Monday, November 24, 2008

Where is Bugglesville?

The show: Bugtime Adventures, an animated show for Christian children. The show combines old Bible stories with newer fiction about a community of bugs who witness biblical milestones. As far as I can tell, the episodes follow neither historical chronology nor Bible book order.
The episode: "A Giant Problem." This episode is available on DVD, but if you get the Trinity Broadcasting Network in your area, you could catch it on a Saturday morning. I don't know when this episode first aired, the IMDB had very little information on this show when I checked it.
What happened: Without realizing it, the Philistine giant Goliath damages a dam near Bugglesville, flooding the town where the bugs reside and threatening their lives. Golliath is more interested in the Israelites, taunting them to send a single soldier to fight him. The young David is the only one courageous enough to face Goliath. An ant and a bee witness the boy David declaring to King Saul that he will fight Goliath. This inspires the ant with the courage to go to the dam and fix the leak.
What the problem is: That the location of Bugglesville is being constantly changed for each episode. We accept that these bugs have fewer arms and eyes than the bugs God actually created, or else some of the children would be too scared to watch the show. We accept that these diverse bugs live in one community together, where in real life they'd have their own communities (e.g., ants with ants, bees with bees). We also accept that these bugs have incredible longevity: they were around during the exodus of the Israelites out of Hebrew, and the same bugs were around to witness the birth of Jesus. But to accept that their town is constantly moving is one thing too many to accept.
I talked it over with Lisa, and she agreed that to nitpick this show, the Bible may be used. As to which version I may use, she left it to me, stipulating only that it has to be in English; so I chose the King James Version. The David vs. Goliath incident, the Bible tells us, happened in Socoh, in the Vale of Terabinth, and Bugglesville has to be within short-range flying distance for a bee carrying an ant. In the episode "What's a Manna with You?", Bugglesville is located somewhere along the Exodus route. The episode "Joy to the World" is the only one to explicitly show the relocation of the town as the bugs follow Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. But in all other episodes, Bugglesville just happens to be close to whatever big biblical event is taking place.
The faults with the Bible story are far fewer and most of the discrepancies between the text and the show can be attributed to translation differences. The way that Goliath taunts the Israelites differs in wording but is essentially the same in meaning, scarcely needing comment. One discrepancy I do want to comment on is the matter of David rejecting Saul's armor. 1 Samuel 17:38 says "And Saul armed David with his armour," but in the show we just suddenly see David with Saul's armor. The next verse reads: "And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him." In the show, David is by himself, standing outside Saul's tent, when he casts off Saul's armor and declares he'll face Goliath "dressed as a shepherd." I think this detail is important to understand the later relationship between Saul and David (though the show does not cover this).

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