Composer Stuart Hancock discusses how he created the evocative soundtrack that so beautifully meshed with Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry’s poignant 2D animated adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel, spotlighting the power of connection and the beauty of nature; releases November 26 on VOD.
Now a literary staple in UK schools, Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo’s Kensuke's Kingdom has been adapted theatrically, but never as a film.
In 2020, directors Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry entered production of their animated adaptation of Morpurgo’s award-winning adventure story, which follows a young boy, Michael (Aaron MacGregor), who sets off with his family on the sailing trip of a lifetime. Excitement turns to terror when a violent storm erupts, sweeping Michael and his dog, Stella, overboard. They wash up onto a remote island, frightened and struggling to survive. Michael soon discovers he is not alone; he’s confronted by Kensuke (Ken Watanabe), a mysterious Japanese man who has secretly lived on the island since World War II. And he is angry at Michael’s arrival. However, when poachers threaten their fragile island paradise and the animals that live there, Michael and Kensuke join forces to save their secret world.
Kensuke's Kingdom is a Lupus Films production in association with Kensuke’s Kingdom, Jigsaw Films, Melusine Productions, Le Pacte, and Bumpybox, with the support of FFILM CYMRU Wales and Welsh Government via Creative Wales. The feature is available on VOD beginning today, November 26th.
Check out the trailer:
Since debuting at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2023, the film has enjoyed considerable buzz and numerous awards. In addition to its three 2024 BAA awards, including Best Feature, the 2D feature has also received the Grand Prize - Audience Award from the International Children’s Film Festival (NYICFF), the Writers Award for Frank Cottrell-Boyce, and Best Original Music for composer Stuart Hancock.
AWN got the chance to talk with Hancock about the challenges and rewards of composing for such an emotionally charged animated story and how the team intimately intertwined the musical compositions with the film’s traditionally hand-drawn visuals to create truly unique cinematic experiences.
VD: Had you read Michael Morpurgo's book before getting involved with this project?
Stuart Hancock: I hadn't read the book beforehand, no. Sir Michael Morpurgo's story was written in the late 1990s, a little while after I'd left school.
Once my involvement on the project became a possibility back in 2016, I downloaded it and read it pretty much in one sitting. It's a compelling, beautiful piece of writing, full of stunning detail and emotion, and I knew there and then that it would adapt into a pretty special animated adventure movie in the hands of directors Kirk and Neil.
VD: How did you get involved initially? Did Kirk and Neil reach out to you?
SH: I had first met and worked with Neil back in 2006 when I was a composer with London-based music production company Mcasso and he was creating an animated advertisement for insurance brand Winterthur with Sylvain Chomet and Th1ng. Fast forward about five years, and Neil was seeking a composer for his passion project and stunning 2D short film The Last Belle. I pitched for the role and was delighted to come on board and work with Neil again. That’s also how I met co-director Kirk Hendry, who created The Last Bell’s behind-the-scenes footage.
I kept in touch with them both and, fast forward another five years, Neil involved me as composer in two brilliant pieces of animation in 2016, one of which was an animated proof-of-concept teaser/promo that he and Kirk were putting together with Lupus Films for the proposed movie adaptation of Kensuke's Kingdom. It was two minutes' worth, and I was delighted to be asked to create a score to go with this early concept work. Some of the musical motifs I composed for this found their way into the finish film's score!
This promo score served as my pitch for the full composer role on the film.
VD: What attracted you to the idea of composing for this story, other than getting to work with old friends?
SH: Neil and Kirk would often emphasize how crucial the music was going to be to the storytelling of Kensuke's Kingdom. Writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce's adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's original book reduced spoken dialogue to a minimum, with protagonists Michael and Kensuke unable to speak the other's language. This meant that the story would progress through sound design and music rather than dialogue, alongside the animation and ravishing landscapes.
In essence, the directors approached Kensuke's Kingdom almost as a silent movie, which was such a gift for a composer as it allowed me the opportunity and space to develop a strongly thematic music score that's really symphonic in its ambition. It's as much fun as I've had working on a score!
VD: This story follows a very emotional journey. What were the goals when it came to making sure the score conveyed the messages of the film’s narrative, especially with its minimal dialogue?
Neil and Kirk, with editor Richard Overall, temp-scored the animatic with a lot of wonderful cues from existing film and TV scores, including a couple of my own from Atlantis and We're Going on A Bear Hunt, but mostly from the glorious orchestral scores of John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and others. We were all very much on the same page of understanding that Kensuke's Kingdom was a traditional adventure story with traditional hand-drawn animation and that we were going to be in the sound world of the orchestral music from adventure films we all adored as kids ourselves.
