The Direct spoke with the cast and filmmakers behind Angel Studios' upcoming animated film The King of Kings at WonderCon.
The movie follows Charles Dickens as he narrates the story of Jesus Christ to his son, with the animation allowing audiences a unique window into the tale as those stories come alive around Dickens and his son.
The talent we spoke to included Fred Tatasciore (Pharisee Eleazar), James Arnold Taylor (Melchior and multiple others), Jamie Thomason (Casting Director), Seong-Ho “Jay” Jang (Director & Writer), Woo-Hyung Kim (Cinematographer), and Rob Edwards (Co-Screenwriter).
How King of Kings Tells a Unique Version of the Story
The Film Tells the Story Through Charles Dickens' Retelling.
- The Direct: "A lot of people are familiar the telling of this story. we've heard versions of this quite often. So what about this take is unique and is going to bring audiences into this in a new way? "
Fred Tatasciore: One of the primary things is it's a Charles Dickens story. It's his interpretation, and it's his love letter, basically, to try to explain this story of Jesus to his children. And so it's because it's a lot to unpack in this story...
I brought my kid into a church in Santa Fe last winter. He's five years old, and he saw [that] they don't pull any punches in the Spanish churches. It's like, and my son just said, 'What are they doing to that guy, you know?' And it was like, it's terrible. It's a lot to explain. And so what makes this different is two things. One is it's palpable. It explains the stories in depth in the Charles Dickens way, plus how it was, how well it was adapted as a screenplay.
But it's introducing a child character to try to go along with it, so the father and son get to enter into the scenes together and see it firsthand and while the violence and the passion is still there, it's still palpable.
It's not something you have to close your eyes or turn your way from. You're partaking in it. You're seeing it. But it's not just totally psychotic, you know? And so that, I would say, is helpful, and it encapsulates many messages in the main message in one sitting, which is pretty amazing to do.
James Arnold Taylor: Certainly, with the aspect of Charles Dickens. Now, Charles Dickens wrote this, 'The Life of our Lord, this story for his children back in 1846. It wasn't published until 1934, I think. And he was very adamant about teaching his children about Christ.
And this now kind of translates really well because we live it through Walter, his youngest, and Sir Kenneth Branagh doing an amazing job, doing the part of Dickens. So we get to keep coming back and forth into them. And watching it with little kids, they relate to Walter. And I think that's really kind of the cool part...
It's very palatable. I think, no matter what you believe, that's kind of the beautiful thing about it. Also the cinematography of it. They used a live-action cinematographer, and he created amazing moments that you couldn't really do live-action and animation lends itself to it, but I had a blast.
I've been involved in this for about six years, doing voices for it. Originally, I did what they call the scratch vocals. So, I was originally Jesus and Charles Dickens and everybody, but I got to stay. I was young Jesus, and then I'm also Melchior...
Jamie Thomason: Well, the fact that it's animated, off the bat, that's a big difference. But it also has a unique storytelling device and perspective, because it's the story of Jesus' life, but as told or narrated by Charles Dickens, Dickens wrote something that was published like 60 years after his life, that he entitled 'The Life of our Lord'...
And he wrote it for his children, which it says right on the cover of the book; written for his children between these years, I don't remember. And as a family, they read it every Christmas. They read it aloud every Christmas throughout his entire life, and then his children as adults throughout their lives.
So, what this movie does is pick up on that idea. And, we have Charles Dickens telling the story of Jesus' life to his young son, Walter. And, Walter is basically our audience. So, it's a great device. It's a unique perspective. It gives us an ability to have a different kind of fun when we're in the Dickensian world in his household.
You have to see it to really get it. But the idea is that Dickens' storytelling is so immersive that his son feels like he's there. He feels like he's walking among Jesus and the disciples.
We start into their study, and we go into the Holy Land, and then every once in a while, the kid says, 'Wait, what? What's that?' And you were back in the study, and Dad explains it, you know, to his son, thereby explaining it to our audience.
Seong-Ho “Jay” Jang: The story of Jesus is known by a lot of people, whether they are religious or not... But I thought it was meaningless if I had to repeat what other people did in the same way that they did.
