THE KING OF KINGS (2025)

Here's the short version: this is one of the better ways your family could spend an afternoon this year. THE KING OF KINGS tells the story of Jesus by having Charles Dickens narrate it to his own rambunctious young son, Walter — and that framing device works. It gives children an entry point into the Gospel without bending Scripture to get there.

The film moves through Christ's birth, temptation, teaching, and miracles with real care, and closes on John 14:6 — Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. There's nothing objectionable in it. The only caution worth naming: a few moments, like the Slaughter of the Innocents or the scourging, are referenced rather than shown graphically, but a child with a vivid imagination might still need a hand to hold.

For families raising children on the true story of Jesus, this belongs on the list. Watch it together, and talk afterward.

Walter Dickens has just wrecked his father's stage performance of A Christmas Carol — cat, siblings, and all. Sent home in disgrace, Walter gets something better than a lecture: his father, Charles Dickens, tells him a story instead. It's the story of a King greater than King Arthur — one born in a manger, hunted by a jealous ruler, and destined for something Walter can't yet imagine. As Dickens narrates, the Gospel comes alive scene by scene, and father and son both find themselves changed by the telling.

Four stars means this one earns its praise on craft, not just conviction. The device of letting Charles Dickens narrate the Gospel to his son gives the film a shape and warmth that many animated Jesus movies lack — it's dramatically alive without bending the biblical accounts to get there. The film weaves the family's story with vignettes from Christ's life, and the choice to have Dickens explain confusing moments by pointing back to earlier Scripture — using Adam and Eve to help Walter understand why Jesus takes on our sin, for instance — is a smart, teachable touch.

The pacing holds together well across birth, temptation, teaching, and the road toward the cross, and the closing quotation of John 14:6 lands with real weight. It's a faithful retelling told with genuine skill.

This is a very strong, unapologetically Christian film, and it should be celebrated as one. It tells the Gospel accurately — birth, baptism, temptation, teaching, the growing hostility of the religious leaders, betrayal, and the meaning of Christ's death and resurrection — without softening or reshaping it to suit modern sensibilities. Wine is drunk at the Last Supper as Scripture records it; nothing sexual or crude intrudes; the violence referenced (the Slaughter of the Innocents, the scourging) is handled with restraint rather than spectacle.

Worth noting honestly: the film's real-life narrator, Charles Dickens, was himself ambiguous about his own Christian faith — historians disagree on whether he ever came to Christ. The film doesn't resolve that tension; it simply uses his gift for storytelling as a vessel for the true story. That's a defensible and even clever choice, though parents may want to know the history behind it. One smaller caution: a few of the vignettes emphasize an individual's faith more than they emphasize Christ's divinity outright, though other scenes make plain that the miracles happen because of who Jesus is.

At its center, this is a film about a father trying to reach a rebellious son by telling him the truth about a greater Father and a greater Son. That longing — for a story big enough to change a stubborn heart — is the same longing Scripture answers: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).

Charles Dickens once told his own son a story to help him understand what he'd done wrong — and in this film, that story turns out to be the Gospel itself, told with real craft and real reverence. It's faithful, it's moving, and it's safe for the whole family to watch together. Worth the trip — ages 6 and up.