Adventures in Odyssey Announces Movie and TV Series in Weirdest Way Possible
“I watched something that I had created on my own that didn’t exist before and I thought, ‘how godly is this?’”
- John Pomeroy: Animator on the Adventures in Odyssey movie.¹
A Focus on the Family employee directly compares himself to God, which should be considered blasphemous. A reminder that any project that comes out of AIO will always involve world class freaks.
Yes, Adventures in Odyssey, the most baffling Evangelical propaganda franchise on the planet, created by noted hate group affiliate Focus on the Family, is getting a theatrically released feature film. Of course this wasn’t announced with a trailer, teaser video, or even an announcement in “the trades” as nearly all Hollywood projects do. Instead it was announced in the most head scratching way imaginable.
Back in August 2024 at the One Grand Party event, celebrating AIO’s 1000th episode, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly announced the film. Which failed to get reported anywhere online or discussed on AIO fan forums. This announcement was supposedly not planned and was done spur of the moment by Daly. Okay, maybe they told all the fans there to be keep quiet and, fearing Whit beating their asses, dutifully complied.
Fast forward to December 4, 2025 and a sixteen minute video was posted on the Adventures in Odyssey Official YouTube channel announcing the film. This was not an extended sneak peek but a collection of behind-the-scenes interviews. The main takeaways were…
1: The existence of a “theater release” of an AIO film, titled “Journey Into the Impossible.”
2: The purpose of the film, according to executive producer and noted homophobe Dave Arnold, is to bring “more people into the Odyssey world” and “brand.”² The Focus team believe the audio format is limiting AIO’s reach and hope a visual format will be more appealing. Arnold directly calls the film a “funnel.”
3: Most of the main AIO characters will not show up in the film, as the story focuses on a younger Whit. Not Whit as a kid, but Whit as an adult in his 30s or 40s. Arnold refers to it as “the origin of the audio show.”
4: It’s heavily suggested the film will start just after the events of “Recollections,” with Whit walking around the newly acquired Fillmore Recreation Center. Whit will then flashback to an earlier point of his life with his wife Jenny and son Jason, who appears to be a teenager. No mention is made of his daughter, Jana.
5: The film appears to be animated in CGI, despite model sheets featuring more traditional 2D designs.
6: Much attention and praise is heaped on animator John Pomeroy, animator at Disney and on several Don Bluth films, being involved.
7: Pomeroy has redesigned at least some of the characters, making them “less cartoony, more realistic.” This includes Whit looking like an Instagram DILF who does ad reads for Manscaped Groin Grooming Kits with Ball Aftershave Lotion.
8: A new style guide for the entire brand (including the audio shows) has been created and everyone looks like Instagram models. No body diversity, of course. (The 2D designs, for what they are, are genuinely well done.)
9: Despite the existence of an AIO animated video series in the ‘90s, no mention of these are made outside of some low-key shade glimpsed in the new style guide. (There’s a whole story to uncover about how much the creative team of AIO hated those ‘90s videos.)
10: The hosts of the AIO podcast, as always, come off like Youth Pastors trying way too hard.
11: Subscribers to the AIO app are told there will be an “exclusive video sneak peek from the film” coming soon. If you aren’t a member of the app there will also be updates on whatever the “Odyssey Studio Insiders” page is.
As someone who’s worked in film and media marketing for nearly 10 years, this video is the most baffling way to announce a major project I’ve ever seen. A behind-the-scenes video is not an unheard way to give fans a first look at a project but this one? It’s needlessly confusing. Why do we need to hear the story of it being shared with fans a year ago? Why is there talk of the new style guide for the brand as a whole? This video should have stuck to the announcement of the film itself, what the story would be, and the talent they’ve secured to work on it. Everything else just confuses the message, especially the inclusion of the new designs for the audio show cast. You’d be forgiven for thinking, despite the stated plot for the film, that these characters will all get appearances. Why else would they all have animation style reference sheets?
Well, because they’re also doing an animated series! Wait, what?! Buried in the second update from the “Odyssey Studio Insiders” (also called “Backstage Pass” for some reason) is an extended clip from the One Grand Party event where Daly not only announces the feature film but also, “13 episodes for release on streaming.”³ No further elaboration is given on this massive reveal, with more time given to Daly recounting his brief cameo on the AIO audio show.
There’s burying the lede and then there’s whatever this is. You’re doing an animated series and that doesn’t get a massive announcement on your website? You don’t start with that? You don’t make it clear the AIO characters who aren’t in the movie will (probably) be in this series? It’s just a throwaway in a video more focused on how the news was shared with fans at the One Grand Party event?! What are you all doing?
Then there’s the “exclusive video sneak peek from the film” released on the AIO app and it, yet again, is a baffling choice. We don’t get a trailer or teaser, we get a random thirty second clip featuring Whit, Jason, and an unidentified friend of Jason’s trying to uncover the meaning behind a mysterious poem. The only element of note is that much of the clip is devoted to name dropping a location previously established in the audio series, Trickle Lake. The animation itself looks decent, at best direct to DVD quality, but nothing mind blowing.
