The King of Kings (dir. Jang Seong-Ho)

by Jack Martin | Apr 11, 2025

Certificate: PG

Running Time: 104 mins

UK Distributor: Kova PR

UK Release Date: 11 April 2025

WHO’S IN THE KING OF KINGS?

Kenneth Branagh, Oscar Isaac, Uma Thurman, Mark Hamill, Pierce Brosnan, Roman Griffin Davis, Forest Whitaker, Ben Kingsley, Ava Sanger

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Jang Seong-Ho (director, writer, producer, editor), Kim Woo-hyung (producer, composer)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Charles Dickens (Branagh) recounts the tale of Jesus (Isaac)…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE KING OF KINGS?

Growing up, most of us are taught everything we need to know about Jesus, from his birth in that Bethlehem stable to his death (and subsequent un-death) on a giant crucifix, as well as all the miracles in between, to make our own decisions later in life about whether or not to attach ourselves to the faith he so preached about. While I personally do not identify as religious – if you had to press, I’m more agnostic than atheist – I still feel it’s important to give children a clear and fairly unbiased view on what the commonly accepted story of Jesus is so that they too can have that option surrounding their own stance on religion, and to its credit The King of Kings offers exactly that for its young audience.

For older viewers, though, it quickly becomes clear that the animated film – directed and written by Jang Seong-Ho, a South Korean visual effects artist making his moviemaking debut – offers that and nothing else, save for an odd and frankly unnecessary narrative device that brings, of all people, Charles Dickens into the mix. Although there is a worthwhile connection between the two unlikely figures, for the world-famous author wrote his own version of Jesus’s story titled The Life of Our Lord that was published several decades after his death (and is loosely adapted here too), it’s not enough to fully separate it from all the other straightforward retellings of this most recognisable of stories.

The film begins in Victorian England, as Dickens (voiced by Kenneth Branagh) has an on-stage mishap with his young son Walter (Roman Griffin Davis) and his cat sidekick Willa, who are enamoured with the myth of King Arthur. Later, Dickens decides to tell his son the story of another king – the king of kings, if you will – and transports himself and Walter into the story of Jesus (Oscar Isaac) through the power of their shared imagination. Both proceed to experience every major beat in the story, including his escape as an infant from the clutches of King Herod (Mark Hamill, putting his Joker voice to good use once more), paying a visit to John the Baptist, gathering his posse of disciples, performing many miracles such as healing the blind and paralysed, and of course being sentenced to crucifixion by Pontius Pilate (Pierce Brosnan).

It’s as standard as you can get when it comes to delivering the story of Jesus, which to some extent feels like the exact purpose of The King of Kings. This is a film that is first and foremost for children, specifically those who, like young Walter Dickens, do not know very much about Christianity or its central figure, and to that end it’s a serviceable introduction that kids can easily access and possibly even keep coming back to. To keep them emotionally engaged, Seong-Ho’s script whittles down the more severe aspects of this story – for instance, it handily skips right over the whole “King Herod ordering the murder of babies” fiasco, and scenes of Jesus being tortured by Roman guards feel like a particularly bloodless Passion of the Christ – and focuses almost exclusively on what Jesus taught to his many disciples and followers, namely just being a good person and having compassion for others. Getting an actor like Oscar Isaac to voice Jesus was also a smart move, for his soothing vocals add numerous layers of coolness and even a slight laid-back attitude which help make this figure come off even greater to its viewers.

As noble as the film’s intentions may be, from a critical standpoint The King of Kings is never better than okay. The whole thing comes off as a Biblical greatest hits compilation, even briefly incorporating the stories of Adam and Eve as well as the origins of Passover to fill in certain gaps, while adopting overly basic storytelling language that often sounds as though it’s talking down to its young audience rather than treating them as intellectual equals. As such, most characters who aren’t Jesus barely get any development to speak of, to where Judas deciding to commit his infamous betrayal comes out of nowhere with zero lead-up to him making that fatal decision whatsoever (he’s such a non-character that it’s hard to even find out who voiced him), wasting several prominent actors like Uma Thurman and Forest Whitaker in the process. Granted, the framing device of the movie is an adult literally telling this story to a child, but that doesn’t mean the film should be completely condescending in how it delivers certain information, for it only furthers the divide between world-weary adults and impressionable children, the latter of whom can sometimes be far more intuitive than we give them credit for.

The animation is decent enough, even producing some rather gorgeous imagery at times, though there are some stylistic choices that don’t always mesh well together, and in certain cases even leave one questioning the intent of the filmmakers (for example, the villainous Israeli priests who conspire against Jesus are given some very, erm, distinguishable noses that align with certain negative Jewish stereotypes). Often, the visuals come off as fairly blocky and stagnant, with the voice acting sometimes struggling to match the characters’ mouth movements, as though it was animated in another country that synced such movements with the local language before passing it to English-speaking distributors. It’s also weird seeing people in these Biblical times looking (for the most part) fairly normal next to the likes of Dickens and son, who are contrarily designed like they’ve come straight out of a Disney movie, complete with enlarged eyes and an overly cutesy style of body language, that feels like someone mixed Tangled with The Prince of Egypt.

And then, there’s the whole Charles Dickens of it all. Though I am not against incorporating this historical figure with that of Jesus, for there is potential for the styles of each man to be compared and contrasted with one another, the fact that this movie happens to feature the writer at all feels extremely arbitrary, for you could remove all his scenes with his rather irritating son and pointless cat sidekick and still get the message across. It feels like the filmmakers included Dickens not necessarily because they’re loosely adapting The Life of Our Lord, but because they could market it as a unique blending of creative minds that, ultimately, never comes to anything in the final film.

It works best if you have a kid and want to introduce them to the story of Jesus just as you were introduced to it when you were younger, but beyond that The King of Kings is not an especially holy watch if you’re after something more interesting.

SO, TO SUM UP…

The King of Kings tells a very basic child-friendly version of the story of Jesus, which despite noble ambitions leaves it less engaging for older viewers for it offers little more than a Biblical greatest hits compilation and a largely pointless framing device.