There’s plenty for thoughtful children to engage with.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 21, 2025

Kensuke’s Kingdom is an adventure story in the classical tradition, defined by patience and attentiveness to its characters.

| Oct 24, 2024

The character animation seems purposely flat so that the elaborate backgrounds pop with rich detail and eye-catching color. The film is so visually complex that it’s kind of heartbreaking that its writing is so simple.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 21, 2024

Visually striking and emotionally affecting, this animated adventure offers a delightful coming-of-age fable about conservation, courage, and self-discovery that resonates beyond the formulaic narrative trappings.

| Oct 18, 2024

A masterpiece of hand drawn animation.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Oct 18, 2024

It is an adventure story, to be sure ... but the actual tale is quieter and more thoughtful than one might anticipate from the premise.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 17, 2024

This wonderful animated tale is based on the beautiful children's novel by Michael Morpurgo, and comes to life in indelible, magical fashion on the big screen.

| Oct 16, 2024

A poignant, wise and exhilarating emotional journey.

| Oct 15, 2024

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.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 11, 2024

Eschewing frenetic montages and music overload common in contemporary animations, Boyle and Hendry round out a film that's like the ones from yesteryear: simple, emotional, and with more heart than commercial calculation. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 23, 2024

With more humanism than adventure, Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry's film recovers aesthetically and narratively a type of film that is increasingly difficult to find. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 22, 2024

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 9, 2024

Simple, unassuming but all the more deft and heartfelt for it, this film will resonate, whatever your age.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 9, 2024

The film's measured pacing and meticulous 2D animation are reminiscent of a Studio Ghibli masterpiece.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 8, 2024

Besides vivid and beautiful hand-drawn animation, this fable from Neil Boyle and Kirk ­Hendry (based on Michael Morpurgo’s bestseller) is an exercise in the power of simplicity.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 8, 2024

With a top-notch voice cast and a script by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Kensuke's Kingdom promises rather more than it delivers.

| Aug 8, 2024

A must-see for anyone who wants something more substantial from their animation, Kensuke’s Kingdom lives up to the lofty standards of the source material.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 8, 2024

Though low-stakes for an adventure film, this is nonetheless an engaging, found-family eco-fable that imparts an important conservationist message with considerable, at times impressionistic, style.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2024

Remaining loyal to the source material, Boyle’s Kensuke’s Kingdom greets fans of the novel with a safe cinematic counterpart... remaining within the boundaries of the original narrative, arriving at set expectations and nothing more.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2024

The script simplifies Morpurgo’s novel too much to give anyone over eight much to chew on. Still, an essential sweetness shines through — and there’s even a faint late echo of Oppenheimer, for any adult who lasts the journey.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2024