Kensuke's Kingdom

Michael, an eleven-year-old boy, sets out with his family on a round-the-world sailing voyage. When a violent storm strikes, Michael and his dog are washed overboard, and he wakes on a remote island in the Pacific. Believing himself alone, he learns to survive in the wild, until he discovers that the island already has an inhabitant: Kensuke, a Japanese man who has lived there in secret since the Second World War. Kensuke keeps his distance and wants nothing to do with the intruder. The arrival of dangerous intruders who threaten the island forces the two to cooperate.

This animated family adventure comes from directors Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry, with a screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce, and is based on Michael Morpurgo's novel. The voice cast includes Aaron MacGregor as Michael, Ken Watanabe as Kensuke, and Sally Hawkins, Cillian Murphy and Raffey Cassidy as his family, with Alfred Kodai Berglund as Kensuke's son, Michiya. A credited crew of sixty worked on the production, which cost around eleven million dollars and returned roughly three million worldwide. On IMDb the film holds a 6.9 rating from about 1,800 votes, and on TMDB a 7.1 from a much smaller number of votes.

Released in 2024 and running eighty-four minutes, it is a co-production between the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and France, made with backing from the BFI alongside Bankside Films, Le Pacte and Melusine Productions.