Based on ‘War Horse’ author Michael Morpurgo’s novel, Kensuke’s Kingdom feels like a throwback – for better and worse. While some of its classical animation is pleasant, the story of a young boy bonding with a former Japanese soldier can feel schmaltzy and obvious.
Directed by Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry from a script by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the story starts with a family who have gone sailing around the world after the parents (voiced by Cillian Murphy and Sally Hawkins) have lost their jobs. Michael, the youngest, has little patience for the chores the trip requires; his sister Becky seems to be getting all of his parents attention and her continual responsibility puts her younger brother to shame. Feeling spurned, he smuggles the family dog Stella aboard.
The pair get swept overboard in a violent storm, and wash up on a seemingly deserted island where they meet Kensuke (Ken Watanabe). Kensuke lives in harmony with the island, having built himself a lavish treehouse. He feeds the local animals and protects them from poachers. After some initial hostility, Michael and Kensuke grow close, particularly when the latter opens up in one of the film’s standout sequences: his memories of home are depicted in an ink wash art style (and some pink watercolour for the blossoms), as though Kensuke’s paintings in his treehouse have started moving.
This animation feels like a throwback – for better and worse
Watanabe’s voice performance as Kensuke is just as delicate. It’s kept unsubtitled, but the storytelling is straightforward enough that nothing is lost by this choice. By the film’s end Michael all but says the subtext out loud, both soothing their homesickness in each other’s company.
The over-explaining is frustrating because the character animation is articulate enough on its own to keep the story moving. The animals are lovely, as are the film’s resplendent painted backgrounds. This hidden paradise is both lush and imposing, embracing a vast sense of scale to emphasise Michael’s smallness – and not just physically. Look out for the imposing and detailed cliffs that greet him when he’s first marooned, or the wide horizons that suggest a broadening of his worldview, spurred on by his new friendship – one that culminates in a conservationist perspective of untouched habitats such as these.
Kensuke’s Kingdom can be maudlin when it goes directly for the heartstrings, but it’s a pleasant enough coming-of-age fable. It’s hard not to wish for the film to lean a little more on its assured visual craft, especially as its story feels a little by the numbers.
In UK cinemas Fri Aug 2.