The King of Kings (2025)
Directed by: Seong-ho Jang
Premise: An animated film. Novelist Charles Dickens (voice of Kenneth Branagh) tells his son Walter (voice of Roman Griffin Davis) the story of Jesus Christ.
What Works: Charles Dickens, known for writing Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Christmas Carol among other works, also wrote The Life of Our Lord. Dickens allegedly wrote The Life of Our Lord for his children and the manuscript was published posthumously. The King of Kings uses this anecdote as the basis for a retelling of the Biblical Christ story. Charles Dickens narrates, telling the tale of Jesus to his unruly son Walter and impressing the boy with the drama of Jesus’ life and the implications of the messiah. The frame narrative freshens up a very familiar tale. We see the Christ story from the point of view of this child who is hearing it for the first time and the filmmakers manage to bring some emotional reality to the story. The film’s primary goal is instructive; The King of Kings is designed to speak to children and other viewers who are unfamiliar with the Christ story. The movie succeeds at that, hitting most of the important story beats. The King of Kings also makes connections with the creation story and the Passover fable which gives the crucifixion sequence some context. The flashbacks to these Old Testament stories use a different animation style which distinguishes those segments.
What Doesn’t: The animation of the settings and backgrounds is consistently impressive but the animation of the people is not. The King of Kings isn’t trying to be realistic but the design of the characters’ faces has an uncanny valley quality. These people are not very expressive. Their eyes are dead and the mouths are strange. The mouth movements are sometimes out of sync with the dialogue. The King of Kings reiterates the Christ story of the Christian Gospels which has been filmed many, many times. The frame narrative adds some novelty to this version but there’s nothing here about Jesus that’s hasn’t already been said in plenty of other films. At one point the two worlds of the film collide with Dickens’ son lost in the world of ancient Jerusalem and interacting with the people in those stories. The filmmakers try to convey the transportive quality of storytelling but it doesn’t quite work. Seeing these nineteenth century characters in the ancient world is too literal and doesn’t make sense.
Bottom Line: The King of Kings is a serviceable retelling of the Christ story. The animation is inconsistent but the frame narrative adds some novelty to a familiar story.
Episode: #1044 (April 20, 2025)