Comedy
The Neighborhood
The Neighborhood, like all neighborhoods, isn’t free from problems. But it feels relatively safe.
Everyone knows Abby.
How could they not? Capernaum’s shekel-sized dynamo seems like she’s everywhere. One minute she’s at the market, picking up a pie or two for her eema. The next, she’s trying to sneak into the synagogue. (She’s got questions, y’know.) Plus, when you’re dashing around town with a grumpy ol’ sheep and a pigeon in tow, you’re bound to attract attention.
Abby knows that she’s not the biggest deal in town—literally or spiritually. First off, she’s just a kid. Outside her Eema and Abba (Abby’s parents), who’s going to really listen to her? But she recently met someone just outside of town, a carpenter named Jesus. And Abby has a sneaking suspicion that, before too long, everyone will be listening to Him.
Jesus, not Abby, is the real focal point of The Chosen Adventures—even if we don’t see Him all that often. We meet Him in the show’s very first episode (one adapted from the third episode of The Chosen itself). Christ will show up now and then, offering Abby and her best friend, Joshua, his friendship, wisdom and insight into His Father’s master plan.
But The Chosen Adventures is not a collection of Bible stories. The animated episodes do not adapt Scripture as its originating live-action series did. If The Chosen gives us a creative retelling of the Gospel, The Chosen Adventures offers a litany of kid-friendly spiritual and moral lessons. And it conveys those lessons through a purely fictional child living in an imaginative (though reasonably grounded) version of first-century Capernaum.
You might even think of The Chosen Adventures as Bible-based fables—fanciful stories told to convey important truths. In one episode, Abby might learn the significance of the Sabbath. In another, she asks why God allows bad things to happen to good people (like her!).
But while The Chosen Adventures doesn’t replay Scripture for its young audience, the show is steeped in scriptural elements, both old and new. Remember that Abby lives, essentially, in an Old Testament world, where her parents are deeply concerned with Judaic rules and little girls aren’t supposed to go to synagogue—no matter how many questions they might have. Through the show’s fanciful conceit, viewers learn a surprising bit about the world in which Jesus walked.
And because this is a Chosen show, viewers will be treated to plenty of cameos from familiar biblical characters—and often voiced by actors from The Chosen itself. Jonathan Roumie voices Jesus, for instance, and we’ll hear from Elizabeth Tabish (Mary Magdalene), Paras Patel (Matthew), Brandon Potter (Quintus) and many others, as well.
All of which brings us to a fluffy new character here: The sheep.
So for those who might’ve taken umbrage at a talking sheep (voiced by Emmy winner Paul Walter Hauser) landing in a batch of fanciful animated Bible stories, remember, these aren’t strictly Bible stories at all.
Also worth noting: The sheep doesn’t actually talk, according to Executive Producer Dallas Jenkins. Nor do any of the other animals here. Jenkins explained during a recent interview that the animals serve as a quasi “Greek chorus,” which in ancient times helped guide Greek playgoers through the production’s emotional and moral intricacies.
Abby doesn’t converse with the sheep. The animals primarily talk with each other, and even sometimes offer viewers a knowing nod as to what the show’s makers are actually trying to do. (“Interesting,” the pigeon tells the sheep in the first episode. “She’s using you as a proxy to project an inner struggle.” To which the sheep says, “Birds are so dumb.”)
The Chosen Adventures on Amazon’s Prime Video contains some other minor issues to note, as well. We see some slapstick visual gags and a bit of rude behavior. Characters might be accused of stinking a bit. (If the sheep here smells like most sheep, though, that’d simply be an accurate statement.)
But each short episode (about 11-14 minutes each) is made with an eye toward the greater good—entertaining young viewers (and perhaps their parents, too) as it teaches them about God’s goodness, even in the midst of honest questions and difficult circumstances. And it encourages kids to be grateful, respectful and kind.
Moreover, the show is good. The animation is inviting and original. The jokes land as they should. The year 2025 has been a banner year for Christian animated fare, and while The Chosen Adventures’ animation style might not be as ambitious as, say, the 2D film Light of the World, it’s aesthetically just as strong.
