It’s always amazing to see things through the eyes of a child.  While I enjoyed the premiere of “The Kid Who Would be King”, this last weekend, for me it was reminiscent of other great 80’s and 90’s children’s quest films.  My generation grew up watching older classics such as Goonies, Flight of the Navigator, E.T., and even Labryinth.  Followed up by The Neverending Story, The Princess Bride, Harry Potter and other classic tales of ordinary children who do extraordinary things. Indeed, who do things that mere adults can not do or accomplish themselves, it has to be the children.  However, for my children, their experience with these kinds of films is completely different. For this generation, the children just now hitting double digits or even less than that in 2019, the magic of legend and myth brought to life on the big screen by ordinary children is just full of fascination and wonder.  Many of them have not yet experienced the classics, and these new movies that are reminiscent of those earlier films will become the new classics of their time.

Although I did find this film to be a tad to long, I mostly loved everything about it.  From the British setting and accents, to the unlikely heroes and their alliance with bullies.  Angus Imrie, played the young Merlin and did an excellent job at being the oddball version of a wizard forever growing younger.  Patrick Stewart was excellent as the older version of Merlin as well of course.  But Rebecca Ferguson (from Mission Impossible) played the villain very well also, even though her time in the movie was brief.  And lesser known actors took the lead as Louis George Serkis, Tom Taylor, Rhianna Dorris, and Dean Chaumoo–better known as Alex, Lance, Kay, did a wonderful job.  I actually loved that the main roles were cast as unknowns.  It made it easier to focus on the movie and plot itself, instead of seeing a well known actor simply playing that role.  Despite it being a children’s film, there is actually a decent amount of action, graphics, humor and magic to make it interesting enough for adults.  My oldest two children, ages 11 and 13 thoroughly enjoyed  the movie and definitely felt inspired.  I do think it is too intense for younger children, and would caution parents against taking them, but for older kids it is a great experience!

There is definitely an underlying message in the film as well, that touches upon the fact that the current state of our world is in disarray.  That evil and hatred have indeed taken over and that we need heroes to rise up and make a difference.  It is no coincidence that when Morgana’s undead warriors appear, all of the adults of the world disappear and only the children are left to fight.  In fact, as per usual, none of the adults believe the threat is real and it is only the children who must rise up and become knights.  It is the children who must make a difference and make changes in the world.  And perhaps they are right.  Adults continue to try and fix the world as it is, and instead we just make larger and larger messes and complications.  Maybe it needs to be the rising generations, full of hope, belief, magic, and without judgement or biases that need to rise up and fix all of the mistakes we have made.  It’s a good message!  Even though movies are not real, having an impact and having a voice to affect those that watch them is definitely real.

I know my kids felt inspired!