A new twist on the King Arthur legend, 2019’s The Kid Who Would Be King introduces us to Alex Elliot (Louis Ashbourne Serkis), a 12-year-old outcast. He struggles to fit in with his peers and only bonds with his buddy Bedders (Dean Chaumoo)

When Alex flees bullies Lance (Tom Taylor) and Kaye (Rhianna Dorris), he stumbles upon a sword in a construction site. Alex extricates it from its spot and eventually determines that he possesses the legendary Excalibur.

Though Alex and Bedders don’t take this seriously, they soon learn that the legends are real when the magician Merlin (Angus Imrie/Patrick Stewart) visits them. Alex and Bedders recruit Lance and Kaye to form their own Knights of the Roundtable and battle the menace of evil Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson).

During late 2018/early 2019, Hollywood pursued subjects oft-filmed in the past. In addition to this take on King Arthur, we got fresh versions of Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes.

All three failed to find success. Hood did best, with a worldwide gross of $84 million, but given the movie’s $100 million budget, it lost a ton of money.

Of the three, only the failure of Kid feels like a shame. While Hood and Holmes pretty much stunk, Kid becomes a largely likable adventure.

Not that anyone should expect anything revelatory from Kid, as it never turns into a particularly memorable movie. It borrows liberally from the Harry Potter sensibility and can’t quite develop into anything really captivating.

Still, Kid takes a well-worn legend and creates something fairly enjoyable. Plus, it manages to avoid the pitfalls of child-centered movies, as it doesn’t talk down to the audience or shoot for cheap “kid-friendly” bits.

Those factors go a long way toward its success, as does the relatively straight manner in which Kid plays. While it adapts the story for children, it doesn’t ever feel like a “kiddie movie”.

The young actors do well for themselves, and I especially like Imrie’s quirky turn as Merlin. 24 years old when the film hit, he’s notably older than his movie peers but he still offers a delightful version of Merlin that seems eccentric without cheap wackiness.

Unlike most movies, Kid fares best during its “origin story” scenes. Once the characters really embark on their mission, it tends to feel less interesting.

Still, it keeps us with it the whole way, even if the climactic battles seem somewhat perfunctory. As family entertainment, Kid offers a reasonably likable effort.

The Kid Who Would Be King appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Overall, the image satisfied.

Sharpness worked very well, with virtually no softness on display. Instead, the image offered nice delineation and accuracy, even in wider shots.

I saw no signs of jaggies or moiré effects, and edge haloes failed to appear. Print flaws also remained absent.

With its fantasy setting, I hoped for a broad, bold palette from Kid. This didn’t happen, as I found a largely orange and teal affair. While the disc replicated those tones as intended, they didn’t seem like a logical fit for the story.

Though blacks could be a little crushed, they usually showed nice depth, and shadows were fine. Low-light shots also could seem slightly dense at times but they mostly displayed appropriate clarity. Despite these minor concerns, this ended up as a pleasing presentation.

As for the movie’s DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack, it made pretty good use of the soundscape, especially in the film’s various action/fantasy moments. Those placed material around the room in a logical manner and blended the material in a smooth way.

Music showed good stereo presence and spread to the surrounds naturally. Environmental material felt logical and well-located.

Audio quality matched expectations. Music appeared lush and full, with good clarity and range.

Dialogue came across as concise and distinctive, while effects appeared accurate and bold. Those components boasted deep low-end. This became a more than satisfactory mix.

A mix of extras appears, and we get a few featurettes. First comes Origins of a King, an 11-minute, 48-second reel with director Joe Cornish, costume designer Jany Temime, supervising location manager Jason Wheeler, and actors Dean Chaumoo, Angus Imrie, Rhianna Dorris, Tom Taylor, Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Patrick Stewart, Rebecca Ferguson, and Adam Buxton.

“Origins” looks at the movie’s roots and development, casting and performances, updating the Arthur legend, and Cornish’s impact on the production. This turns into a lively view of the shoot.

Young Knights goes for 12 minutes, seven seconds and includes info from Cornish, Imrie, Taylor, Serkis, Chaumoo, and Dorris.

We learn about cast, characters and performances here. The comments tend to be puffy, but we get enough footage from the set to carry the reel.

With Knight School, we get a 10-minute, three-second piece that features Cornish, Dorris, Chaumoo, Imrie, Stewart, Taylor, Ferguson, and Serkis. As implied by the title, this one shows various forms of training the young actors experienced. We get a pretty good look at these endeavors.

Next comes The Two Merlins, an 11-minute, 48-second segment with Imrie, Cornish, Stewart, Dorris, Serkis, and Taylor. Here we get notes about the movie’s depiction of Merlin as well as the way Stewart and Imrie play him. This turns into a fairly satisfying show.

Our main villain becomes the focus of Meet Morgana, a 12-minute, two-second clip that provides notes from Cornish, Ferguson, Dorris, Chaumoo, Stewart, Serkis, Temime, prosthetics supervisor Conor O’Sullivan and production designer Marcus Rowland.

“Meet” looks at aspect of the movie’s Morgana character as well as Ferguson’s performance. It winds up as another enjoyable reel.

For the final featurette, Movie Magic spans 13 minutes, 33 seconds and includes Cornish, Imrie, Temime, Chaumoo, Dorris, Serkis, Taylor, Rowland, and supervising location manager Jason Wheeler.

The program looks at sets and locations as well as some effects and design choices. The program finishes the featurettes on an informative note.

Four Deleted Scenes occupy a total of four minutes, three seconds. The first lets us meet Lance’s grandmother, while the second demonstrates tension between Alex and Lance.

In the third clip, we view Merlin’s dismay at the commercialization of the Arthur legend, while the last gets the kids back together after their parents punish them. All four seem fairly fun.

Hair, Makeup and Costume Tests fill two minutes, 58 seconds. We see the film’s four youthful leads in a mix of looks. This becomes a decent addition.

Under Promotional Material, we get five clips, four of which fall under the banner of “Merlin’s Magic”. These range in length from 34 seconds to 60 seconds and feature actor Angus Imrie. They’re moderately amusing.

“Material” also provides a music video for “Be the King” by Lay Lay. The youthful rapper lip-syncs on a school bus while we also see some movie clips. Neither the song nor the video do anything for me.

Sneak Peek involves ads for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, The Greatest Showman and Ferdinand. No trailer for Kid shows up here.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Kid. It includes most of the extras but it omits four of the featurettes as well as the music video.

Though it comes saddled with a cheesy title, The Kid Who Would Be King provides a reasonably entertaining fantasy adventure. Nothing here dazzles but the end product offers decent charm and fun. The Blu-ray brings good picture, audio and bonus materials. The Arthur legend gets a largely enjoyable refresh here.