The story of our Lord Jesus Christ, told by Charles Dickens and seen through the innocence of a child.
The King of Kings, the animated film by writer-director Seong-ho Jang (sadly not a biopic about WWE legend Triple H), tells the life of Jesus for children, primarily from a child's perspective. It's a 100-minute Sunday school lesson that doesn't approach the material in a fun, complex, or dazzling way (the animation is largely deadpan and barely competent) for younger viewers, but instead focuses primarily on rehashing the famous miracles of Jesus Christ (voiced by Oscar Isaac, with a soft voice and a warm kindness that captures their essence) without contextualizing them. It's all about "and then Jesus did this" for about 80 minutes, before the inevitable crucifixion, which, though softened, is still intense for kids.
Director: Seong-ho Jang
Writers: Seong-ho Jang, Rob Edwards, Jamie Thomason
Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Oscar Isaac, Kenneth Branagh
At times, it conveys an uncomfortable message: if you don't put your faith in Jesus, you get what you deserve (a sea captain sailing through a terrible storm is asked to walk on water toward Jesus, but begins to sink for precisely this reason), even if the main message is about kindness and forgiveness. It attempts to be kid-friendly; the problem is that the story of a man who ended up betrayed and nailed to a cross doesn't fit well into a G-rated animation. It's not Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, but it's not far from it either.
The filmmakers (with Rob Edwards and Jamie Thomason credited for additional scripts, and Hoseok Sung as co-director of the story) seem to believe that implementing a narrative device stolen from Charles Dickens's life—who read the story of Jesus to his children every Christmas (a book that remained unpublished at his request for a long time, until the death of his last children)—is enough to recontextualize it as a children's film.
Here, Charles, voiced by Kenneth Branagh, married to Catherine (voiced by Uma Thurman), attempts to calm his hyperactive son, Walter (voiced by Roman Griffin Davis), obsessed with King Arthur, by retelling the story of Jesus Christ, which in this film is supposed to have inspired the book. This means that, during each biblical miracle, the film either returns to the real world every 10 seconds or introduces Walter into the story so he can yell about whether Jesus will fight a dragon. That's the film's only joke, which even children will tire of by the second or third viewing. Beyond that, the goal is to illustrate how so many legendary stories have been inspired by the story of Jesus, and how a child might react to miraculous ups and downs, and the fatal ones, losing to the resurrection.
There isn't much in the way of story and characters. This is a hollow film, and possibly the most Angel Studios-esque one ever. Even the glorified voiceover cameos from big names like Mark Hamill, Ben Kingsley, and Pierce Brosnan aren't much help. The point isn't to tell a story, but to streamline it as much as possible. The King of Kings bears no resemblance to the narrative and humor of Charles Dickens, and one imagines that when he told stories about Jesus to his children, they became more characterful.
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