The Kid Who Would Be King

The Kid Who Would Be King

By James Davidson

“The Kid Who Would Be King” is a modern interpretation of the classic story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Young Alex, a student at an English prep school, is chased by two bullies, Lance and Kaye, into a construction site. In the construction site, he finds a sword sticking out of a pillar of concrete. After pulling out the ancient weapon he shows, and playfully knights, his friend Denners, and they discover that the sword is actually the ancient treasure, Excalibur, and Alex is now, essentially, the new King Arthur.

A strange young student shows up at their school the next day who is revealed to be the ancient wizard, Merlin. Merlin explains to them since Alex found Excalibur he is now responsible for defending England against the evil Morgana. Morgana is Arthur’s evil half sister who wants to steal the sword and use it to take over the world. Alex enlists the help of his former enemies, Lance and Kaye, to become knights in his charge and help him fight Morgana and her army of undead soldiers and save the world.

After seeing the previews for this movie, I was definitely intrigued. I thought that it might be a silly children’s movie about King Arthur with a mediocre plot and a lot of silly humor. I wasn’t expecting an in-depth interpretation of the traditional story of King Arthur, I was expecting this to be a very watered down version that pandered more to a younger crowd.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that this movie was not watered down at all. The plot was very intriguing and in depth. The movie turned out to be a very fun, fresh interpretation of a classic fantasy tale. While geared towards a younger audience, this film is still mature enough to hold the attention of an adult audience. It doesn’t pander to the younger audience, but is still suitable to hold their attention and be fun and interesting for children.

There were a few parts of the movie that might be a little scary for younger children. Morgana and her undead army look a little morbid. I suggest looking them up if you have younger children before you take them to see if they might be frightened by these images. There are also a lot of magical elements in the film. If these elements don’t bother you and your children won’t be scared by the images, this is the perfect family movie.

I was very impressed by the special effects. While some of the images might be a bit much for younger viewers, they are very well done and reminiscent of bigger budget fantasy films, such as “Harry Potter” or Lord of the Rings”. This is a great movie to introduce children to the fantasy genre. It’s also just a great fantasy movie in general.

“The Kid Who Would Be King” is rated PG for action violence, scary images, thematic elements; including some bullying, and language. As I mentioned previously some of the images might be a little scary for some children, but other than that I didn’t notice a lot of language or anything that would be inappropriate for kids. It’s a great family movie, I saw many parents with small children in the theater and all of the children seemed totally engrossed in the story.

“The Kid Who Would Be King” is a fresh, fun, original take on a classic fantasy tale. It’s fun for the whole family and a great fantasy film reminiscent of the great films of the genre. I definitely think this is a must-see for any fantasy fan and I can’t wait for it to come out on DVD and Blu-ray so I can add if to my collection. It earns 4.5 out of 5 stars