"Mormon and Moroni" is the twelfth episode of Animated Stories from the Book of Mormon, both in production order and in chronological order.
Episode Guide[]
Previous episode: The Tree of Life
Plot[]
The film starts with a 10-year-old Mormon chasing a goat along a river bank. Soon, a prophet named Ammaron appears and tells Mormon that he has come to see him. Ammaron tells Mormon of the location of the Plates of brass, the large and small plates of Nephi, the sword of Laban, the Liahona and the Urim and Thummim. He also tells Mormon that when he's 24 years of age, to go to the Hill Shim and keep a record of the final days of the Nephite nation. The next day, Ammaron leaves Mormon and tells him that the Lord will provide a way for him. When Mormon asks if he'll see Ammaron again, the latter says "no."
Six years later, the chief judge of the Nephites has chosen a 15-year-old Mormon to lead the Nephite armies against the Lamanites. Mormon agrees to lead them, but does not promise victory for the Nephites unless they repent of their sins and turn their hearts to God. The chief judge agrees to it and gives Mormon his amulet.
Eight years later, Mormon looks at a burning city on horseback when a Nephite soldier give him a map of the land of Antum. Mormon tells him to prepare the prisoners to march to Zarahemla and to supply them with food and water. Mormon remembers the words of Ammaron to go to the Hill Shim to record the final days of the Nephites. Mormon finds a caves, in which all of the Nephite records and artifacts are hidden in. Mormon reads from a few of the plates for a while. Some time after, Mormon is making his way back to a village, only to find that the Nephites have been mocking God's gift of virtue and torturing Lamanite women. Mormon later argues with a Nephite captain who wants to make the Lamanites pay for what they have done, but Mormon says that vengeance belongs to the Lord. The captain says a quick death is too good for a Lamanite, and thus he and his soldiers still want to enjoy causing the Lamanites to suffer. Mormon resigns from leading the Nephite armies and helps a Lamanite woman out of the tent.
Sometime later, Mormon has a son named Moroni, who is gathering more of the golden plates for Mormon to record from. Flashbacks are shown from "The Tree of Life," "Journey to the Promised Land," "Abinadi and King Noah," "Samuel and the Sign" and "The Savior in America" (respectively showing Lehi at the titular tree, Nephi showing the way, him, Sam, and their mother Sariah eating the fruit, a storm blowing the ship backward up until Laman and Lemuel untying Nephi from the ship's pole, Abinadi burning to death, Gidiannhi and the Gadianton Robbers surrounding Nephi and the believers to kill them until the night lights up, and Jesus descending out of Heaven and talking to the Nephites) as Mormon is recording the stories onto the golden plates. Years pass and Mormon finally finishes recording the history of the Nephites before their destruction.
One day, an adult Moroni comes to the cave with a deer on his back, saying that they'll be eating well that night. Moroni notices Mormon talking to the Nephite soldier from years before. Shortly after, Mormon tells Moroni that the Lamanites are offering the Nephite women and children to their gods and that the Nephite army has become more cruel and wicked than all of the Lamanites. Mormon then asks Moroni, "Should I stand by and coolly record the deaths of such tender souls?" Moroni reassures Mormon that whatever he chooses, he will be at his side.
Not long after, Moroni is putting the plates onto a cart to bury. An elderly Nephite captain comes up to Mormon and Moroni asking why they're preparing to march. Mormons states that the Lamanites have agreed to meet at the Hill Cumorah for a final battle, in which Mormon adds that that there will be no Nephite army after the battle. That night, Moroni returns to the Nephite camp on the Hill Cumorah, telling his father that the plates have been buried. Mormon tells Moroni that the plates will be in his care.
The next day, the battle at the hill Cumorah begins, killing all of the Nephite soldiers, women and children, leaving Mormon and Moroni to be the last survivors. Mormon records the words "O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!" (Mormon 6:17) Mormon hears Lamanite soldiers coming and passes the golden plates onto Moroni, who runs as Mormon fends off the Lamanites.
Between 400 and 421 A.D., Moroni finishes the record that his deceased father had written years before and buries the golden plates at the Hill Cumorah. In 1827, Joseph Smith uncovers the golden plates, as the angel Moroni watches and vanishes. Then the scene transitions from the plates to the Book of Mormon itself.
Music Video[]
Song[]
O My People - by Gordon Harkness
Trivia[]
- Only three actors are credited as the voice of Mormon (Christopher P. Angelos as 15-year-old Mormon, Phil Hubbard as either a 24-year-old or middle-aged man, and Joe Lynch as an old man, but nobody credited the person voicing 10-year-old Mormon), and two for Moroni (Jonathan Best as a child, and Scott Douglas as either adult age, but it is not clear if he voiced Moroni as a young man or an old man).
- The score at the happy ending with Joseph Smith Jr. and the Angel Moroni and continuing at the beginning of the credits is from Hymn #2 "The Spirit of God."
- Here, Joseph Smith is portrayed with black hair. In The Joseph Smith Story, he is blond. It is possible that his hair transitioned from blond to black within the seven-year gap (He was 14 when he saw his first vision, 17 when he was first visited by the angel Moroni [which might not have been the same man as Mormon's son] and then sent to the Hill Cumorah unpermitted to take the gold plates because Joseph have let Satan tempted him with wealth, finally he did not know that these plates which contains something that are far more worth than all the world, he says that he's sorry, then he was going to, but angel Moroni had cut Joseph Smith off, and then came back on every anniversary for four years until he was finally permitted to take the gold plates).
- The four narrators that are heard when a 24-year-old Mormon looks through the plates are Nephi, King Benjamin, Alma, and Ammaron.
- Technically, six years from when Ammaron came across and spoke to a 10-year-old Mormon, the latter would have been 16 years old. However, it is possible that the part where Mormon was chosen to lead the army at 15 might have been sooner that year than his sixteenth birthday would have been. Also, 8 years from then, Mormon would have been 23; however, that scene might have taken place on or after his 24th birthday.
Scripture References[]
Mormon 1-8, Joseph Smith History 1