Maven's Nest
Reel Life: Flick Pix
Jewish perspective on this simplistic Christian interpretation of the Biblical David
By Nora Lee Mandel
DAVID
Directed by Phil Cunningham and Brent Dawes
Written by Brent Dawes, based on the TV series Young David, written by Kyle Portbury and Sam Wilson
Produced by Phil Cunningham, Jacqui Cunningham, Tim Keller, Rita Mbanga, and Steve Pegram
112 mins. Rated PG.
With the voices of: Phil Wickham, Brandon Engma, Brian Stivale, Miri Mesika, Adam Gold, Hector, Kamran Nikhad, Mark Jacobson, Asim Chaudhry, David Rosenberg, Jack Wagman, Jonathan Shaboo, Sloan Muldown, Ashley Boettcher, Katie Bernstein, Lauren Daigle
Composer Joseph Trapanese; Songwriters include: Jonas Myrin; Molly Kestner; Brock Monroe; Rhyan Shirley; Chad Carouthers; and Misha Hoyt & Marty Goetz (“Samuel's Blessing” and “Victory Song”)
Release in U.S. theaters on December 19, 2025 by Angel Studios
Angel Studios’ David is a visually colorful animation, a somewhat international voice-acted cast belting out catchy but too short tunes, with a few Hebrew words like “Shalom”, in an overly simplified Children’s Bible Story through a Christian perspective. (Two of the songwriters describe themselves as “Jewish believers in Jesus” and others are Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awardees. The algorithms of the streaming services where the soundtrack is available sends you after each track to Jesus songs.) It is a big-screen expansion of the Young David short film series, available on Angel Studios’ streaming platform, with many of the same voice actors, also created by co-director Phil Cunningham’s Sunrise Animation Studios in Cape Town, South Africa.
David opens with a claim this is based on “Samuel I and II”. But the filmmakers in the Production Notes caution that they want as broad an audience as possible so “some of the biblical themes were very mature and simply could not be included…[W]e realized that 100% accuracy to the telling of events would not be possible and so we strove instead for the word ‘authenticity’…to the times of David, to make sure we saw the world through his perspective.” The “authenticity” from several “research trips” to Israel was primarily for the landscape, which is beautifully rendered.
Youngest son of the aged (voiced by Hector) “Jesse” David goes from even-kind-to-lions shepherd boy (voiced by Brandon Engman) when the prophet Samuel (voiced by Brian Stivale) anoints him the future king, to young adulthood (voiced by Phil Wickham) when crowned king (as a youthful-looking 30-year-old) with all avoidance of his moral compromises. Like, just how intimate is he with his loyal BFF, Saul’s warrior son Jonathan (voiced by Mark Jacobson)? All those multiple wives for political alliances and romantic dalliances, including Saul’s infatuated daughter, are just eliminated. Who is left is the innocent, Good News lyre-playing psalmist, with a heavy dose of visual and verbal allusions to him as the ancestor of Jesus Christ, and an inspiration for “Luke Skywalker”.
King Saul (voiced by Adam Gold), a tragically complex figure, is reduced to one villainous dimension like “Jafar” in Aladdin or “Scar” in The Lion King. Isolated in Satanic reds, his jealous narcissism gives him migraines, with no mention that he was cast out of favor as the first king for refusing to commit revengeful genocide against the Amalekites, a lesson that is avoided for the youngest potential audience member. The Amalekites here are scary-looking giant-mask-wearers. Just labelled “scavengers”, there is no mention of their penchant for attacking the weakest of the tribe, such that they have become the eternal symbolic boogeymen of Jews to frighten kids. In contrast, the Philistines look a lot like the later Roman legions and act like Imperial Stormtroopers under an oddly foppish King Achish (voiced by British-Pakistani comedian Asim Chaudhry), for an exaggerated contrast with his champion Goliath (voiced by Kamran Nikhad).
The filmmakers do make visible with strong personalities two females who are barely listed in the source material besides their progeny. David’s supportive mother Nitzevet (voiced by Israeli actress Miri Mesika) shares his bushy eyebrows -- at least they don’t have hooked noses like in the Angel-distributed The King of Kings. She promulgates a nice tapestry metaphor while weaving and duetting with him. His feisty sister Zeruiah (portrayed as the youngest child voiced by Sloan Muldown, as a teen voiced by Ashley Boettcher) is a typical Disney princess-wannabe.
The family conflicts well-represent the division among the Israelites choosing between loyalty to Saul as he turns paranoid against David versus those fleeing Saul to shelter in desert caves with David. The eldest brother Eliav (voiced by Jonathan Shaboo) at first stays with Saul, while the next oldest Abinadab (voiced by Jack Wagman, the only actor in the cast who explicitly identifies as Jewish) is sympathetic to David. But it is awkward that the in-between brothers are disturbingly ridiculous comic relief.
The filmmakers may consider this pretty, simplistic, bowdlerized version of an ancient legend to be only an introduction. Unfortunately, in their quest for as broad an audience as possible, there are many who will accept the impression that this is all there is to it, with no food for further thought.
12/19/2025
Nora Lee Mandel is a member of New York Film Critics Online. Her reviews are counted in the Rotten Tomatoes TomatoMeter:
Complete Index to Nora Lee Mandel's Movie Reviews
My reviews have appeared on: FF2 Media; Film-Forward; Lilith, FilmFestivalTraveler; and, Alliance of Women Film Journalists and for Jewish film festivals. Shorter versions of my older reviews are at IMDb's comments, where non-English-language films are listed by their native titles.
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