Kensuke’s Kingdom review: 'animated spin on Robinson Crusoe full of emotion and tension'

Telling the story of a young boy who finds himself washed up on an island somewhere in the Indian Ocean, this is a beautifully realised family film, writes Alistair Harkness
Kensuke's KingdomKensuke's Kingdom
Kensuke's Kingdom | Modern Films

Kensuke’s Kingdom (PG) ****

Harold and the Purple Crayon (PG) ***

The Ministry for Ungentlemanly Warfare (15) ***

Based on Warhorse author Michael Morpugo’s children’s novel of the same name, Kensuke’s Kingdom serves up a traditional hand-drawn animated spin on Robinson Crusoe shot through with stylistic nods to the best of Studio Ghibli. That makes aesthetic sense given the British-backed film revolves around a kid who washes up on a deserted Island somewhere in the Indian Ocean and soon finds himself sharing this enchanted paradise with an elderly Japanese sailor (the titular Kensuke, voiced by Ken Watanabe).

The kid, named Michael (he’s voiced by newcomer Aaron MacGregor), has fallen off his parents’ sailboat in the midst of a round-the-world adventure that his mum and dad (Sally Hawkins and Cillian Murphy) have organised to bring them closer as a family after recently losing their jobs. Michael is a wilful kid, though, and unlike his older sister (Raffey Cassidy) he doesn’t understand why he’s been dragged along, nor why they’re so mad he’s snuck the family dog, Stella, onboard.

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As adapted by current Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the family dynamics are pleasingly believable here, full of squabbling tantrums and unconditional love. But after a storm washes Michael and Stella overboard, Cottrell-Boyce pares the dialogue back and directors Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry approach the story with the expressiveness of a silent movie. This makes for a much more inventive and absorbing film. The protagonists’ shared passion for drawing allows them to communicate with each other and Michael learns important lessons from observing Kensuke interacting with and protecting the wildlife on the island. 

It’s beautifully animated too, full of emotion and tension, especially during a heart-rending action sequence in which poachers descend upon the island. But the film is also really good at teasing out darker, more complicated themes. Part of Kensuke’s backstory, for instance, is tied up with the atomic bomb being dropped on Nagasaki in the dying days of of World War Two and the film manages to render the destructive impact of the bomb with a stunning transition shot involving an ink drop landing on a blank piece of paper. It’s the sort of shot you’d expect to find in a latter-day Miyazaki film. There’s no higher compliment.

First published in 1955, the late illustrator Crockett Johnson’s picture book Harold and the Purple Crayon has been a kids’ mainstay ever since, its titular hero’s ability to use his magic purple crayon to draw anything he wants into existence inspiring generations of children to let their imaginations run wild. It’s also had a protracted journey to the big screen over the last 30 years, passing through the hands of Henry Selick, Spike Jonze, David O Russell and even Steven Spielberg, before arriving in the decidedly non-auteur hands of Carlos Saldanha, director of the Ice Age films. That’s not intended as a slight on Saldanha, but it does – somewhat ironically – illustrate the shift in focus to a more conventional, less imaginatively told family film. 

Harold and the Purple CrayonHarold and the Purple Crayon
Harold and the Purple Crayon | Sony Pictures

Beginning as an animation, it finds Harold restless in his 2D world and growing curious about meeting the “old man” who narrates his adventures. Drawing himself into the real world, he takes the form of Zachary Levi and is swiftly followed by his animal friends Moose (Lil Rey Howard) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds), both of them also conveniently taking human form. Standard fish-out-of-water shenanigans duly follow as Harold unwittingly creates chaos with his magic crayon, eventually attracting the nefarious attention of a librarian-turned-embittered-fantasy-novelist (Jemaine Clement) who wants to get his hands on Harold’s crayon so he can bring his impenetrable books to life. Though the world-threatening plot escalations seem a little unnecessary, this is undemanding school holiday fare, mostly content to borrow heavily from Elf, right down to Levi’s wide-eyed naif schtick and the presence of Zooey Deschanel, cast here as a single mum whose son’s reliance on his imaginary pet finds a willing enabler in Harold. 

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Guy Ritchie returns with his first stab at a men-on-a-mission World War Two movie, a somewhat belated entry into the genre given Quentin Tarantino made one 15 years ago and he doesn’t usually wait this long to plunder his ideas. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare isn’t a patch on that film, but it is, at times, an entertainingly slick throwback to movies like Kelly’s Heroes and The Guns of Navarone. 

The story itself is an exaggerated riff on the real life Operation Postmaster, an off-the-books mission sanctioned by Churchill to break the German U-boat stronghold and help facilitate America’s entry into the war. Henry Cavill takes the lead as Gus March-Phillips, a rule-breaking posh-boy soldier whom Churchill (an amusingly unconvincing Rory Kinnear) springs from jail in order to lead a rag-tag crew of fellow rogue agents (played by Alex Pettyfer, Henry Golding, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Reacher star Anders Laffen) into West Africa to sabotage the Nazi’s U-boat supply chain. 

Given that the real March-Phillips was allegedly the inspiration for 007 (Ian Fleming – played here by Freddie Fox – was also part of the mission), the film often plays like an early Bond flick, when exotic locales and the insouciant killing of bad guys was the order of the day. To this end, the action is as stylised as you’d expect from Ritchie, though the real saving grace is Eiza González, sensational as a British actress who goes undercover with Dune-star Babs Olusanmokun to infiltrate the Nazi high command, represented here by Til Schweiger’s over-the-top commandant Heinrich Luhr.

Kensuke’s Kingdom is in cinemas from 2 August; Harold and the Purple Crayon is in cinemas from 31 July; The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is streaming now on Prime Video

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