The Kid Who Would Be King - BLU-RAY

This fits with Goonies as a movie that is bringing to life what kids see in their imaginations as they play in the woods, this one just so happens to be steeped in Arthurian legend and it does it really well. The real standout here is teen Merlin who is fricken hilarious and grows up to be Sir Patrick Stewart. It is the performance that really carries the film. The other kids are good but he is great. The music is fitting, the scenery is gorgeous, and the creature designs on the skeleton knights is pretty awesome and their fire flexes the HDR the most of anything in the film. Complaints are minor, mostly that it feels a bit long, but there really isn't more than 5 minutes to cut. I have seen talk about it having a false or early ending that could have served as the finale, though it really could not as the entire movie was setting up the ending we got and we needed the earlier beat to get there properly and to carry a large part of the moral about honesty. The Kid Who Would Be King is a really enjoyable ride and plays perfectly to my love of adventures with young protagonists. Very much worth watching and I love the sheer optimism and lack of cynicism, not used to that in movies now days.

Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) thinks he's just another nobody, until he stumbles upon the mythical sword in the stone, Excalibur. Now, he must unite his friends and enemies into a band of knights and, together with the legendary wizard Merlin (Patrick Stewart), take on the wicked enchantress Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson). With the future at stake, Alex must become the great leader he never dreamed he could be.

While a bit predictable and a little less epic than I had hoped from the build-up, I enjoyed how the classic tale applied itself in the modern world. Not too violent, gory (though the Mortes Milles are firey skeletons), or intense, so suitable for supervised viewing. Nice integration of some moral lessons, and that's something we could use more of.

The movie was a bit better than I expected - not awesome, but a lot of fun. But the extra features on the disc were truly excellent. I'm not usually a big fan of the various making-of features, but I ended up watching all of them in this case. The enthusiasm of everyone involved really shines through when they're talking about their experiences making the film and what they were trying to accomplish. Don't skip the movie, but do plan on watching the extra features as well.

One afternoon my grandson tells me he wants a new release dvd called "The Kid Who Would Be King". I go to Best Buy and buy this dvd for him and go on about my business. The next day baby boy starts telling me about the new dvd. The gist is that there is a sword in a stone and only the true king can pull it out. Yep, it's a reboot of the Arthurian legend, As long as it holds my grandson in its thrall it's good enough for me!