Watch: A teaser for the animated David movie, and a clip of David singing with his mother
The new song is very reminiscent, thematically, of a song from The Prince of Egypt.
Another week, another video for the upcoming animated David movie.
Actually, two videos: this week we have the film’s first official teaser, plus a clip from the film featuring one of its songs (it’s the third such clip in three weeks).
First, here’s the teaser:
A few quick thoughts:
The song we hear includes the words: “Stronghold of my life, whom shall I fear? Though the arrows may fly by night and by day, I will not be afraid.” The song appears to be inspired by Psalm 27; the first sentence comes from verse 1b, while the second sentence seems to be a reworking of verse 3.
It’s interesting how the teaser avoids showing Goliath’s face. Admittedly, it wouldn’t make much sense to focus on him too much at this point. For one thing, this is only a teaser—you want to save some reveals for later. But also, the teaser clearly indicates that a fair chunk of the film will revolve around David’s life as an adult, long after Goliath is dead—so how big a part of the film can he be? The slaying of Goliath will be a big deal at the end of the first or second act, I’m sure, but you probably don’t want to oversell his role in the film.
The closing tag line: “Celebrate Christmas at the movies.” This sounds like the sort of thing you’d say to people who don’t normally go to the movies at Christmas. So it seems the studio isn’t just pitching the film to people who were going go to the movies anyway and were wondering what their options were; it feels like they’re actively courting a whole new audience—the audience that people have in mind when they say hits like The Passion of the Christ and Sound of Freedom drew people to theatres who almost never go.
To put this another way: David is coming out on the same day as the new SpongeBob SquarePants movie (as Angel CEO Neal Harmon pointed out in a video last week). This teaser’s tagline tells me the studio isn’t even trying to compete for the same viewers; instead, it’s trying to draw other viewers to the theatre. Which is good news for exhibitors who need more ticket-buyers overall.
Next, here’s the clip, of a song between David and his mom called ‘Tapestry’:
A few quick thoughts:
First, I love the fact that David’s mom is highlighted here. Recent shows like Of Kings and Prophets and House of David have imagined that she was dead long before David’s story began, but the biblical David’s mother was alive well into his adulthood; he made a point of protecting her, along with his dad, while he was hiding from King Saul (I Samuel 22:3-4). Here’s hoping she lives in this film, too.
The theme and key metaphor of this song are very reminiscent of ‘Through Heaven’s Eyes’, the song that Jethro sings to Moses in The Prince of Egypt. The first line of that song is even, “A single thread in a tapestry…”
The two songs are very different musically and tonally, though, partly because the new song is centred on a female voice, but also because the new song is a duet—David is a harmonious part of the song, learning from his mother by singing with her, whereas Jethro sang with a chorus and Moses merely listened.
The bulk of the song is a new composition about believing in God’s plan for your life, but it does use at least two biblical turns of phrase. At one point David’s mom sings, “He knit you from inside the womb,” which harks back to Psalm 139:13 (“you knit me together in my mother’s womb”), and shortly afterward David sings, “I lift my eyes above the hills,” which is sorta reminiscent of Psalm 121:1 (“I lift up my eyes to the mountains”)—although David isn’t looking for help like the author of that psalm is,1 he’s just trying to get a God’s-eye-view of the world.
Incidentally, while I was drafting this post, the studio sent out an e-mail confirming that they will be “releasing exclusive musical sneak peeks” “each week”—so, my line at the beginning of this post (“Another week, another video…”) was more true than I knew. Prepare to see more of these. (But for how long? There are eight weeks to go until the movie comes out—at some point won’t they run out of soundtrack?)
The studio has also released a poster for the movie—and note how conspicuously it keeps Goliath’s face hidden:
Oh, and I see the poster mentions the film’s rating. The official movie-ratings website says the film has been “Rated PG for action/violence and some scary images.”
As noted in the poster, David comes to theatres December 19.
Previous videos for David:
The demo video (October 24, 2021)
A one-minute clip (August 31, 2025; starts at the 55:53 mark)
The ‘Follow the Light’ clip (October 9, 2025)
The pay-it-forward announcement with new footage (October 15, 2025)
The ‘Samuel’s Blessing’ clip (October 16, 2025)
Plus see my posts on the Young David series: episodes one, two, three, four, five.
Upcoming Bible movies and TV shows:
now-October 29, 2025 — The Promised Land: Season 1 (streaming: YouTube)
now-November 16, 2025 — House of David: Season 2 (streaming: Prime Video - Wonder Project)
November 14, 2025 — The Carpenter’s Son (theatrical: Magnolia)
November 2025 — Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints: Season 2 part 1 (streaming: Fox Nation)
December 19, 2025 — David (theatrical: Angel Studios)
March 22-April 5, 2026 — The Faithful (television: Fox)
April-May 2026 — Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints: Season 2 part 2 (streaming: Fox Nation)
second half of 2026 — The Chosen: Season 6: Episodes 1-6 (streaming: Prime Video)
sometime in 2026 — Zero A.D. (theatrical: Angel Studios)
March 12, 2027 — The Chosen: Season 6: Finale (theatrical: Amazon MGM)
March 26, 2027 — The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One (theatrical: Lionsgate)
May 6, 2027 — The Resurrection of the Christ: Part Two (theatrical: Lionsgate)
March 31, 2028 — The Chosen: Season 7: Premiere (theatrical: Amazon MGM)
no release date specified — Jacob (theatrical: Angel Studios)
no release date specified — Joseph of Egypt (streaming: Prime Video)
who knows when Malick will finish it — The Way of the Wind (theatrical)
Psalm 121 is not explicitly attributed to David in the text. The other two psalms mentioned in this post—Psalm 27 and Psalm 139—are attributed to him.