So this afternoon, I took myself to the movies and saw The Kid Who Would Be King, the next in a long line of remakes and adaptations of the King Arthur/Merlin/Morgana/Knights of the Round Table story.

I feel like I saw about zillion trailers for this movie but then I haven’t heard anything since it was released, so I truly didn’t know what to expect from it. I mean the trailer made it look cute and fantastical and I love almost anything Arthurian or whatever, but trailers can be verrry misleading.

I am happy to report that this trailer was NOT misleading (in most respects, more on that later), SO without further ado, let’s pull the plot from the stone and dive right in.

Pun game less strong, sorry about that.

THE PLOT

The movie begins with an animated segment detailing the basic overview of the Arthurian legend for the audience’s sake. It’s a story many of us have heard before in some fashion, and it loosely covers the big points: Arthur pulled the sword from the stone as a kid, became a great king, gathered knights at a round table so they were all equal, fought Morgana, has a magic buddy named Merlin, so on and so forth (again, it’s a very basic overview and obviously cannot touch on every detail if you know the legend well. It sets up only what needs to be set up for the following story. This is likely why Guinevere was not included, among other things). It’s done in a sort of comic book-esque animation, and it’s quite lovely.

We then meet our main character Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis), a pretty average kid who does things like skip breakfast, leave his big homework projects to the last second the night before, and run to defend his best friend Bedders (Dean Chaumoo) from the school bullies Lance (Tom Taylor) and Kaye (Rhianna Dorris). He’s so determined to defend his friend, he actually gets into a full-out fist-fight with Lance. Later, trying to outrun Lance and Kaye after detention, Alex seeks shelter in a gated-off construction area, where he finds, you guessed it, a SWORD IN THE STONE. Well, okay, it’s a sword in a concrete block. BUT STILL.

Alex and Bedders joke about the sword being “The Real Excalibur” or not, and that night Alex is attacked at home by some kind of evil fiery underling, presumably one of Morgana’s (the wonderful Rebecca Ferguson). Around this time, Merlin (Angus Imrie) arrives and shows up at their school to watch over Alex and occasionally sneeze and turn into an owl (going by the extremely clever undercover name…”Mertin”). His cover is quickly blown when he realizes that the solar eclipse, the event that will apparently allow Morgana to escape her underground confines and enslave all of Britain, is actually in four days and NOT in four years, like he originally thought. This causes him to need to speed up the timeline a little, revealing his adult form (played by the one and only Sir Patrick Stewart) in order to convince Alex and Bedders of how dire the situation really is.

Once Alex and Bedders believe, they try to recruit Lance and Kaye to the cause around the round dining table. From there, they embark on an epic quest to train, find the truth about Alex’s father, grow as human beings, and recruit a giant army to defeat Morgana once and for all and save the world.

No pressure.

THE REVIEW

Listen I had a meeting this morning which means my to-do list tripled, so I picked this movie to see after because I assumed it would be lighthearted and enjoyable and I wouldn’t cry or feel too many emotions or anything, I mostly just wanted fun and escapism (this is why I’m seeing Miss Bala tomorrow instead because that’ll be anything BUT lighthearted and fun).

Beyond that, I guess I honestly wasn’t expecting much.

And listen, this movie? It’s delightful.

Is it groundbreaking in any way? Not really. Will it win any awards? Probably not. Is it a true cinematic experience that you feel in your soul? It’s not Black Panther, no.

BUT. It’s good. It really is. And it’s fun. And it’s relatively diverse. I think it would be enjoyable for kids and adults alike. It’s a great family movie.

More than anything else, it is chock-full of amazing, important, wonderful messages for kids. Kids watching this movie will come away feeling like they can do anything, and you know what? They absolutely can.

It doesn’t have incredible script-writing and heartbreaking moments like Pixar movies, it doesn’t have the budget, namesake, or even probably the staying power of your typical Disney movie, and best of all in my opinion, it does not have any pandering, stupid “kid-humor” like other aimed-at-kids movies.

Because the main cast we cheer for are all kids, and because it wants the audience to take their quest just as seriously as they do, it never for one second (except when plot-appropriate) tells the kids of the movie, or the audience, that they cannot have a heart-pounding, serious, and fun adventure story all of their own. It respects the kids in the audience just as much as the kids onscreen, and it’s extremely refreshing. You know it’s a kids’ movie just because of who the cast is and how the story goes, but not because of the jokes that can sometimes define (and ruin) a movie like this.

Again-is it groundbreaking and impressive? Not necessarily.

Is it important?

I think so.

Spoiler warning now in effect for the more detail-oriented breakdown of the review, if you’d rather watch it first and come back!

