DreamWorks made its first foray into animation with a religious story, The Prince of Egypt. © DreamWorks Animation.

The Bible, Torah, Quran and Upanishads may or may not contain the wisdom of ages, but one thing is certain: None of them have anything to say about animated cartoons. This is likely because the above tomes appeared centuries before the crudest forms of animation were created. Besides, all four were probably concerned with matters a tad heavier than Daffy Duck or Humphrey Bear. Just kidding. In a more serious vein, animation has made definite approaches to depicting God, some of them widely at variance with traditional conceptions of a Supreme Deity. There is just as much diversity displayed in reverence expressed toward God: fundamentalist, irreverent and downright blasphemous versions of the Lord vie with each other on the large and small screen.

An interesting fact: every major religion on Earth has taken at least one shot at highlighting their Almighty God in animated form. Witness this cultural and religious rundown of heavenly starring roles and cameos:

The Judeo-Christian God
This version is by far the most flexible of all depictions. God has been portrayed as a disembodied burning bush or spectral voice who is definitely all business (Prince of Egypt, 1998, DreamWorks). Several Japanese Biblical productions such as The Flying House have depicted the Old Testament God in much the same way, as did Hanna-Barbera's "Moses: Let My People Go" segment of their Greatest Adventure Stories from the Bible series (1985-1993). Not all representations have been as reverent as Hanna and Barbera's. In "Homer the Heretic, God called Homer Simpson to account for his church attendance record. It turned out that the gray-bearded, long-haired deity enjoyed the Reverend Lovejoy's sermons even less then Homer did.

In the third season of South Park we meet Matt Stone and Tray Parker's interpretation of the Almighty, who presents Himself to the residents of South Park as a hippo-faced raccoon. No Flying Spaghetti Monster could approach such weirdness. In a later episode He is revealed to be a Buddhist. March 2000 saw the premier of the short-lived series God, the Devil, and Bob, which died after four episodes under the burden of poor ratings and the protests of Christian fundamentalists. Had God not resembled a beer-swilling caricature of Jerry Garcia, the Religious Right may have been less vocal. Or not.

The coolest animated depiction? The grouchy, demanding old God Behind the Sliding Door Clouds animated by Terry Gilliam in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). People of the Jewish faith may or may not accept these depictions: In more orthodox sects, the name of God cannot even be written, let alone have the Deity visualized. From the use of the unpronounceable consonants YHWH to the more modern scripting of "G-d," all but the most liberal of Jews have generally avoided personifying God. Not to worry: Christian sects in the West have done more than their share in animating conceptions of the God of Abraham.

The Islamic God
Allah is technically the same Supreme Being worshipped by the Jews and Christians, but He chose one prophet that they did not -- Muhammad. As is widely known, under Shari'a law Allah cannot be depicted under any circumstances, but then, neither can Muhammad. This was learned the hard way when a Danish newspaper published cartoons representing the prophet in September of 2005: the fatwas swirled like a sandstorm from the nations of Islam. One live-action attempt to film the life of Muhammad failed miserably in 1977: Moustapha Akkad's flick The Message tried to avoid the problem by depicting the whole movie from Muhammad's POV, and the results were laughable. That didn't stop Muslims from rioting in any case. Nor did it stop Richard Rich (possible the saddest of all ex-Disney directors) from repeating the exact same mistakes in the 2002 animated fiasco Muhammad -- the Last Prophet. It's a good bet that Rich's film will be the last attempt, animated or otherwise, to put the last prophet on the screen.

Buddhist Versions
Siddhartha Gautama, a.k.a. Gautama Buddha, was animated on several occasions. Although Buddha is not actually God in the Western sense, he is certainly an immortal being of the highest enlightenment possible. In this form he is known as Sammasambuddha, or "Supreme Buddha." This made an appearance in the 1960 Japanese film Alakazam the Great. This animated feature is a loose translation of the famous novel Journey to the West. In that novel, the audacious Monkey King is wreaking havoc in Heaven, and Buddha faces the threat by taking up Monkey's challenge to a showdown for the throne of Heaven. No prizes for guessing who wins that contest. Buddha was misnamed "King Amo" by American translators in Alakazam the Great, although the contest with Monkey is faithfully reproduced. Buddha was given an animated biography in 2004 when Pentamedia Graphics Ltd. released The Legend of Buddha. The first fully animated film to come from India was directed by Shamboo Phalke and covered the Buddha's life from Childhood through his hour of enlightenment. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005.