PG | 1h 40m | Animation, Drama, Family, History | 2025
Considering that Jesus Christ is the most portrayed deity in the history of film and TV, one might think there’s next to nothing new any filmmaker could add to the mix.
The bulk of these movies and TV shows focus on the last three years of Christ’s life; relatively few of them are cradle-to-grave productions. Of those, only a handful are recommendable for family viewing, either because of quality issues or violent content.
Written, directed, edited, and co-produced by South Korean filmmaker Seong-ho Jang (in his feature debut), the new Angel Studios animated release, “The King of Kings” [“Kings”], puts an entirely new and welcomed spin on “the Greatest Story Ever Told.”
The Elephant in the Room
Let’s get this issue out of the way now: Most adults (meaning 50 percent plus one) won’t watch any movie, no matter what the content, if it’s animated. To them, these are nothing more than glorified, overlong cartoons. I get that. Very few animated films can please audiences of all ages. But think the first “Shrek,” the “Toy Story” franchise, and last year’s masterpiece “Flow.”“Kings” will engage entire families not so much for the bountiful and moving Biblical content, but because it does so in a manner that is “kid friendly.”
While Seong-ho deserves immense credit for his appealing and unorthodox handling of the material, the movie simply would not exist without the book, “The Life of Our Lord” [“Lord”], by Charles Dickens.
Private Dickens
Written around the same time as “David Copperfield” (1846 to 1849), “Lord” wasn’t published until 1934, the year after the death of Dickens’s last surviving child. This clause was expressly included in the author’s will because he didn’t write it for profit, but rather something he only read to his 10 offspring every Christmas.In putting together “Kings,” Seong-ho combines elements of the Bible with “Lord” to astonishing effect. The movie opens with Dickens (Kenneth Branagh) doing a stage reading of “A Christmas Carol” while being interrupted by his second son Walter (Roman Griffin Davis). Walter and his cat Willa are acting out parts of “King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.” This raises the ire of Dickens to the point where he severely admonishes Walter, sending him home hurt and dejected.
At the urging of his wife Catherine (Uma Thurman), Dickens attempts to make up for his outburst by reading “Lord” to Walter for the first time. Still reeling, Walter initially shows little interest but perks up when Dickens informs him that “King Arthur” is based on the life of the greatest King ever, Jesus Christ (Oscar Isaac).
First-Hand Witnesses
What could have been just a novel and a pretty good Sunday school lesson is transformed into something thoroughly enthralling. Instead of showing Dickens and Walter full time in the family study room, Seong-ho and his illustrators put Walter and Willa (and sometimes Dickens) in the same frame as Christ, witnessing firsthand his extraordinary acts and deeds.At one point during Christ’s admonishing of turning a temple into a marketplace, Walter initially appears to interact with Christ. But through some impressive sleight-of-hand, it proves to be something else that doesn’t attempt to rewrite or fictionalize history.
My greatest fear in entering the third act was how Seong-ho would handle the depiction of the Crucifixion. Luckily, most of this extended passage was implied and handled mostly off-screen, yet was still able to make the desired impact while falling within the guidelines of a PG-rated movie.
Seong-ho’s greatest triumph here (among many) is in not making “Kings” a religious movie. Instead, it’s one rooted in morality, miracles, life lessons, and always doing the Right Thing. It leads by example, not dogma.
If you (and hopefully, your family) choose to see it, be sure to stick around for the entire end credit sequence. It includes a “pay it forward” QR code option and a video montage of child “critics” voicing their often-astute opinions of the movie.
