The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)
Directed by Joe Cornish
Old-school magic meets the modern world when young Alex stumbles upon the mythical sword Excalibur. He soon unites his friends and enemies, and they become knights who join forces with the legendary wizard Merlin. Together, they must save mankind from the wicked enchantress Morgana and her army of supernatural warriors.
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12 films that influenced The Kid Who Would Be King
What critics say influenced The Kid Who Would Be King
“They don’t make ‘em like this anymore,” you may have found yourself exclaiming on your last watch of The Goonies or E.T. Well, they do now…
When Alex soon discovers a sword stuck in concrete, The Kid Who Would Be King shifts gears into a full-on adventure fantasy akin, though never beholden, to ‘80s kids’ adventure films like The Goonies and The Neverending Story.
This time around he's aiming for a younger audience but borrows from an equally diverse range of sources, from 1980s Hollywood favorites like The Goonies and The Terminator to classic English children's books like The Sword in the Stone .
However, Cornish certainly has found his sweet spot with these type of adventure films that evoke some of Steven Spielberg’s classic action-adventures, like The Goonies and E.T. Similar to Spielberg’s films, The Kid Who Would Be King does not talk down to kids or simplify anything for that demographic.
Like The Goonies - and many other films - before it, The Kid Who Would Be King follows a group of kids who may not necessarily get along but who put their personal differences aside in order to save their world.
Adults will smile at elements from The Goonies and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , and at Electric Wave Bureau’s synth score, but references to Harry Potter and Game of Thrones are just as prominent.
Taking cues from Spielberg and ‘80s fare is hardly unique, as Super 8 and Stranger Things keep demonstrating; however Cornish’s feature directs its nostalgic flavour towards its primary audience.
2011’s Super 8 , a J.J. Abrams tribute to all things Amblin and Early Spielberg (which was actually produced by Amblin and Spielberg), is funnier, more exciting, and more emotionally grounded than The Goonies .
Sure we had things like Super 8 and Stranger Things , but those are more like homages to the films of the 80s.
Its most blatant influence was Steven Spielberg (for whom Cornish co-wrote that year’s The Adventures Of Tintin ), though it wasn’t a slavish imitation like the majority of this decade’s mostly-1980s-set Amblin wannabes—a subgenre effectively kicked off by Super 8 , which hit theaters the month before Attack The Block ’s American release.
He’s brought audiences an all-ages adventure full of hope and wonder, flavored with the attitude of movies like Monster Squad, Labyrinth, and even the kid-friendly cult classic Time Bandits.
There are times when “The Kid Who Would Be King” happily recalls Terry Gilliam’s “Time Bandits,” and director Cornish provides at least one absolutely thrilling moment you will surely want to share with your kids.
In fact, we’ve seen two in the last decade-and-a-half, including Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur and Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword .
On the middling end of the scale, we have the gritty yet dull Antoine Fuqua film King Arthur and the Jerry Zucker film First Knight (with a Scottish King Arthur played by Sean Connery).
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The film ends up having some thoughts about that trope in a vein not dissimilar from that of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, though somehow I feel like Arthurian mythologists will be overall less pissy about them.
It’s a charitable attitude to be sure, except that when everybody’s special, no one is (a peculiar tendency that has lately extended to “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which implied that a Force-blessed servant boy might one day grow up to take Luke Skywalker’s place, and the final groan-inducing twist of “Glass”).
You may know Joe Cornish from his brief appearances in Hot Fuzz or Star Wars: The Last Jedi , or his co-writing credit on The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn .
He also appears in an uncredited cameo as a Resistance fighter in Star Wars: The Last Jedi .
(The most Amblin-like contemporary cartoon, 2006’s charming Monster House , was somewhat ahead of the curve on this trend.)
One such episode involves a chase through time-frozen streets with the four kids fleeing from three creatures that appear to have been inspired by the Black Riders in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Some express this nostalgia overtly with success (see “Stranger Things,” “Turbo Kid,” “It“), while others wear those obvious references poorly and awkwardly (“Bumblebee“).
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More Harry Potter than Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the movie conveys dangers similar to Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, avoiding spoof and silliness while retaining whimsy.
More Harry Potter than Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the movie conveys dangers similar to Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, avoiding spoof and silliness while retaining whimsy.