THE MUSIC

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…

Listen, it definitely had some good moments. The little acoustic theme that played in the beginning, and then when the characters started their journey altogether? Light and fun, loved it. The tree training battle music??? Quirky and weird and it was great. MORGANA’S EVIL MUSIC??? That was the best part tbh.

Overall, nothing about the main score really stood out to me personally. There was epic music when there needed to be (and there needed to be a lot of it) and there were sad elongated chords playing for the more poignant moments. But overall, you could put a lot of the music over footage from a separate adventure fantasy film and it wouldn’t make much of a difference. It didn’t feel like the score for Into the Spider-verse, which was so personalized and unique to that movie that it wouldn’t fit with anything else.

And maybe that wasn’t the point, and that’s fine. The main important thing is that the score didn’t detract from the film at all, and that’s crucial.

THE CHARACTERS

They are precious beans who need to be protected, thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

But really, part of what makes this movie so fun is how the characters are and how they interact with one another. By the end, I loved all the kids-and it didn’t necessarily start out that way.

Bedders was probably my favorite from the beginning-he’s just so supportive and excited about everything, and his moment where he stood up to Lance and Kaye to protect Alex (where usually it’s Alex protecting Bedders) was so sweet. Plus when he learns how to do actual magic as opposed to the magic illusions he was working on, he’s SO EXCITED and it’s so precious.

Lance and Kaye never really have development apart from each other, as they generally serve the same purpose in the plot-they’re the bullies, or Alex’s enemies, who get recruited and become knights by the end. They learn to fight for something other than themselves. Lance overcomes his selfishness and Kaye…they make a big-deal about how she is “callow” which is odd because they’re kids? Aren’t they all callow?? She doesn’t necessarily have a big moment to overcome that, although she does save Bedders during a horseback incident and she drives the getaway car in that one chase scene. They’re obnoxious in the beginning, as they are meant to be, and they’re wonderful by the end.

Merlin is an absolute dork the whole way through the film. When he’s a teenager, he’s lanky and overexcited and loud and wears the most ridiculous bright yellow rain boots, and when he’s an adult, he’s quirky Patrick Stewart. He strongly believes in the kids, as he tells Morgana in a pivotal moment, and he’s really the first adult character to do so, which is refreshing.

It took me the longest to warm up to Alex as a character, and I’m still not convinced I really like him by the end necessarily. Through the first half of the film, the quest is to find his long-lost father, whom he believes knew all along that Alex was “the once and future king” based off of the way he signed a copy of the Arthurian legend for his son. However, on the quest, they find out that the book signature was actually forged by Alex’s mother, and the truth is that his dad was no hero-he was an alcoholic who left the family. This does give Alex some interesting development-as Merlin explains, Alex is not a direct descendant of the original Arthur…and he doesn’t have to be. The sword “chose” him because of who he is, not because of any family connection. So from then on, Alex just has to believe in himself because of himself, and not for any other reason. It’s a nice moral.

There is a slight problem here, however. While I fully support the message of “you can be anything no matter where you come from,” it’s still a message and a plotline that they gave to a white boy. While it’s still incredibly important for him to believe in himself, it still stands true that Alex (and Lance) will have the least amount of problems growing up simply because of who they are. They are white males, they are naturally privileged, and they will continue to be. The message of believing in yourself regardless of your background is an important one, and a beautiful one-but wouldn’t it have been that much more powerful if it had been a plotline given to a character of color?

Regardless, like I said, it’s still an important message. And almost every single kid who goes to see the movie will come away having seen themselves on screen saving the world-how cool is that?

It kind of reminds me of when the new A Wrinkle in Time came out, and many people were disappointed because it wasn’t exactly like the book-but can you imagine all the little black girls who saw that movie, and saw a girl who looked like them being told over and over again how smart she was? And not in a condescending way, either-her love interest admired her because of how smart she was.

That’s the beautiful thing about stories like this: they let kids imagine that they can be the main character just as they are. They can save the world just as they are. They can do great things just as they are. They don’t get pandered to or patronized because they are children; they are simply believed in.

THE MESSAGE

I touched on this a bit (a lot) in the characters section, but there’s another side of it.

What makes this movie worth seeing isn’t the characters, it isn’t the plot, not the score, the cinnamontography (that’s a real word I swear), its take on the Arthurian legend, or EVEN Sir Patrick Stewart (he’s still great though). What makes this movie worth seeing, I think, is the message.

Like I said in the characters section, one big message in the movie is that kids can do anything, no matter where they come from. They can stand up for themselves, they can perform seemingly impossible tasks (like pulling a sword from a stone), or they can fight off an army of demons. It’s a great message, and another message that slides into that is that friendship is an incredible power all on its own. Alex invited the two people who helped make his and his best friend’s lives’ at school miserable and gave them an opportunity to fight alongside him. I don’t think the overall point there is that you should go around offering your local bullies friendship bracelets (although hey, why not), but rather to see them not as bullies but as people. Though it was touched on only lightly, Lance and Kaye had reasons for behaving the way they were. For some reason, maybe something in their home lives, they believe initially that the world is unfair and they can’t do anything to change it, so why try? They feel like it’s completely hopeless, and moreover, they themselves feel worthless. They got that message from someone in their lives. And they acted out because of it.

