard dog)
- The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible (direct-to-video series created by Hanna-Barbera)
- Hand of the Morningstar
- Hermie and Friends
- Osamu Tezuka's In the Beginning: The Bible Stories
- Injil Hidup Berkemenangan
- Insight
- iShine Knect
- Joshua and the Promised Land
- JOT
- Jay Jay the Jet Plane (although not originally a Christian series, it was redubbed on Tommy Nelson videos to make references to Christianity)
- Joy Junction note
- The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Program
- Just Kids
- Kids Like You
- Kids Praise (the one with Psalty the Singing Songbook)
- Kingdom Adventure
- The Kingdom Chums
- The Knock Knock Show
- The Left Behind book series
- Lenny And Sid
- Maralee Dawn and Friends
- May Bukas Pa, a 2009–2010 ABS-CBN television series inspired by Marcelino pan y vino (Miracle of Marcelino). It lasted for 263 episodes and aired from February 2, 2009 to February 5, 2010.
- McGee and Me!
- My Time with Jesus
- Nathaniel, a 2015 ABS-CBN television series aired from April 20 to September 25, 2015.
- The Omega Code
- Megiddo: The Omega Code 2
- Once I Was a Beehive
- Pahappahooey Island
- Patch the Pirate (the reason the main character is a pirate is due to series creator Ron Hamilton losing his left eye due to cancer)
- Paws and Tales: The Animated Series
- Quigley's Village (sometimes called "Mr. Quigley's Village")
- Star Family
- Six: The Mark Unleashed
- The Story Keepers
- Sunshine Factory
- Superbook
- Superbook (2011), the western-produced, In Name Only, All-CGI Cartoon remake of the above series.
- While The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon is technically a secular series, the show's official website does offer various merchandise that have religious themes.
- Treasure Attic
- Tune Time
- The Underground Zealot series.
- VeggieTales
- What's in the Bible?
- The World Of Jonathan Singh
...and many, many, many others.
Hindu
Jewish
- Shari Lewis and her puppets Lamb Chop, Charley Horse and Hush Puppy
- Lamb Chop's Special Chanukah (in 1995)
- Shari's Passover Surprise (in 1996)
- The Magic Door
- Rugrats had a couple of episodes centered on Hannukah and Passover.
Muslim
- Adam's World
- The 99
- Para Pencari Tuhan
- Tomorrow's Pioneers, for all its extremism, still ends up counting.
Other
- Oracle of Tao. It's teaching a strange syncretic religion (a mixture of at least three religions). But mostly Taoism, as the name implies.
