David (Angel Studios)

Before he ever picked up a sling or faced a giant, David was just a shepherd kid with a harp and a lot of courage. David, the new animated feature film from Angel Studios, pulls back the curtain on the early years (full of secrets, rivalries, and defiance) that turned an overlooked youngest son into one of Israel’s greatest heroes.

David Review

Considering that David opens against Avatar: Fire and Ash and The SpongeBob Movie this month, Angel Studios is preparing for its own David vs. Goliath box office battle. Fortunately for them, there’s a lot to like about their latest full-length animated feature.

                   

Although the narrative structure of their previous children’s film, The King of Kings, left a lot to be desired, it showed the theater-going public that 3D design and animation were well within the studio’s wheelhouse. That craftsmenship carries over to and is improved upon in David. The animation is excellent, and the design is a textural delight, with a crisp and clear depth of field that gives the cartoon world an enjoyable tactility and vitality that few others have achieved. With only two examples, it might be too early to officially call it Angle’s signature style, but they are certainly on their way.

Very much a musical, while the songs themselves aren’t quite the iconic earworms many of us remember from our childhoods, songs that infused themselves into the cultural fabric for generations, David’s musical numbers are powerfully performed with skill and passion. The voice talent is top-notch, and if any autotuning was employed, it was done so with grace and subtlety.

If you’re a Worth it or Woke member, you’ve no doubt noticed our regular complaint that many modern series, though possessing the kernel of an interesting idea, are artificially stretched beyond the tensile strength of their plots and filled with narrative putty and sawdust rather than more enduring materials. David has the exact opposite problem.

Regrettably, like The King of Kings, though not nearly as detrimentally so, this Angel production suffers from some troubled storytelling. Only surpassed by Moses for narrative presence in the Old Testament, David’s story is a lengthy one that covers decades. Even when truncated to his youth and rise to power, which is David’s focus, it spans upwards of twenty years. With so much to squeeze in, not to mention musical numbers, it’s disappointing but not unsurprising that the film’s narrative feels fuzzy and rushed.

What is surprising is how much time is wasted on filling in the gaps between major events with clichéd hero’s journey tropes and meaningless characters that give the character David and the story an uneven quality. One moment, the shepherd boy is fearlessly facing down a charging lion, and the next, he’s unsure of himself. Then, he’s filled with the Holy Spirit and standing toe to toe against Goliath, right before he’s squeamish about the role God has for him.

Where the landscapes and vistas feel rich and tangible, David’s characters are more like ephemeral sketches as they move from one of David’s keystone moments to the next, usually set up by a quick and cumbersome exposition dump beforehand. Kids, especially those raised on 15-second clips of other children playing with toys, likely won’t mind the rapid transitions. However, parents won’t be able to help but notice that they feel no emotional connection to anyone or any event. That’s a shame, because it’s all right there.

Ultimately, David is a visually stunning and musically vibrant effort that showcases Angel Studios’ growing mastery of 3D animation. Yet, in trying to be both a sweeping musical and a faithful retelling of David’s youth, the film spreads itself too thin. To truly resonate, it needed to pick a lane: either embrace the conventions of a musical fully—letting songs carry the emotional weight and trimming extraneous narrative—or focus on the core story, cutting ancillary characters and thematic detours to allow relationships and pivotal moments to develop organically. As it stands, the spectacle is undeniable, but the emotional heart is often just out of reach. With more deliberate focus, however, Angel Studios could’ve transformed this promising young David into a cinematic force that feels as alive emotionally as it does visually.

Still, despite its narrative unevenness, David represents a meaningful step forward for mainstream Christian children’s and family programming, showing that high-quality animation, ambitious storytelling, and moral themes can coexist on the big screen.

PARENTAL NOTES

Rock, Paper, Casket

• Young David is rated PG for cartoon violence and some intense situations. I would argue that it’s mostly well within the appropriate range for ages 7 and up. However, Goliath’s death pushes it a bit.
  • When the rock hits him in the head, even though there’s no blood, it’s a violent death. First, we actually watch the rock hit him. It doesn’t happen off-screen. When it does, it smashes into his forehead with a thud, deeply embedding itself there. Then, from multiple angles and distances, we watch him collapse to the ground in slow motion. There is no doubt that we have just seen a man (even if it is a cartoon man) being killed.
    • Some of the impact (no pun intended) is lessened by the fact that it’s a roughly 3,000-year-old, well-known story. So, it’s not exactly shocking, but it might be to sensitive viewers who aren’t as up on their Bible stories as they should be.

WOKE ELEMENTS

None

• Nada