Animated Film Review: The King of Kings

Title: The King of Kings

Director(s): Jang Seong-Ho

Screenwriter(s): Jang Seong-Ho, Rob Edwards, Jamie Thompson

Studio: Angel Studios Released: 2025

Runtime: 1h 43m

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, Oscar Isaac, Kenneth Branagh

My Rating: 6.0/10

Following a trend that is gaining steam, The King of Kings is the latest feature from Angel Studios where more and more Hollywood stars are lending their talent to films with a Christian message and/or theme. Stars like Pierce Brosnan (Pontius Pilate), Oscar Isaac (Jesus Christ), Kenneth Branagh (Charles Dickens), Uma Thurman (Catherine Dickens), Mark Hamill (King Herod), Forest Whitaker (Peter) and Ben Kingsley (Caiaphas) can be heard in this big-budget, animated film.

The opening scene will test your patience. Charles Dickens is storytelling in front of an audience inside a theater but is constantly interrupted by his children, and maybe the most annoying character to appear on the silver screen since Jar Jar Binks, the Dickens family cat, Willa. This character added no value to the film. They could have left it out of the script and the plot would not have changed one bit. I don’t even remember many laughs, if any, when it would spew its unsuccessful comedic antics.

The film slowly segues into the main plot, Jesus and the New Testament, then takes off at a blistering pace. Way too fast, like when an exotic sports car flies by and you can’t even see what make or model it was. So many details were lost as the director and writers tried to cram all the main points of the Gospel into the film: from our Savior’s birth in Bethlehem to Him teaching in the temple as a boy, to the Sermon on the Mount and all the miracles, to the Last Supper and Crucifixion, and of course, the Resurrection. Each topic was glazed over so quickly that the power and meaning of each were barely seen or felt.

By contrast, The Chosen, which is always hotly contested and controversial, does an amazing job of focusing on the importance of Jesus’ work on earth. The colossal amount of hope every episode portrays cannot be understated. It’s more than enough to bring grown men to tears.

The King of Kings makes raising Lazarus from the dead look like a mundane event. It spent more time trying to fuse Dickens and his family into the story, as it did with the most important story in all of mankind. If I were to have written this script, I would have cherry-picked fewer Gospel highlights and spent more time on them, trying to drive the point home to the audience that Jesus was real, His miracles were real, His message is the most real message any man has ever spoken, His death was real and for each and every one of us, and His resurrection was real and still talked about to this day. Instead, it was like watching a well-animated Cliff’s Notes of the Gospel with some Charles Dickens and just about the worst pet in film history thrown in.

That said, I must admit that the animation was pretty amazing. The style can be argued but the realism, especially within the setting, was stunning. Water reflecting off of rooftops, and the lighting, whether it be daylight, moonlight, artificial light like torches, sunrises or sunsets made the film visually stunning. Also, the use of different art and animation styles for different time periods was very well done. When the narrative shifted to the Old Testament, the animation style also changed.

Perspectives changed too. During transitions, characters would miniaturize and play their scenes out on Dickens’s desk. Clever little details such as these keep the viewer engaged. I appreciated them but would have appreciated more if such details were applied more to Jesus and His journey.

I honestly can’t remember a scene where the music took over. That is both a good and bad thing. Sometimes you want the music to accentuate a scene but music that is noticed usually makes a scene cheesy or formulaic. Given that there was none of that is more of a win than a loss. It’s not a film that commands a great soundtrack like a Disney or Pixar film. 

Overall, I think it’s an average film about Jesus and the New Testament. Visually, it is very good. Other than some of the characters and scenes being grossly overacted, especially scenes with the Dickens in them, audibly the film is average to below average. I don’t think the A-list celebrities did anything special other than having their names on the cast list. The pace was off. Too slow in the beginning, lending too much time to Charles Dickens and his family, and way too fast when it came to the Good News.

Would I recommend this movie? If you have children, especially ones curious about our Lord, then yes. My children enjoyed it. My six-year-old daughter, who is very faithful, was especially moved by the Last Supper and Crucifixion scenes. But for someone like me, I think about what Jesus did for us every single day. Even my limited brain understands the sacrifice He made. It is not something to be glazed over. I’m not sure what the remedy would be given the circumstances. It is a movie for children, trying to get them to understand all of that in such a short time with such short attention spans. I guess they did a good enough job if that was their main goal.

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