Kensuke’s Kingdom Director Neil Boyle Visits Escape

In May 2026, we were delighted to be joined by Director and Animator Neil Boyle at the Escape Studios London campus for an exclusive student talk. At our latest ‘An Evening With...’ student event, Neil shared the process of adapting Michael Morpurgo’s novel, Kensuke’s Kingdom, into an award-winning animation. 

What has Neil worked on? 

Neil is a Director and Animator with credits including Love, Death + Robots, Doctor Who, and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Most recently, Neil co-directed with Kirk Hendry the feature film Kensuke's Kingdom, starring Cillian Murphy and Sally Hawkins, which won Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Music at the British Animation Awards and was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Children’s and Family film. 

What did he cover? 

During the talk, Neil explored the process of creating Kensuke’s Kingdom from start to finish covering funding, storyboards, animatics, rough drafts and the many other stages involved in bringing the film to life. Various elements required to bring Morpurgo’s storytelling to a visual project were also highlighted, such as the creatives working with a Japanese consultant to ensure the filmmaking was culturally respectful and accurate down to the stance and movement of a character! Neil also touched upon the realities of funding major animated projects.  

Following this the student audience had plenty of questions about the film and careers in animation more generally. Neil shared a number of tips, such as: 

On working in a range of styles:  

“Be as versatile as you can be... the more range you can show in your portfolio, the more chance you have of being hired” 

On staying motivated:  

“Leave something creatively unanswered... and that for me becomes the carrot on a stick that keeps me interested.”  

On working with Escape, Neil shared:  

“I enjoyed a thoroughly rewarding evening visiting Escape Studios and talking with their students. They asked a lot of really smart questions, ranging from the art and creativity of animation, through to the logistics and politics of the industry, and what the future of our technology might look like. I came away feeling inspired and impressed by this new generation of talent.” 

Aliysa, a second-year 2D Animation student who attended the talk, told us: 

“The talk gave detailed insights into the entire process and pipeline of creating a 2D animated feature film in the perspective of a director. This is especially helpful for aspiring directors like me! I was deeply honoured to meet Neil as he is such an amazing director! He was extremely supportive and provided thoughtful answers to our questions.” 

What are ‘An Evening With’ Events?  

‘An Evening With...’ events are an exclusive series of talks for Escape Studios students delivered by industry guests and partners, arranged via our Student Community Team. Previous guests have included multi-Oscar-winning Visual Effects Supervisor, Paul Franklin and Industrial Light & Magic Animation Supervisor, Kiel Figgins. 

Where can you see Neil’s work? 

Kensuke’s Kingdom is available to stream for free for the next month on BBC iPlayer, or is available to buy or rent on other platforms.