The Chosen Adventures is not Scripture. It’s not intended to be. But for those who don’t mind a little talking sheep with a lot of strong life lessons, this show might be a nice fit for your family.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
The 9-year-old Abby is just brimming with questions—and she fires them all at her harried parents: “Why do we eat chicken and not rooster?” “Why do boys smell?” and most importantly, “Why did God make wasps?”
Abby’s parents can’t answer them all, but Abby, her friend Joshua and her newly adopted sheep (called Sheep) run into someone outside Capernaum who can.
“Every animal has a purpose, even if you don’t understand what that purpose is,” Jesus tells the children. “Wasps can sting, but fig trees need them to grow fruit.” And even while Jesus praises Abby for her curiosity, He also reminds her to obey her parents and even listen to them talk from time to time. (Abby listens, and her last question for her parents in this episode is, “How was your day?”)
A wasp stings Sheep’s eyelid, leaving it a bit swollen. When Abby and Joshua first spy Jesus, Abby asks Joshua if he has a sword—just in case Jesus turns out to be dangerous. When someone notices Sheep’s ever-present pigeon companion, Pigeon, is missing a leg, Pigeon says, “I lost it saving baby birds from a burning nest.” When Sheep asks if that’s true, Pigeon says cagily, “Maybe.”
When Abby cautions her father (a fisherman) to be careful of sharks, Abby’s eema says, “The only sharks in Capernaum are the ones collecting taxes.” (She then immediately runs into the tax collector Levi, the future disciple Matthew.) Abby tries to enter the synagogue in disguise, but her plan is thwarted by a kindly but slightly exasperated rabbi. We hear that Abby’s eema sometimes screams into a pillow—apparently after listening to a few too many of Abby’s questions.
Abby and her family prepare for Shabbat (the Jewish sabbath), but they get a late start. As they scramble to buy food and find fuel for the fire before the sun goes down (since they won’t be able to get those things the next day, according to Jewish tradition), Abby’s parents realize they’ll need to get creative.
Abby’s eema and abba explain the origins of Shabbat, which goes way back to creation itself. “And on the seventh day, God rested,” Abby is told. “He asks for us to do the same.”
As Eema prepares the family’s meager foodstuffs for the evening, Abba bounces a date off his nose and into his mouth. When Abby asks where he learned the trick, her parents tell Abby they didn’t have a lot of money when they were first married. “When you don’t have a lot to eat, you get creative with what you have,” Eema says. The family finishes the evening under the stars. “We probably would not have seen this tonight if we had not honored Shabbat,” Abby is told.
To tell the creation story, Abba rips a bit of wool from Sheep (which, we gather, is a bit painful). Sheep tells Pigeon to “shut up.”
Abby has a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day running errands for her mother. Everything seems to go wrong. “Heavenly Father, why do these things keep happening to me?! I’m just trying to help my eema!”
When she gets home, Abby asks her eema why God would give her such a bad day. “God doesn’t give us bad days,” Eema says, “though He does allow hard things to happen to us.” She admits that we don’t always know why bad things happen to us, but Eema adds, “We do know we can trust [God]. And we know He can bring good things out of bad things.” The two pray to God, saying “endless is Your compassion, great is Your faithfulness.”
Pigeon looks on and tells Sheep that Abby was actually rather blessed during this “horrible” day. For instance: A dropped pie leads the baker to give food to a needy boy and his mother. When a pot gets stuck on Abby’s head, Abby careens through Capernaum and miraculously survives. Fixing a broken sandal saves her from being run over by a chariot. It reminds us that sometimes God protects us from dangers we don’t even know about.
Someone says, “Oh Lor—” without completing the word. When Abby agrees to run some errands, Sheep mishears. He asks, “Who’s Aaron and why are we running him over?” He adds that it doesn’t matter: “Aaron” probably deserves it. A cart runs over a soldier’s foot. We hear about a broken pot. Slapstick gags run throughout the short episode.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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