The Wacky World of Bruce Barry
by Rebecca Grace
November 15, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Wacky guy Bruce Barry's love for art started as a child when he sat on the knee of his father, an animation cartoonist for Walt Disney. Barry was eager to learn how to draw, cartoon and paint, and his father was willing to teach him. "My dad always taught me, if you're going to do something right, do it first-class or not at all," Barry said.
| | 
Bruce Barry, founder and president of Wacky World Studios |
Barry took his father's words to heart. What began with cartooning at a nearby amusement park led Barry to create award-winning work for Disney, Universal Studios and the Rain Forest Café, among others. "But I have to tell you, my best projects and my favorite projects are the ones that we've done inside churches," which now comprise about 99 percent of his work, Barry said. Barry is founder and president of Wacky World Studios, a Florida-based business that designs, fabricates and installs themed environments in churches to attract children. "We're teaching them the message of God but in a very cool environment," Barry said.
It began seven years ago when a children's pastor in Arkansas contacted Barry about constructing a set for a church. Barry initially said no, but the pastor was persistent. Barry agreed to visit the church for an informational meeting that unexpectedly turned into a life-changing project.
And a Child Shall Lead Them ...
Having never stepped foot inside a church, Barry was very skeptical of taking on a church project. He braced himself to be bombarded with questions about his faith and multiple invitations to attend church. Instead, he was treated with kindness and more love than he had ever felt in his life.
He passed the treatment off as weird, until the night he was approached by a 12-year-old girl who needed artistic help at one of the Bible story vignettes set up in the church gym as part of a carnival.
The girl recruited Barry to draw a whale, but stopped him mid-stroke to inform him that the fish's mouth must be drawn open. Barry had no idea why, so he asked the girl. She told him the story of Jonah -- a story Barry heard for the first time as a 40-year-old man.
"I was absolutely flabbergasted," he said. "So ... I went around to every single vignette with this 12-year-old girl telling me the stories of the Bible, and it just totally blew me away. God knew that my wall was up already, but He went below my radar," Barry continued. "I wasn't ready for a 12-year-old girl to tell me these stories."
Bruce Barry's depiction of the whale from the story of Jonah | |
God's Word softened Barry's heart that night, and he accepted Christ the following day. His life was changed, and his art career took on a new purpose. Ever since, Barry has committed his work to the Lord and has been busy transforming churches into kid-friendly environments. But that's not all. Barry felt a calling on his life to do more than design sets for churches, and God used an overgrown cockroach to reveal His plan to Barry.
Following a trip to a local convenience store and an encounter with children, candy and a cockroach, Barry decided to create an animated series for children about bugs telling Bible stories and add an animation company to Wacky World Studios.
Originally known as The Roach Approach, Bug Rangers is the new name given to this line of home entertainment that has received the Dove Foundation's seal of family approval. The fourth installment of the series, "Hairy Situation," released in October, and the fifth episode, "Submarine Sandwich" is expected to hit shelves March 2007. A line of toy products is coming out, and there are also plans to introduce Bug Rangers characters in amusement parks.
However, Bug Rangers was not an overnight success. In fact, the entire project was almost canned due to a number of setbacks, but God clearly wanted this animated series to come to fruition. "So I dug my heels in, and I got this thing done," Barry said.
Since then, Fox Faith has picked up the series, and these Bible-telling bugs are in high demand by both children and parents. "People are falling in love with our bugs," Barry said. And it's all because Barry fell in love with the Savior.
Rebecca Grace, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is staff writer for AFA Journal, a publication of the American Family Association. This article, printed with permission, appears in the November/December 2006 issue.
