(RNS) — The global smash hit “The Chosen,” the speculative biographical series about Jesus and his disciples, has inspired major streaming channels to tap other biblical sources. Moses is getting his close-up on Netflix, while King David has two shows, Prime Video’s “House of David”and Fox Nation’s docudrama “David: King of Israel.”

But historically, some of the most far-reaching Christian cultural touchstones have reimagined biblical themes through allegory. Think C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” or J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” which put biblical teachings about temptation, redemption and sacrifice in a fantasy package.

The success of this approach can be seen in a recent Academy Award nomination for “Forevergreen,” a 12-minute movie from Disney animators that conveys the Christian gospel through allegory.

The film’s textured, almost tactile, animation is combined with a soundtrack that blends folk music with sweeping orchestration to tell a story about unmerited grace — the idea that humans are saved not by their good deeds but by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. But unless you’re looking for it, the Christian message isn’t overt until the closing title card, which quotes John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friend.” 

The film, which is free to view on YouTube, follows an orphaned bear cub and a fatherly evergreen tree, in an idyllic woodland setting. The initial idea for the story was inspired by the 1989 Christian children’s book “The Tale of Three Trees,” a classic that was a staple of Sunday school bookshelves in the ’90s and aughts. That folktale explores how three trees become part of God’s greater purpose as they are refashioned into a manger, a boat and a cross during Jesus’ life on earth.

Nathan Engelhardt, a longtime Disney animator who moonlighted to make the movie, is a Reformed evangelical Christian. He said he was leveled by the book’s story when it fell into his hands. “I wept after reading it, and just seeing how these trees’ dreams were dashed to pieces, but God still used these trees in a unique, particular way,” he said.

When Jeremy Spears, a friend of Engelhardt’s who works as a story artist at Disney, joined the project in 2019 as the movie’s writer and co-director, the filmmakers set out to tell a story of unmerited grace with the same quiet power. Retaining themes from “The Tale of Three Trees,” they invented a new story, relying on two images: a photo of a fallen redwood tree creating a bridge over a chasm, and an image of Jesus’ cross bridging the gap between humanity and God.

When Spears mentioned these images, Engelhardt said he had the same image of the cross bridging the divide sitting on his office desk. “It really felt like God was saying, go make that film,” said Spears.

Spears’ wood carving of a bear became the model for the orphaned cub. “God saved me,” Spears said. “I am that bear in the film, and that I had to let go of the things that were holding me back, and I had to reach up to God, who had already fallen across the divide.”

The movie was made with the contributions of more than 200 volunteers working nights and weekends over more than five years. Inviting friends and colleagues to be part of their passion project, Spears and Engelhardt knew, was a big ask. Each filmmaker has four kids, and work on the film often began only after their children had been put to bed.

 The directors also knew the project’s religious themes might not be for everyone. “We wanted to make sure that people knew that, hey, this does have a spiritual component to it,” said Engelhardt. “We want to make sure that you know how we’re going to be speaking about the film afterwards, and no hard feelings if you want to back out.”

Their transparency was met with enthusiasm. Mike Gortz, director of worldwide marketing for Disney, who promoted the film, is a pastor’s kid and an evangelical Christian. Gortz said it was an “absolute joy” to work on a project where “you can bring your whole self, you can bring your faith, you can bring God into that space.”

Spears and Engelhardt tapped Christian singer-songwriter Josh Garrels and producer and composer Isaac Wardell to be composers.

“Josh Garrels is sort of the soul of the soundtrack. Maybe I’m the architect of it,” quipped Wardell, co-founder of The Porter’s Gate, a worship project that, since 2017, has brought together Christian songwriters, pastors and theologians to write congregational songs on topics such as Advent, work and mental health.

Working from the team’s sketches, Wardell relied on instruments with “earthy textures” — a banjo, an upright bass, a mandolin. The musicians improvised a short musical theme based on their impressions of computer sketches of the film’s characters. Eventually, the soundtrack incorporated whistling, full orchestration and Garrels’ layered vocalizations. The film’s only spoken words are sung by Garrels in the final song.

“Forever my love, forever my life for yours,” Garrels sings. “We will be forevergreen.”

In the polarized climate of the United States, said Wardell, people are forming the Christian imagination by defining “who’s in or who’s out” or “triumphing over our neighbors.” What makes the message of “Forevergreen” timely, he said, is its focus on unconditional love, not human triumph. 

“Nathan and Jeremy … they’re not working in the field of Christian storytelling. They’re working in the field of cultural storytelling,” said Wardell. “It’s so important for us to offer up these visions of Christian faithfulness, where we are forming the imagination to see winning not as being about exerting violence over someone else, but actually about understanding that God has taken violence on our behalf.”

Spears suggested the idea was to tell a story for anyone, not only Christians. “What if we could share our faith, share what the gospel message is,” he said, “but do it in a way that’s hospitable to everybody, that’s something that we can all come around, no matter what walk of life you are, what belief system you have?”