The wonderful thing about a good melodic/thematic film score is that it's able to weave a story with its motifs and orchestration, and it works best when it meshes seamlessly with the visuals without forcing itself to the forefront or distracting from the audience experience. I'd like to think I achieved that with the Kensuke's Kingdom music. More than any other score I've written, it has the scale and ingredients of a symphony: story-telling and character-driven themes that are developed, varied and resolved in satisfying ways across the span of a feature-length movie.
VD: How do you feel the sound, as you say, “meshes well” with the visuals and heightens or clarifies aspects of the story being told through animation?
SH: The first scene I scored was the “glade” sequence where we first encounter the island's “orangutans.” Kensuke needed a specially composed vocal chant that could sound anthemic but also exotic and mysterious. This was the first theme to crack as obviously we see Kensuke's animated lips singing it, and Ken Watanabe was required to perform it vocally. I tried some options for Kirk and Neil before eventually proposing the simple motif I'd composed for the version of this same scene that's in their 2016 test animation. It worked like a charm.
It worked so well, in fact, that I used it for various guises across the score and it became synonymous with the island itself. For example, it is heard subliminally in the strings and choir when Michael is first washed up on the beach: Track 8 - Tide Coming In. By the time you hear Kensuke vocalizing it later in the film–Track 19 - Into the Jungle–it feels like you're familiar with it already. Pulling off tricks like this across a score gives me an enormous amount of satisfaction as a composer, subtly manipulating and molding the audience experience without them really knowing.
VD: What were the biggest challenges in scoring this film?
SH: The big central action sequence was a huge, enjoyable challenge to score as the island is thrown into turmoil by the arrival of hunters (Tracks 23-25 - The Hunt). But the piece of music I think I'm most proud of is the final scene itself: Track 30 - Sayonara.
As the track’s Japanese name suggests, it's a deeply emotional “goodbye.” It was a scene that the directors and editor Richard worked on hard themselves to perfect before I reached the point of scoring it. Story-wise, it was a real balancing act to create an ending that brought this gentle story to the right conclusion. Musically, it's a delicate drawing-together and final letting-go of the themes I'd composed for the characters–Kensuke, Michael, Stella, Kikanbo, and Peggy-Sue–in a coherent, powerful finale.
Outside of the composition side of things, the biggest challenge was to make this score sound big and epic without a big epic budget to play with! That's a testament to the talent and hard work of the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, Holst Singers and solo musicians with whom I was able to record the score, and Adam Smyth at String and Tins who mixed it so brilliantly.
VD: What did you enjoy most about working on this project?
SH: The biggest thrill of the job is when you finally arrive at the point of recording your score with live musicians. The first take of the first cue on the orchestra session when your demo finally comes to life with human beings performing it, rather than computer sampled instruments, gives you a surge of emotion that's hard to describe. And there were many occasions across the recording sessions that elicited good tears from us!
VD: Are there scenes that stand out in this film for you–other than the ones you’ve mentioned–that you hope audiences in the theater pay close attention?
SH: One with particular emotional impact is the flashback sequence that gives us Kensuke's wartime origin story. The animation morphs into a delicate Japanese watercolor style here, and we needed the music to go to a new place too. My suggestion was to bring the choir to the forefront for this scene, having used voices in more of a textural way in the score up until this point. The choir, along with a Japanese child solo singer, eight-year-old Kotoko Wertheim with the Holst Singers, perform my bespoke arrangement of the Japanese folksong “Sakura Sakura” across the scene. The human voices deliver emotion to the jugular, and it works with devastating effect as we visually witness, in exquisitely simple animation, the fate of Nagasaki (Track 20 - Nagasaki).
Kensuke's Kingdom explores many themes–survival, resilience, the beauty of nature, the impact of war–but at its heart, the directors are telling a love story. Both Michael and Kensuke have lost their families and it's about the bond, companionship and trust that grows between these two strangers in their forced isolation. What really hit home was a simple new theme played on the solo piano, Track 21 - Kensuke and Michael. It's first heard after the Nagasaki sequence when Michael and Kensuke finally learn each other's name, and they can begin to shape their future together.
The soundtrack for Kensuke's Kingdom is available on CD and digitally from Moviescore Media
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
