David (2025)

Let's see: a biblical animation with the same distributor as The King of Kings, released in the same year, with the same IMDb rating. But this one's a musical set in the Old Testament without narration. Would it feel more like a spiritual successor to The Prince of Egypt?

The story begins shortly before Bethlehem shepherd David (Brandon Engman, later Phil Wickham) gets anointed by prophet Samuel (Brian Stivale) as a future king and ends when the Israelites formally recognize his kingship. When not contending with the powerful Philistines and creepy Amalekites who hope to enslave his people, his antagonist is King Saul (Adam Michael Gold), who now cares more about holding onto power than following the Lord's guidance.

This is about as un-preachy as Bible flicks get. We don't see any flashy, unambiguous miracles; maybe he just gets lucky against Goliath (Kamran Nikhad). David doesn't claim to hear the voice of God directly. It seems like his true strength could lie in his courage and conviction, which inspire similar acts by others in heartwarming moments. Even David's doubtful brother Eliab (Jonathan Shaboo) comes around, as does Saul's son Jonathan (Mark Jacobson).

Lest you think there are no female characters worth naming, we have David's mother, Nitzevet (Miri Mesika), and his younger sister, Zeruiah (Sloan Lucas Muldown, later Ashley Boettcher), bravely interposing at various points, in addition to musicians and throngs. But yes, the focus is mostly male, whether for talking, action, mild comic relief, or singing. Hard to do anything about that without major deviation from the source.

As you may have noticed, this movie doesn't employ nearly as much star power as the ones I mentioned in the first paragraph; only a few actors even have a Wikipedia page, and I hadn't heard of them. That's OK by me -- no chance of distraction by familiarity. I could complain about the mix of accents and a hint of autotuning, but that would be petty.

Indeed, the songs are generally quite good, partly for having lyrics that aren't too context-specific. I'm told that Samuel's Hebrew number butchers the language, but that was never going to be catchy anyway. Perhaps the best is adapted from Psalm 23.

I must also compliment the graphics, especially for backgrounds. The living characters are a tad cartoony, especially the expressive sheep and caricatured villains, but the effects are impressive for a crowd-funded project. It may have helped me feel connected to the characters and kinda worry about them, despite knowing the ending already.

Overall, I might just put this ahead of TPoE, and that's saying something. It is more kid-friendly, with nothing as scary as the plague sequence. I wouldn't mind showing David to my nephew and niece, and their secular parents wouldn't mind the moderate religiosity.