Alex and Bedders saw that in them, and tried to help them see past it. And it led to a really powerful, unassuming friendship, and lots of supporting each other when all hope was lost. Also, friendship hugs!! And cuddles!!!

But in my opinion, the strongest message of all is that the kids are the future. It’s cheesy, and it sounds like a campaign slogan for PTA president, but it is the message. It comes out the clearest for me during the final battle.

Merlin confronts Morgana before she goes to face off against Alex & Co., and it’s important to note that while their initial confrontation takes place when Merlin appears to be a teenager, he changes so that this next moment happens in his adult form. These are two adults facing off now.

Morgana’s stance is that she is owed the sword, and the power, because she is the last living Pendragon. And have you seen these KIDS??? With their “TOYS” and “TRINKETS????”

“Do you really believe in them?” she asks, because she doesn’t take them seriously-she flat-out asks Merlin if he chose children because he thought she wouldn’t have the guts to do anything to them.

Merlin says that of course he believes in them. Those kids have more courage and heart than you’d believe.

“We are the past, Morgana. Those kids are the future.” Merlin, in his adult form, says to her then.

Sound like a familiar argument?

This is crucial because Morgana is embodying what every adult in the film has said, has believed, up to this point: they’re just kids. The world will not be kind to them. We can’t baby them and have them believe in fairy tales. They’ll have to earn the good things in life, it won’t just be handed to them. It certainly wasn’t handed to us!

Merlin is the one adult in the film who stands against this (sure, Alex’s mother believes her son only after he summons the Lady of the Lake in their bathtub, but you can tell she’s still coming to terms with everything). He realizes that their time is over: these kids? Their time is just beginning.

I don’t want to get in to a whole generational war, not necessarily, but the metaphor is there.

And it’s important for kids seeing this movie to see that, to see not only themselves being awesome and saving the world, but to see that yes, many adults, many people from the previous generation will not believe in them…but some will.

Kids need to see adults believing in them, because they are the future.

MY THEORY

One of the many things that stood out to me during the film was this sense of bluntness about everything. In the beginning when Alex is heading to school, we hear a newscaster flat-out discussing how the world is doomed because more dictator-esque and authoritarian leaders are in power than ever before. I mean sure, but jeez, that’s a little, well, blunt. Then, Alex passes by a newsstand, and every headline is something like “DOOM.” or “THE TERROR CONTINUES.” I mean there is NO subtlety.

This is followed up by almost every conversation Alex has with an adult during the movie. When he speaks with the principal after getting in a fight, the principal tells him that his actions here will affect the rest of his life, he knows that, right? The world is not kind and it’s not going to take care of him.

Okay thanks for the pep talk…

Later he’s talking with his mom who tells him that his dad would never have wanted his son to be someone who believes in fairy tails or carries swords around.

I mean I really don’t think that exact topic would have occurred to him?

Even later, when Alex meets his aunt and learns the truth about his dad, she is not gentle with him at all. She says that his dad was not a good man at all, she doesn’t even know where he is, he doesn’t love them and never did.

I mean I get it’s a fantasy movie, but YEESH.

That felt a little too far outside the confines of reality, and those were all supposed to be real conversations, no magic to be seen.

What occurs to me, however, is that all of that makes sense if you think of it from a child’s viewpoint. A child might hear discussions of some dangerous leaders in the world, and translate that into a newscast about more authoritarian leaders than ever before. A child might translate long newspaper headlines into what they really are saying: “DOOM.” “THE TERROR CONTINUES.” A child might get in trouble at school and all they’d hear from the principal is that those actions affect the rest of their lives, even though they don’t (Alex is 12-you hear stuff like that in high school and it still isn’t true). A child would hear complicated reasons for a parent leaving and assume it’s because of them, because they believe in fairy tails and stupid things like that. A child would hear that a parent left because they do not love them.

Merlin has fascinating magic all throughout the film (every time he casts a spell it’s very Syfy’s The Magicians-esque), but one of the most unique things he does is cast a spell on an adult figure to get them to do what he wants. But what I noticed more than anything is that the spell silences the adult. Once the adult is silenced and not putting the kids down anymore, they can continue with their quest.

Morgana may be the embodiment of evil and Alex’s main enemy throughout the film, but another enemy is the adults in his life not believing in him and not trusting him. He hears all of that and translates it into something else, even if it’s not the message originally intended.

