The Kid Who Would be King – Review

It’s been ten years since Joe Cornish has directed a film and let’s hope that after this we will not have to wait ten more for another. His latest movie, The Kid Who Would be King is an utterly delightful retelling of the Arthurian legend in a modern setting. This film feels like the Amblin films from the 80s, full of heart but with a poignant message to boot.

Men Without Chests 

Morgana, Arthur’s half sister, who was banished to the bowls of the earth has awoken and makes ready her return to rule the surface world. It seems the hollow, selfish, greedy society that we’ve fostered are the antidote to the magical bonds that have bound her for thousands of years. The word hollow is used to describe us a few times in the film and it brought to mind C.S. Lewis’s, The Abolition of Man and his worry that we are creating, what he dubbed, men without chests.

“In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”

We’ve raised a few generations and asked them to forgo the ideas of good an evil as too simplistic. All foundations of virtue and chivalry are gone. In their place we extol  meaningless celebrity, praise virtueless virtue-signaling and honor the honor-less. Our world has hollowed out and we wonder why it’s on the verge of collapse.

The beauty of this film is that it reminds us of what true virtue actually looks like. Merlin tells kids the code of Chivalry that all knights live by,

1. Honor those you love
2. Refrain from wanton offense
3. Speak the Truth at all times
4. Persevere in any enterprise until the end

Alex, from the beginning of the movie embodies these ideals. He’s already living them out. Like the Arthur of legend, he brings those that were enemies together, making them allies in a noble cause. It’s not because of his bloodline or birthright, but because of his choices. His dedication to the code, even before he knew the code is what has made him worthy of Excalibur. The Kid Who Would be King reminds us all that there are principles of righteousness to live by and that to save ourselves, we need to remember that before it’s too late.

The Existence of Evil

Merlin has another great line in the movie about evil and how it tricks us into hating each other, so that we’re too busy fighting each other to fight it. This brings to mind Charles Baudelaire’s quote, “…the loveliest trick of the Devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.” Leave it to a children’s movie to remind us of one of the biggest problems of our time, we believe in no absolutes, therefore the foundations for virtue are gone and so is our ability to recognize true evil. Morgana’s awakening has actually happened because of this very thing. The greed, self-obsession and pride has lead humankind to embrace vices as virtues and evil as good and they are what she feeds on. The world is topsy-turvy. The movie’s answer is to return to following the code, a code that recognizes the absolutes of good and evil, because without them it’s difficult to recognize one from the other.

The movie paints a picture of our world that feels very much like what the Apostle Paul describes in Romans chapter 1. Paul talks about the way we ought to live and the film mirrors in some ways his answer. “The righteous shall live by faith.” The code of chivalry is but a small part of this, but it’s pointing in the right direction.

The Movie

A movie with kids is always a toss-up if it will be good. It can be difficult to find a group of child actors that can all deliver well, consistently. Each of the young actors here is actually good. They will remind you of the young Harry Potter cast, which is a compliment. Rebecca Ferguson does not have a lot of time on screen as Morgana, but she is very effective in the one’s she has, at least until she becomes the CGI monster. Patrick Stewart yields most of his time as Merlin to Angus Imrie, who plays the younger version of the character. They work in concert to bring to life one of the most famous wizards of all time with a fresh, new take.

Joe Cornish has crafted a movie that does truly brings to mind the films of the 80s but with the effects of modern times. In fact, the only real let down in the movie, effects wise, is the Morgana creature at the end and by that point it’s too late for it to truly impact the film negatively. The one thing the movie is missing is a John Williams’ style soundtrack. If this movie had, had that, it would have been the cherry on top of an already tasty sundae.

The Kid Who Would be King is the perfect movie for families to share together. It brings back the adventure and fun without neglecting important themes that parents and kids can discuss long after the film is over. Movies like this need your support, so take friends and family and enjoy. This movie is rated 4 out of 5 stars.

 

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Time magazine has stirred up the social pot again, with its recent cover picturing a couple clearly reveling in “The Childfree Life.” In her cover article Lauren Sandler offers a vivid glimpse into the fast-growing world of women “having it all without having children.” She not only lets us see the statistics; she also lets us hear the voices of the women they document. The statistics themselves are dramatic: for example, about one in five American women now bear no children, compared to one in ten in the 1970s. We’re talking about remarkably quick demographic change.

The Rise and Fall of Katharine Hepburn’s Fake Accent:

“Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By,'” purrs a moon-faced Ingrid Bergman in the now-famous scene from 1942’s Casablanca. Staccato t’s and accordion-stretched a’s lend a musical flavor to Bergman’s lilt. “Early” becomes “euh-ly” and “perhaps” unfolds as “peuh-haps.'”

The grandeur and glamor in her voice, though, is a sham.

You Can Do Anything: Must Every Kids’ Movie Reinforce the Cult of Self-Esteem?

For all the chatter about the formulaic sameness of Hollywood movies, no genre in recent years has been more thematically rigid than the computer-animated children’s movie. These films have been infected with what might be called the magic-feather syndrome. As with the titular character in Walt Disney’s 1943 animated feature Dumbo, these movies revolve around anthropomorphized outcasts who must overcome the restrictions of their societies or even species to realize their impossible dreams. Almost uniformly, the protagonists’ primary liability, such as Dumbo’s giant ears, eventually turns into their greatest strength.

Enjoying John Mayer’s New Album Does Not Make You a Bad Person:

I was into John Mayer before he was big. I was into him when he was so small-time; he couldn’t even afford velvet bandanas. His guitar strings were old shoelaces. He was still a kid. He was so small. He didn’t even know what a bandana was. He was still in his mother’s uterus, banging on the walls, screaming to be let out so he could make the world sing.

Ripping Off Young America: The College-Loan Scandal:

On May 31st, president Barack Obama strolled into the bright sunlight of the Rose Garden, covered from head to toe in the slime and ooze of the Benghazi and IRS scandals. In a Karl Rove-ian masterstroke, he simply pretended they weren’t there and changed the subject. The topic? Student loans. Unless Congress took action soon, he warned, the relatively low 3.4 percent interest rates on key federal student loans would double. Obama knew the Republicans would make a scene over extending the subsidized loan program, and that he could corner them into looking like obstructionist meanies out to snatch the lollipop of higher education from America’s youth. “We cannot price the middle class or folks who are willing to work hard to get into the middle class,” he said sternly, “out of a college education.”

When Mentoring Exposes Your Idol of Being Needed:

Sharing the gospel is inextricably tied to sharing other aspects of life with those we’re mentoring. Consider what the apostle Paul says: “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:8). Biblical mentoring requires engaging the whole person for more than just a scheduled time each week or month. It includes meeting for lunch or coffee, showing up for an important event in the life of the woman you’re mentoring, inviting her to be part of your life or family, serving together, and even enjoying together the seemingly “frivolous” activities such as watching a movie or going shopping.