IT
| Title | KENSUKE'S KINGDOM |
|---|---|
| Movie Type | |
| Genre | |
| Section | |
| Country | France, Luxembourg, UK |
| Production Year | 2023 |
| Movie Length | 84' |
| Director | |
| Screenplay | |
| Animazione | Peter Dodd |
| Cast | Aaron MacGregor, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Raffey Cassidy, Sally Hawkins |
| Editor | |
| Music | Stuart Hancock |
| Produced by | Barnaby Spurrier, Camilla Deakin, Ruth Fielding, Sarah Radclyffe, Stephen Roelants |
| Production | |
| International Distribution | |
| Festival Contact |
KENSUKE’S KINGDOM
Michael is a boy who is taken by his family on a round-the-world sailing trip. When a storm strikes, he and his beloved dog Stella are washed overboard and end up on a remote island in the Pacific where they struggle to survive. But he soon realizes there is someone close by, someone who is watching over him and helping him to stay alive.
Director's Bio
Kirk Hendry – Neil Boyle
Kirk Hendry wrote and directed the multi-award-winning short JUNK, which has been selected at over 150 film festivals worldwide. He has directed commercials for The World Wildlife Fund, Ardbeg whiskey, The Guardian newspaper and won Gold Promax awards for his popular ITV Dancing On Ice polar bear promos.
Neil Boyle is a director and animator with credits that include LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS, FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD, TOM AND JERRY, THE SIMPSONS, ETHEL & ERNEST, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, and SPACE JAM.
Neil was lead animator on the hugely successful 24-minute short film THE SNOWMAN AND THE SNOWDOG, which was screened on Channel 4 during Christmas to 11 million viewers. He also directed and co-wrote the short film THE LAST BELLE, which premiered at the London Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best British Short Film at the Edinburgh Film Festival and won Best Animation at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Director's Note
“KENSUKE KINGDOM has given us the rare chance to make a film designed to engage children and adults equally. We wanted to deal head-on with the more adult themes in the story, but wrap them inside a classic Saturday-matinee style family adventure for the big screen, where the excitement and emotion are greatly increased when shared with an audience. At its heart ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ is a film about how much we need each other, and about our responsibilities, not only to other people, but to all the creatures we are marooned with on this little island we call Earth.”