Even in the current unpredictable cinema landscape, animated movies for kids can be reliable money-
spinners. Inside Out 2 (somehow not subtitled ‘All the Feels’) is easily the biggest film of 2024 so far. It is not even a close race. With $1.4bn at the global box office and counting, Pixar’s emotional release has already racked up more than twice as much cash as second-place Dune: Part Two.
It helps that Pixar has raised the bar for US kid flicks across the board: even the most reluctant adult chaperone will find a chuckle or two among sturdily constructed 2024 sequels like Kung Fu Panda 4 or Despicable Me 4. But in the spirit of pick-and-mix it feels like it would be nice to have some viable non-Hollywood options for a family movie outing. Something like a classic British boiled sweet just to offset all the colourful American candy on offer.
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So summer’s the ideal time for castaway adventure Kensuke’s Kingdom to bob into view like an enticing Kola Kube. With its hand-drawn 2D animation it might look less flashy than the computer-generated polish of Pixar. But with the greatest respect to the multiple credited screenwriters of Kung Fu Panda 4, Kensuke’s Kingdom can claim to be a true black belt when it comes to the literary pedigree involved. Based on Michael Morpurgo’s beloved 1999 novel for younger readers, the film has been adapted by Frank Cottrell-Boyce so represents a sort of superhero-style team-up between children’s laureates past and present.
It begins on the open sea, with a young family industriously attending to the nautical needs of a homely sailboat. We learn mum and dad (voiced by Sally Hawkins and Cillian Murphy) have taken their two kids on a character-building year-long voyage. Older sister Becky (Raffey Cassidy) is clearly happy to be an active part of the crew; her younger brother Michael (Aaron MacGregor) is less enthused, perhaps because his main role is swabbing the deck.
Michael’s hopes of being entrusted with more responsibility take a hit when the rest of the family discover he has smuggled Stella the family dog on board. But by the time they have passed the Cape of Good Hope and are scudding into the Indian Ocean – depicted rather beautifully by a paper sailboat gliding down a map – he is beginning to enjoy the voyage, keeping track of notable sights with doodles in the ship’s logbook.