Interview: Steve Legg of Breakout Trust - New Christian Animation "It’s a Boy"

“It’s a Boy” is the new short animation by Steve Legg of the Breakout Trust which aims to educate Britain’s children on the real meaning behind Christmas. The animation features the voices of Joe Pasquale, Steven Berkoff and comedy duo Cannon and Ball and follows the story of three quails who witness the birth of Jesus Christ.

|PIC1|The film will premiere on Sunday 27 November at the Odeon Cinema West End in front of an audience of around 700 children before being sent to all 25,199 Primary Schools in the UK.

Steve Legg is founding director of the Breakout Trust and well known on the entertainment circuit, being a performer, speaker and writer. The Breakout Trust aims at dispelling the popular myth that being a Christian is boring and outdated. Steve has used his skills as an escapologist and comedian to bring the message of Christ to Primary, Junior and Secondary Schools across Britain, Europe and even America.

Steve was able to take time out of his packed schedule to speak with Christian Today about his latest project and the challenge of bringing Christ to children.

Christian Today: What was the motivation behind It's a Boy?

Steve Legg: I heard a story about a 5 year old boy who heard the Christmas story for the first time at his primary school and he asked his teacher why Mary and Joseph had named Jesus after a swear word. that hit me for six and as I started to look into I realised that of the 12.8 million children in the UK only 756,000 go to church, leaving a massive number of boys and girls who have no contact with the church and so of them having no idea at all of who Jesus is.

Christian Today: How do you think It’s a Boy will impact on school children’s understanding of the relationship between Christ and Christmas?

Steve Legg: I believe it will make a huge impact in thousands of the 26,000 schools we will be sending free copies to. The cartoon is very funny, extremely well made so it works in the context of entertainment in the way a Disney movie would. But it shares a very special message of the true meaning of Christmas.

Christian Today: What do you hope school heads, teachers and people in education will gain from the film?

Steve Legg: We have had a wonderful response from teachers and heads so far. Most teachers are underpaid and overworked so a good quality resource that makes their jobs a bit easier has got to be on to a winner. On our website www.itsaboy.org.uk we also have a number of RE lessons and ready-to-use assemblies for teachers and schools workers to help them get the best out of It’s a Boy.

Christian Today: What has been the response been from other Christian organisations to the project and which organisations are backing the project?

Steve Legg: Raising £200,000 over 3 years has been a hard slog if I'm really honest. Most of the finance has come from individuals ranging from 40pence to a £40,000 interest free loan. We have received help from Spring Harvest, and Kenneth Copeland Ministries Europe has shared our excitement and has been most generous.

Christian Today: What do you think is the way forward in bringing Christ to children?

Steve Legg: I have been involved in full-time evangelism for over 17 years and have visited hundreds of schools throughout the UK, and I think we're really onto something with the cartoon format.

We are currently working on the screenplay for number two in the series, an Easter adaptation which will be sent to schools for Easter 2007.