Kensuke's Kingdom (2024)

A frustrating film given its heart is clearly in the right place and its 1980s retro often look wonderful. But it's vexing not only because it seems to endorse Michael's naïvité and meddling but because his behaviour seems rooted in a culture that feels entitled and self-centred. The film plays down his many maddening actions (e.g. leaving the shower water running and simply turning away) as harmless innocence, somehow evincing a bratty four-year-olds ability to assume that he'll always be forgiven for whatever he does. Adding to his annoying characteristics is that he often repeats out-loud what we have just seen on-screen, as if the director doesn't trust the audience to understand even the most basic plot points. It's my parents returning! Did seriously nobody understand this? I often longed for the near-silent The Red Turtle (2016).

Kensuke himself regretfully hovers perilously close to a racist depiction of the Japanese 'other'. I suppose his portrayal as a stoic warrior-artist at one with nature is better than 'the Jap' who is obsessed with honour and shame, but it is close. It was thus altogether unsurprising that this character's only historical touchpoint was one familiar to the West; that of the atom bomb. (Perhaps to pre-emptively head off any accusations that the film is indulging in obvious symbols of Japan, the film cites the destruction of Nagasaki, not Hiroshima.) Indeed, the film doesn't seem to engage at all with the idea that these 'Robinsonades' are, in effect, colonial texts, a problem compounded later when the 'Hunters' seemed to be more like Victorian naturalists in the way they collecting. What a shame, as the animation had some nice moments of experimental whimsy, such as the paper boat and the Hiroshige-inspired vignette from Kensuke's memory... despite being seemingly the only Japanese art style that exists. That dog, whilst underused, was cute though.