By Nick Nitkowski 

This is a very difficult movie to review from someone like me who is not religious. But I am going to do my best to give my honest opinion on this movie, and I intend to do so with nothing less than the utmost respect. I ask any religious reader to please keep that in mind when it comes to any criticisms that I address regarding the film. It is not intended to berate, belittle, slander, or attack anyone of religious belief or the religious faith itself. Now that we have a mutual understanding, let’s review “The King of Kings”.

“The King of Kings” is an animated movie produced by Mofac Studios and distributed by Angel Studios that tells the story of Jesus from birth to crucifixion told through renowned author Charles Dickens to his son, which the real Charles Dickens wrote the adaptation of called “The Life of Our Lord” for his children. The film is stacked with many voice talents such as Kenneth Branagh, Oscar Isaac, Uma Thurman, Forrest Whitaker, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Jim Cummings, Mark Hamill, and many more.

Starting off with the cast, I must say that it is a very impressive cast list of actors involved in this project. Some have more screentime than others, but the main focus of characters are Charles Dickens, voiced by Kenneth Branagh, his son Walter Dickens, voiced by Roman Griffin Davis, and Jesus Christ, voiced by Oscar Isaac. I thought everyone did fine. Nothing really stood out much to me in terms of voice acting, but they understood their assignments. 

There was one small thing regarding voice acting that slightly bothered me. It’s a small thing, but it deserves its own paragraph. Again, this is just a critique. Believe it or not, I was religious at one point in the earlier years of my life. I learned most of the stories from the Bible, and I still remember them to this day. Through those stories, I always viewed Jesus as a teacher filled with mysticism and wisdom. In this movie, the show the people ready to throw stones at the woman caught having an affair. That’s when Jesus steps in and famously says, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone at her.” A very powerful moment of self-reflection and a lesson of not to judge one of the sins they’ve committed when you yourself have sinned. As the people lower their stones, that’s when Jesus in the movie says in a sarcastic tone, “Oh! You all have sinned? Huh!” I feel as though that last bit should have been cut out as it really tainted a powerful moment in the film. It didn’t fit with Jesus’s character as a teacher.

I also mentioned that this story is primarily told through the character of Charles Dickens. As to what I can only assume is a stylistic choice for the film, they interwoven Charles Dickens and his son Walter into the story of Jesus as it’s being told by them. I get the choice of them both metaphorically being in the story, but it got a little strange as a viewer when both Charles and Walter are both interacting with characters like Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. But at the same time, I understand that this movie is specifically made for children to enjoy, so a little suspension of disbelief is a requirement for older audiences.

As for the animation of the film, it’s easy to say that it’s not Disney or PIXAR level of animation. But again, since it’s for children, it’s passable. I imagine the majority of the budget of this film had to have gone to the voice talent. Which isn’t a bad thing. Plenty of studios hire big-name actors to try to sell tickets. In fact, if they didn’t, it probably wouldn’t sell as well. But in terms of the quality of animation as it stands, I would rank it at streaming level quality animation. Quite a few levels above something like “VeggieTales”. 

Overall, “The King of Kings” is a perfect film for Christian families to teach their children about the story of Jesus Christ. As a non-believer, I say that the pinacol of religious animated movies is still “The Prince of Egypt”. It is incredibly hard to knock that film off its throne, and in my honest opinion, “The King of Kings” doesn’t come close to it. But, like I said, it’s perfect for Christian families or even Sunday Schools to play for children in their care. And with the movie getting released on Easter weekend, I would say that it is the perfect family movie outing for those of religious faith. So, if you had plans to view this movie, I can easily say that it does its job for its targeted demographic. 

3 stars