Kensuke's Kingdom: A little tenderness tried

NB: May be some small, subtle spoilers – think ahead!

Ostensibly, the new cinema adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s ‘Kensuke's Kingdom’ is a children’s film. In truth, the tender elegance that pervades the soul of the film is proof that it is a piece of art, that is of universal merit.

The 2D animation itself is tender. Threadbare figures drawn together as if by the mastery of the stroking sketches of a pencil.

The film centers around a shipwreck, which isolates a boy from his family on an around-the-world sailing adventure. He is companioned throughout the process of being shipwrecked and on the desert island he winds up in, by his pet dog.

However, it is when he fully becomes allied with the island’s only other (human) occupant, that the true tenderness of the film shines through.

The titular Kingdom of Kensuke is quite something to behold – even in 2D animation!

It is quite simply a form of Paradise. Animals under the stewardship with the island’s other occupant, who is an elderly war veteran.

The tenderness in which he tends to the animals under his care is biblical in proportions, but perhaps it is even deeper than that.

Perhaps he epitomises the fundamentals of what it means to be human – an instinct for compassion.

And while I could waffle on until the orangutans (if you see the film, you’ll get the reference) come home.

But in the recent times we’re living in, perhaps that is a fitting conclusionary observation. Damn. Compassion is what makes us human.