A minister I worked for used to tell our church family how our faith should be childlike – without being childish. That feels like a good summary of King of Kings, the new animated retelling of the book Charles Dickens wrote for his children, The Life of Our Lord.
Here we have the gospel laid out for - and seen through the lens of - a wide-eyed, sword-wielding small boy. Simple truths are explained without becoming overly simplistic, and at the same time, despite being a PG, this film doesn’t shy away from the spiritual truths of sin, nor the pain of the resurrection. (Being a family film, there is no blood, but the crucifixion scene makes plain what is happening and may be too intense for some very small potential viewers).
This is a whistle-stop tour through the Gospels – getting through the life of Jesus, plus the additional sub-plot around Dickens and his son – in 90 minutes. The opening with Scrooge didn’t immediately pique the interest of my nine-year-old, who is sadly not yet a Dickens fan. But things quickly picked up with the introduction of difficult dynamics between father and son (and a very fat cat who was able to get the upper hand over Dickens).
