Relaxed: Kensuke's Kingdom

This summer, Discovery Family Film Club brings you two new family films filled with adventure-packed stories set on islands, from the Pacific Ocean to the Irish Atlantic coast. Kensuke’s Kingdom (2023), based on the best-selling children’s novel by Michael Morpurgo, centres on the adventures of a young boy who is shipwrecked on a desert island. Puffin Rock and the New Friends (2023) sees new adventures of Oona, Baba, May and Mossy joined by new arrivals to the island. 

We hope these films will whet your appetite for this year’s Discovery Film Festival in October – look out for the programme announcement in September. 

Adapted from Michael Morpurgo’s best-selling novel, Kensuke’s Kingdom follows young Michael and his family on a round-the-world sailing trip. During a storm, he and his beloved dog Stella are thrown overboard and washed up on an island where they struggle to survive. But Michael soon realises there is someone close by, someone who is watching over him and helping him to stay alive.  Following a close-run battle between life and death, the mysterious Japanese stranger – Kensuke – reluctantly allows Michael into his world and they begin to form a friendship. But something threatens to destroy the fragile world Kensuke has created on the island, and they must use all their courage, skills and resourcefulness to try to save it.

Winner of the Grand Prize and Audience Award at the New York International Children’s Film Festival, and Best Animated Feature, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Music at the prestigious British Animation Awards this wonderful hand-drawn animation is a thrilling adventure story whose message of working together to protect nature has never felt timelier. Kensuke's Kingdom features the voices of BAFTA winner and Academy Award nominee Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water, Happy-Go-Lucky), Academy Award winner Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer, Dunkirk), and Academy Award nominee Ken Watanabe (Letters from Iwo Jima, The Last Samurai).