History Film / TheKidWhoWouldBeKing

* HateSink: Lance and Kaye are initially [[TheBully cruel bullies]] who pick on Alex and Bedders for no reason and take sadistic pleasure in it. This gets [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] as the film goes on as the adventure allows them to be [[TookALevelInKindness become better people]]. The real hate sink (despite not physically appearing) is [[spoiler: Alex's father who abandoned Alex and his mother because he was an alcoholic who didn't give a damn about his wife and child.]]

* HateSink: Lance and Kaye are initially [[TheBully cruel bullies]] who pick on Alex and Bedders for no reason and take [{{Sadist}} sadistic pleasure in it]]. This gets [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] as the film goes on as the adventure allows them to be [[TookALevelInKindness become better people]]. The real hate sink (despite not physically appearing) is [[spoiler: Alex's father who abandoned Alex and his mother because he was an alcoholic who didn't give a damn about his wife and child.]]

* HateSink: Lance and Kaye are initially [[TheBully cruel bullies]] who pick on Alex and Bedders for no reason and take [{{Sadist}} sadistic pleasure in it]]. This gets [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] as the film goes on as the adventure allows them to be [[TookALevelInKindness become better people]]. The real hate sink (despite not physically appearing) is [[spoiler: Alex's father who [[ParentalAbandonment abandoned Alex]] and his mother because he was an alcoholic who didn't give a damn about his wife and child.]]

Set in modern day Britain, 12-year-old Alexander Elliot (Louis Ashborne Serkis, son of [[Creator/AndySerkis Andy]]) comes across the legendary sword Excalibur and pulls it from a stone. He soon learns from the wizard Merlin (Creator/PatrickStewart as an old man, Angus Imrie as a teenager) that the dark sorceress Morgana Le Fay (Creator/RebeccaFerguson) will rise from the underworld and bring about a terrible evil unto the world. Alex joins forces with his best friend Bedders (Dean Chaumoo) and bullies Lance (Tom Taylor) and Kaye (Rhianna Doris) to become knights and defeat Morgana.

* TimeShiftedActor: Based on Arthurian legend, Merlin ages in reverse and so Angus Imrie plays Merlin as a teenager while Patrick Stewart plays him as an old man. It's never fully explained why he needs to revert at all.

* MediumBlending: The opening flashback is told in a stylistic 2D animated segment.

* AdultFear: Alex's mom is forced to contend with her young son running away from home.

* IAteWhat: Merlin requests an odd combination of beaver urine, chicken bone and beetle blood, as that combination of ingredients makes a potion that helps him keep his strength in the mortal realm. He eventually finds all necessary ingredients in a local fast food place; beetle's are mashed to dye soda, chicken bone is ground in their nuggets and beaver urine is a part of the flavoring in the milkshake. This is mostly truth in television.[[labelnote:note]]Specifically, the "beetle blood" is actually the dried and ground cochineal bug (not really a beetle but rather a type of cactus-infesting aphid) which is used as a red coloring in cosmetics and food, the "beaver urine" is the use of diluted castoreum, a scent gland of beavers (though it's rarely used nowadays) in flavorings such as vanilla and raspberry, and the "ground bone" is common in most processed meats where significant amounts of powdered bone ends up along with the meat. [[/labelnote]]