Melody, a gifted young dreamer and her feisty friend Leif, must set aside their differences and use the power of magical Blue Daisies and an ancient Song to save their world from an evil Ice Dragon. When the blue flowers that once bloomed all around her village begin to disappear, Melody and her eccentric grandfather recognize this as a sign of great danger, but no one believes them! Racing against time, Melody must convince Leif and the other villagers before it’s too late.
This is the story synopsis for Producer and Director Bruce Stacey’s exciting new faith-based animated movie, Ice Dragon – Legend of the Blue Daises. I had the recent pleasure of interviewing Bruce after screening this adventurous film with my three children. From beginning to end, they were caught up in Melody and Leif’s world. In fact, we were all still having conversation about it the next morning over breakfast.
Ice Dragon – Legend of the Blue Daises has been a long-time labor of love for Mr. Stacey. He wrote the short story while in St. Petersburg, Russia circa. 1990 when he and his wife Elaine visited the country to work on a musical production. Little did they know at the time that God had bigger plans and the couple wound up adopting two orphans during that trip, their son and daughter, Alex and Elena. The short story penned by Bruce was initially written for his children and reflected on the state of communism in Russia at that time.
It tells a tale of hope in a time of hopelessness.
It sat in his desk drawer for nearly 25 years until recently when he dusted it off and adapted it into a compelling, animated feature filled with great songs and engaging characters the whole family will love.
Here’s what Bruce had to say when I asked him what this film was about.
Bruce: Ice Dragon is a parable in the tradition of CS Lewis and Tolkien. A parable is nothing in more than an engaging story that when unpacked, reveals a deeper truth. Jesus, of course, taught most often in parables. He would start by saying the kingdom of God is like a father who had a son or workers in the field, etc. I’m following humbly in that tradition. I have kids and grand-kids so I wanted to do something that would point to biblical truth and Ice Dragon does that. The Ice Dragon story is about two believers living in a world of unbelievers. Nicholai and Melody in the story believe in the song. They believe in dragons but they’re living in a world where no one believes that. How do they convince them that the words and promises in an ancient old book has any significance or meaning to their villagers?
It’s a great metaphor for our world today. Kids ask what is the Bible, that old ancient book, and what does it have to do with anything today?
“my hope for Ice Dragon, is that as families see this, they will be talking about it with their kids the next morning, just like you did.”
Parents can say, “Have you ever thought of it this way,” or, “What does that mean?”. That’s the beauty of a parable and actually, when I finished the film it became a passion project. It was pulled out of my drawer five years ago and had a long journey.
When we finished it, we played it for the largest theater chain in Canada where I’m from. They viewed the film and said, “We love this, let’s partner and take it across Canada.” We’re looking at close to 800 theaters across North America. We’re releasing this March 24 and 26th across the country and I’m delighted, surprised and just excited to see what God is going to do with it.
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Bruce is deeply committed to supporting families and has even created fun activities on their website including an activity guide, coloring sheets, character descriptions and more. There’s even downloadable sing-along songs because “Songs are important part of Ice Dragon,” Bruce said.
I asked him about next projects and he said he has a couple of other things on the table. “I’ve had a background in faith based kids projects in the past. I created a series called GodRocks! that’s been around for a while. It’s based on the scope and sequence of age-appropriate scripture for kids. It’s overtly biblical so it’s not a parable or an allegory like Ice Dragon, but it’s still very entertaining and engaging for kids. In addition, Ice Dragon, was written as a trilogy.” Stacey says he’s mapped out where it’s going because there’s a couple questions to be answered. What happened to Melanie’s parents? What about the other villagers?
“This movie has a very satisfying ending and if you don’t go any further it’s great. But, if we do well with this movie in the theaters, we’ll look at finishing the trilogy and unraveling the story a little more so that’s exciting. We’ll see what God has next.”
For more information and to find a theater near you, visit www.icedragonmovie.com.
