Navigate to News section

Megillas Lester: If Pixar Did The Purim Story

Watch the trailer for a new film that turns the Purim story on its head

by
Yair Rosenberg
February 18, 2014
(YouTube)
(YouTube)

Purim is the holiday of reversals of fortune, with (spoiler alert!) the powerful vizier Haman hung upon his own gallows and the downtrodden Jew Mordechai raised up to the royal court. But a new animated film looks to take this theme to a whole new level. Megillas Lester, a 3D feature to be released on iTunes and DVD on March 3, retells the Book of Esther from the vantage point of Doniel Lesterovitch (aka “Lester”), a boy who finds himself thrown into the Purim story and accidentally sets it awry when he uses his foreknowledge of events to convince Queen Vashti to appear at her husband’s party. The result: she is never cast out by King Ahasuerus, Esther never becomes Queen, and Haman rises unimpeded to greater and greater power. That is, unless Lester can find a way to set the story back on track.

The film is the brainchild of KolRom Multimedia, who produced many of the short clips showcased at the 2012 Siyyum ha-Shas at MetLife Stadium. Watch their newly-released trailer–a sort of poor man’s Pixar production–below:

Yair Rosenberg is a senior writer at Tablet. Subscribe to his newsletter, listen to his music, and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.