At the very end, Merlin congratulates the main four kids and, most importantly, tells them exactly what it is about them as individuals that helped them win. Merlin is the first adult to see them not as children with fantasies, but as fully-fledged humans. They’re still growing up and changing, of course, but they are people, just as they are right then.

He then says to them in my favorite line of the film: “A world is defined by its leaders. And what leaders you’ll be.”

Catch me CRYIN IN THE CLUB AT 6

“OOF” MOMENT

Like I said, this movie is not, as a whole, a masterpiece by ANY means. There are some acting moments that are just…yikes.

But I mean they’re KIDS OKAY.

Still, there are some moments between Alex and Bedders when they’re talking and it’s just…they’re reading a script y’all, that’s it.

There’s also a scene early on where Alex’s mother is talking to him and they’re both in the frame but she’s not actually looking at him she’s looking just past him and I just???

Also Merlin transforms into an owl in front of the whole school to convince them to join Alex’s army and when he lands he’s all moody teenager “HOW EMBARRASSING” but like…Merlin you’ve been doing that the whole movie. Merlin you wore a too-small uniform to school to spy on Alex. Merlin you said your name was “Mertin.” MERLIN.

FAVORITE MOMENT

I’ve said a lot about this scene already and why it’s my favorite, but nothing can beat that last scene between Merlin and the kids. It’s just really heartwarming and pure.

Also, the scene where the trees are training the kids how to sword-fight? Adorable. Wonderful. 10/10 training montage.

SHOULD YOU TAKE YOURSELF TO THIS MOVIE?

Look, this movie is not perfect. I honestly had real mixed feelings about it up until the third act. And just because I like it and pulled a ton of metaphors out of it, doesn’t mean everyone will. It’s still, at the end of the day, a kid’s movie. The stakes are never that high. It’s not Lord of the Rings (although it is referenced! Twice!!), and it’s not going to win Best Picture because everyone knows that’s going to be Black Panther. Two years in a row. This year and next. Because I say so.

The thing is, if you have kids, I think they’d love it. And if you’re worried about sitting through a mindless kid’s movie with them, I can happily assure you that you will at least probably enjoy it, at least a little bit. Or if you just wanna take yourself to a fun, hope-filled movie about the power of kids and the younger generation, I think you’ll be satisfied.

It doesn’t accomplish anything great, necessarily. But I still think it’s important.

And if you’re worried that it’ll screw up the Arthurian legend (like one review I read? The person was like…real passionate about the fact that Alex was billed as being Arthur’s descendant and that’s IMPOSSIBLE based on the legend like CHILL FAM. It was marketed that way of course because it’s a character development moment for Alex and also??? It’s a kid’s movie), well I don’t really know what to tell you. Hollywood does stuff like that all the time. You’re welcome to make your own movie, though.

The point is, for me personally, I give The Kid Who Would Be King…

3.5/5 WEIRDLY GLOWING EXCALIBURS!!!

Yeah, Excalibur glows like a flashlight, idk what to tell you.

TRAILERS TO WATCH OUT FOR

Definitely a different caliber of trailers from what I’ve been seeing lately! We have Dumbo to start us off which…I have such mixed feelings about??? I want to like it, and it’s Tim Burton, but ughhhhh the original is one of my least favorite movies EVER. I’ll probably still see it just to check (plus like…Colin Ferrell) but I’m remaining cautious. UglyDolls is DEFINITELY on my list, okay, this is my aesthetic. I mean…UglyDolls??? Kelly Clarkson???? JANELLE MONAE????????? I’m there. Spider-man Far From Home cracks me up because I feel like at least part of Avengers:Endgame is ruined. Like I get it, but also…we’re all going into Endgame now knowing Peter’s gonna be okay. The real question is…WILL SHURI BE OKAY???? A Dog’s Journey is the continuation of A Dog’s Purpose from a couple years ago, and yeah I love crying about reincarnated dogs, give it to me. WonderPark looks like it could be really good…oooorrrr really meh. We’ll see. I don’t really have any feelings about Dark Phoenix because I haven’t really been following the X-Men movies at all, but I might watch them to catch up. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is a given since the first one is one of my favorites, and I hope the sequel does it justice. I have my doubts, since we all saw Lego Batman and Ninjago (or maybe we didn’t). Finally, Breakthrough looks…interesting? I want to look up the true story it’s based on, and there’s a good chance it’ll be REAL preachy. But maybe not. Plus, Chrissy Metz!! Making us cry about something other than This is Us this time! Also, Mike Colter!! It’ll be fun to see him as someone other than Luke Cage.

And that does it for this review! If you want a decent, fun, heartfelt movie to give you some escapism and a good time, I recommend you take yourself to the movies to see The Kid Who Would Be King.