The King of Kings review – Charles Dickens retelling of the Jesus story does a serviceable job

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The famous author tells his son and their cat the story of Jesus in this mixed-bag family animation, voiced by an impressive cast This syrupy cartoon account of the life of Jesus (voiced by Oscar Isaac) is narrated, with consummate weirdness, by Charles Dickens (Kenneth Branagh). It’s in fact based on a story Dickens wrote for his children (and wasn’t published until 1934, decades after his death). The idea is that Dickens is telling the story of the New Testament to his young son Walter (Roman Griffin Davis) and Walter’s impish cat, explaining to the King Arthur-obsessed Walter how Jesus was the real King of Kings and all that. And so we see Walter and Charles, in their mid-19th-century garb, wandering through scenes of JC’s life nearly two thousand years earlier, from the nativity to the crucifixion – much like Scrooge and his spectral buddies in A Christmas Carol as they wander through past, present and future Christmases. It rather drags out what is already a pretty long running ...
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Cut! Building of new UK film and TV studios on hold after pandemic streaming boom

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Economic downturn, changing viewing habits and Hollywood strikes prompt questions about whether bubble has burst

The latest series of the Devil’s Hour starring Peter Capaldi and Jessica Raine may be a supernatural thriller but it is being filmed in more prosaic surroundings: not far from the M25 in Surrey.

Shepperton studios, part of Pinewood Group, is now the second-largest film studio in the world after a new extension opened earlier this year.

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