David Review – Morally Repugnant Propaganda

To describe David simply as a failure would imply a level of creative innocence that this project does not deserve. This film represents a morally repugnant piece of propaganda masquerading as family entertainment. Released by Angel Studios, the same company responsible for Sound of Freedom, this animated feature arrives with a distinct ideological agenda that feels grotesque given the current state of the world.

At a time when the region is defined by horrific real-world violence, directors Brent Dawes and Phil Cunningham have chosen to sanitize a narrative of conquest into a saccharine Sunday School lesson. They attempt to rewrite history with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The result is a film that is as ugly to look at as it is to think about. This project functions less like a story and serves more as a justification for a genocidal worldview.

The narrative is obnoxious, unfunny, and deeply preachy. The script fails completely to make these characters feel like historical figures living in a complex time. Instead, they shout modern Zionist talking points at one another. The audience is forced to endure lines like “We are His people” and “We must fight for our God” delivered with the cadence of a political rally rather than a cinematic story. The film runs for an inexcusable 115 minutes. That is almost two hours of pure lecture. It’s boring, poorly paced, and utterly exhausting to sit through. You feel every single minute as the film drags you through its distorted version of the Book of Samuel.

Visually, the film is a disaster. However, the character design reveals something far more sinister than just bad art direction. The racism and colorism on display are bizarre and calculated. The Philistines are portrayed as a faceless, darker-skinned “horde.” This plays directly into anti-Arab “savage” tropes to justify their slaughter. The film strips them of all humanity. It depicts them as stupid, cruel brutes with zero nuance. This makes the violence against them feel cynical and calculated.

In a strange twist, Goliath (voiced by Kamran Nikhad) is the only character with distinct white features. He is portrayed as a “God-hating demon,” which implies a confusing racialized hatred for the outsider. Meanwhile, the Israelites are designed to be just “brown enough” to claim indigeneity without alienating white American audiences. It’s a cynical visual language designed to dehumanize one group while sanitizing another.

From a technical standpoint, David is embarrassing. The animation, produced by Sunrise Animation Studios, is ugly and flat. It looks more like a cheap mobile game ad than a theatrical release. There is no weight to the movement and no texture to the world. The backgrounds, which the production team claims are based on research trips to locations like the Valley of Elah, look like generic desktop wallpapers. The character models lack expression, moving with a robotic stiffness that makes even the emotional scenes feel hollow and artificial.

The soundscape is equally dire. The music is a collection of generic “worship vibes” that fail to drive the plot. It sounds like a playlist of rejected church camp anthems, which makes sense considering the cast. The film relies on stunt casting Christian music stars, such as Phil Wickham (as David) and Lauren Daigle (as Rebecca). Neither of them can act. Miri Mesika gives a terrible performance as the mother, Nitzevet. Her delivery is wooden and jarring, constantly pulling you out of the already hollow experience. Even seasoned voice actors like Mick Wingert are wasted in this role. They drown in a script that refuses to speak like a human being.

The portrayal of the conflict is where the film becomes truly dangerous. By framing the narrative solely through the lens of divine right, the filmmakers absolve their heroes of any moral complexity. The violence is presented as necessary and holy. This is not just a retelling of a Bible story. It’s a modern political statement disguised as animation. It ignores the horrific real-world context of the region to push a narrative that dehumanizes the “enemy” to a disturbing degree.

David is an evil, manipulative piece of media that manages to alienate every demographic. It’s ugly, boring, and deeply offensive. It takes a biblical story and weaponizes it. It strips away any spiritual value in favor of a hateful political message. By attempting to sell a narrative of divine right and violent conquest to children while ignoring the blood-soaked context of the very land it depicts, Angel Studios has produced a genuinely evil film.