And I'm a big Charles Dickens fan, but it is only recent that I found out about this book, 'The Life of our Lord.' So after reading it, I thought it would be very interesting to convey this, the story of Jesus, from the perspective of Charles Dickens, and also he, at his time, Charles Dickens did a lot of drama readings on stage, so I thought, Okay, why don't we adapt the way he tells story to the audience at the drama reading to the way he tells the story of Jesus to his son.
So, that way, if we are successful, we thought that would be very interesting film, and also, at the same time, a very unique one.
Woo-Hyung Kim: Yeah, as a camera and light person, I think this was the first animation film that I could be part of. So I tried my best to have organic camera movement, not like computer-generated, fixed, rigid camera work.
Rob Edwards: Well, that's the thing. Like, a lot of times when you see it told, except for maybe 'Prince of Egypt,' most of the time when you see it told, it is told in a grim way, especially the end, of course, and you're sitting there with your kid, and you're saying, like, this is the greatest story ever told about the crazy man, like, leave the room!
And the way Jay wanted to tell it was like, no, no, let's tell this. Let's animate it, and let's tell it for a family. And so, you know, grandma, the kid, you know, the family, whatever, the kids can sit at the same, you know, sit in front of the thing and watch it, and everyone can enjoy it in the same way.
So, that's what's different, is that you can trust your kid to just kind of watch it by themselves, trade it with others, go to school, tell their friends about it, and hopefully they'll watch it and be inspired by it.
How Animation Enhances the Story of King of Kings
"Animation Has Always Been a Great Medium for Stories of the Fantastical..."
- The Direct: "How did the animation kind of add to what you were able to do on a storytelling level?"
Jamie Thomason: Animation has always been a great medium for stories of the fantastical... And the fact is, with the state of CG today, you can pretty much do anything there, too. But there's a hyper reality to it. So I mean, just in things as simple as, the colors, the lighting hues...
Our cinematographer did some amazing stuff that in live action might feel, I don't know, heavy-handed or fake or something, but in an animated medium, it's just beautiful. Every frame [of the] film is a frameable work of art you can put up on the wall.
Seong-Ho “Jay” Jang: I've been working as a VFX supervisor for more than 30 years, and Woo-Hyung has been a cinematographer for live action films for more than 20 years.
So, that is obviously because of our passion towards the film, because we've been a big fan of film and animation throughout our career, and we always thought that we needed to come together to produce something really meaningful.
So, this time, with that conception and idea in the very beginning, we try to blend our respective experiences into making of animation. So after looking at seeing the final results, I think we did a very good job delivering our intention from the very beginning.
Rob Edwards: Well, it is epic. I mean, when you see what Woo-Hyung has done with the cinematography and the method that they found to kind of get him, you know, to do his thing.
There's this point in it when you're watching it, and you forget that it's animated. You know, you are truly inspired by it. And the animation that they do is like, it's so photo real at times.
I mean, the characters are deliberately, very angular, but the way that it's shot, you do sit there—in the theater that I was in, people were crying, and you can hear a pin drop.
Fred Tatasciore on the Pressure of Bringing A Known Character to Life
"The Key With These Things Is You're Not Trying to Cast Aspersions..."
- The Direct: "Can you talk about your approach with, you know, kind of just getting your performance across, but with the pressure of [knowing] these are characters or just people in history that people know really well, and we've seen versions of them. So, dealing with the pressure of like, okay, I want to make sure that my version is unique but also doesn't upset anyone."
Fred Tatasciore: That's a great question because that is a big debate. The key with these things is you're not trying to cast aspersions on, oh, they killed Christ, or, excuse me, or the Romans did this [or] the Jews did. That you don't want to [do]. You make them just real.
People try to be as realistic with people's fears and their apprehensions as possible. And that was the thing to do, you know, not make it inherently evil or right or wrong. It's just, we're nervous about something, uprisings or, you know, so, yeah.
So, that was an approach, too. The film itself is very, even though it's animated and it's beautifully—I mean, the cinematography is just amazing, and what they've done with the lighting and everything, but it's very real, realistic cinema verte, the way the acting is.
The full video interviews can be viewed here:
The King of Kings releases on April 11.
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