The movie adapts the popular children's book of the same name by Michael Morpurgo, which is widely read in classrooms up and down the UK. It's the classic 'castaway' survival story of a young boy and a Japanese war veteran, with the voices of Cillian Murphy, Sally Hawkins and Aaron MacGregor, with Ken Watanabe as Kensuke. Michael Morpurgo is on record as saying that the beautiful hand-drawn animated film is his favourite adaptation of any of his works to date, and that includes Steven Spielberg's 2011 version of War Horse.
Every note of the music for the film was composed in our area, by Leighton Buzzard local Stuart Hancock. With the two lead characters unable to speak each other's language, there's space in the movie for Hancock's lyrical orchestral music to play a pivotal part in the story-telling, and it's a score that has won him many accolades this year. Kensuke's Kingdom won Best Feature Film Composition at the recent International Music+Sound Awards, and it swept the board at the British Animation Awards in March, picking up Best Music alongside its wins for Best Feature Film and Best Writing (for new Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce).
Kensuke's Kingdom screens at The Rex, Berkhamsted, on Saturday November 9th at 2pm. Rated PG and recommended for all ages 7+
For tickets: https://therexberkhamsted.com
