Having grown up loving the Disney animated film, The Sword in the Stone, it was a blast to get in touch with my inner child again while watching the new live action film The Kid Who Would Be King. Revisiting the fantasy world of King Arthur, Merlin, the Knights of the round table and the famous sword Excalibur brought back some great memories.
The story has been brought up to date and set in modern times but cleverly succeeds in keeping the old mythology alive. This even includes a very comic take on Merlin the wizard played by two actors, the regal Patrick Stewart playing against type and Angus Imrie, playing him as the school geek extraordinaire. Both versions are very funny.
The believe in yourself message is delivered with little subtlety but it is satisfying nonetheless seeing the school nerd Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) becoming the hero of the day. Watching the transformation of Lance (Tom Taylor) and Kaye (Rhianna Dorris) from class bullies into noble Knights is also enjoyable.
The take away messages are delivered with a heavy handed touch but this can be forgiven because this is a proper big screen, big adventure film and never falls below entertaining. Just a small warning though, some of the imagery, especially that of the big evil Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson) might be a bit too intense for the very young ones.
Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/KidWhoWouldBeKing