The people involved with this project act as if this will be the next big step for Odyssey, a way to bring non-fans and non-Christians into the funnel. As Dave Arnold explained, “sometimes it’s easier to share entertainment things with friends as a witness then it is to talk about the Gospel. Don’t be afraid to tell people about (the movie) because you know the impact it could have in their life.” This is supported by the (citation needed) claim that “9000 people come to Christ every year through Adventures in Odyssey.”⁴
If this movie and TV series are meant to bring new fans to Odyssey? They’re doing a terrible job. What’s the pull to a casual or downright uninterested fan? That some Disney animator no one outside of hardcore animation fans is working on it? That it’s a prequel to a franchise with over 1000 episodes? That it’ll be released in theaters in what will no doubt be a “limited engagement” screening for a few days? What’s going to make this movie get any coverage, especially when it’s being released in the same year as Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey adaptation?
To anyone following At My Whit’s End knows, getting new people into the funnel might be a nice bonus but we know what this film’s really about. More content for bought-in Evangelical families to reinforce their already held beliefs. This isn’t going to be some reinvention of the brand, it’s going to be the same, supposedly for kids but really more for their parents, style writing the show’s had since 1987. You can see it in how much attention is paid to Whit’s redesign.
He’s not made to look like an Instagram DILF to appeal to eight year old fans. He looks like that because it’s what the creative team and parents listening imagine themselves as. It’s their wish fulfillment, to be the super cool parent that kids want to spend all their time with (and always respect) no matter what. It’s why Whit will undoubtedly be the main focus of this children’s film. Yes, you can have a kids film with an adult protagonist, but combined with what we’ve already witnessed about how AIO uses Whit, focusing on his character is a bad sign.
We also have to take notice of who isn’t mentioned as appearing in the film. There’s Jenny (missing her trademark fiery-red hair) and Jason, but no mention or sight of Jana, Whit’s daughter. You know, the one he beat when she was a child. The one still resentful of that abuse decades after the fact. The only woman in this franchise (we’ve heard so far) that’s managed to hold her ground against Whit and get him to concede any ground on beating kids. Her absence isn’t surprising and I doubt we’ll see any of her in the film. We can’t have anything but a loving wife, that’s all females are good for! Perish the thought we’d ever address Whit’s faults, he’s our Evangelical Daddy!
It’s frankly embarrassing how badly all of this has been handled. The initial announcement on YouTube barely has 8000 views and both the “Backstage Pass” videos barely crossed 60 views each. Each of those videos feature repeated uses of the same interview clips and aren’t structured to properly convey what their central topics are. They more come off as videos for a crowdfunding campaign, small updates meant to tide over already bought in backers. It wouldn’t surprise me if, in the next few weeks, Focus launches a Kickstarter-like campaign to help finish the film and get it released. But hey, the rollout doesn’t have to be good if you already have a built-in audience. They don’t need to try too hard because the fans are already going to see the film (and show) and those fans are satiated by the promise this will finally be the piece of AIO media that gets their heathen non-believer friends to accept Christ. And when those secular friends see these “sneak peeks” and shrug their shoulders with disinterest? Well, idiot, you didn’t pray hard enough about it. It’s your fault. Now line up for your weekly Whit beatings.
In the end though what struck me most about this whole rollout is how much focus is given to Dave Arnold. He’s presented as the voice of the creative team, the one with the initial idea for the film. He seems good natured, speaks with mature confidence, and doesn’t act like he’s talking to four year olds like the AIO Podcasts hosts do. Yet anytime he appeared all I could think about were the stories his daughter, Amber Cantorna-Wylde, told about him in her book, Out of Focus.
When she came out to him as gay, Dave Arnold’s response was, “I feel like you’ve died, like I’ve lost you. You’re deeply deceived, Amber. Like Eve, you’ve eaten the fruit from Satan. You’ve gotten in with the wrong crowd and they’ve brainwashed you. You’re putting your soul in jeopardy. I’m afraid that you’re damming yourself to hell.”⁵
When Cantorna-Wylde asked him if, “you want me to just be alone and miserable all my life?” his retort was soul-crushing.
“I’d rather you be miserable in this life, than be miserable in the next.”⁶
He later contacted her via e-mail and bluntly stated, about her sexuality, “I am troubled by the message this sends to hundreds of thousands of fans, and I am embarrassed by it.”⁷
And now, years later, all he has are those fans. Fans he can’t even bother to properly market to.
Was it worth it, Dave?
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Sources:
“The Adventures in Odyssey MOVIE!” from the Adventures in Odyssey Official YouTube channel, 2025.
(1)
(2)
“Backstage Pass #2 - The Announcement” from the Adventures in Odyssey Official YouTube channel, 2025.
(3)
“Backstage Pass #1 - The Vision” from the Adventures in Odyssey Official YouTube channel, 2025.
(4)
“Out of Focus: My Story of Sexuality, Shame, and Toxic Evangelicalism” by Amber Cantorna-Wylde, Westminster John Knox Press, 2023.’
(5) Page 156
(6) Page 157
(7) Page 168