This is Pastor Tim’s article which appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
This is my promised review of The King of Kings, the animated retelling of Jesus’ life. I went to see it the night before Palm Sunday. When I showed up to the 7:15 showing, I bought the last seat. It was a sold out theater. I don’t remember the last time I was in a theater that was full.
The King of Kings was produced by Angel studios, the same studio who released The Sound of Freedom a few years ago. They are working on high quality, Christian productions. I believe that The King of Kings is by far their most ambitious animated production yet.
What I found the most interesting about this production is how it compares to the other movie in theaters right now starring Jesus, that is The Chosen. Full disclosure, I loved both productions. However, I suspect that will not be true for everyone. It is fascinating to me that these two movies arrive at the same place by travelling in exactly opposite directions. Let me explain.
The biggest criticism I have heard of The Chosen is that they take artistic license with the story of Jesus. They flesh out a lot of the undisclosed details in the Gospels to fill in the blanks and help us understand the characters. I really like that approach because it portrays Jesus as I believe He was, very emotional, charismatic, and funny. He pokes fun at His Disciples and people were really drawn to Him. The criticism of this is that the producers of The Chosen should have stuck closer to the text.
There is no humanly possible way this criticism could be leveled at The King of Kings. The main story telling frame for this movie is Charles Dickens is telling the story of Jesus to His son. Which means that every single word or action of any Biblical character comes straight from the Gospels themselves. The passages are told verbatim from the Gospels to the point that I was able to recite the vast majority of the lines of dialogue from memory right along with the movie. The parts of the movie with Dickens and his son I obviously did not know, but as the story was unfolding, I knew every scene and every word spoke because they were right from the page.
Biblical purists will love this movie because most of the script comes right out of the Bible itself. If you hear anyone criticizing this movie for inaccuracy or taking too many liberties with the Bible, that is simply false.
But here is the primary difference between these two versions of the Gospel. Where people love the Chosen because of the ability to identify with the characters, you will not have that experience with The King of Kings. The Chosen may take liberties with some unreported details in the Gospels, The King of Kings sticks so close to the presentation in the Gospels that Jesus never smiles or shows any emotion at all. It is very difficult to connect to any of the characters in the same way as The Chosen because the Biblical scenes go by so quickly and Jesus is simply standing in the middle of whatever is happening, much like He is portrayed in the Gospels.
If you want to connect to the Gospel story, you will love The Chosen. If you want to learn the Bible stories exactly as they are recorded in the Gospels, you will love The King of Kings. I enjoyed both because I understand the value of both and if you go with an open mind of what you are being presented, you will also love both because for what they are attempting to accomplish, I believe they both hit a home run.
I highly recommend both of these productions. I love them both for what they are succeeding at doing. Outside of the fact that I am sorry they are not competing against each other, I am glad they were in theaters at the same time because they invite comparison. They are both excellent in their own way, but they are not alike outside of Jesus being the central focus.