A man set adrift by a storm wakes up on a beach. He discovers that he is on a deserted island with plenty of fresh water, fruit and a dense bamboo forest. He builds a raft from bamboo and attempts to sail away, but his raft is destroyed by an unseen monster in the sea, forcing him back to the island. He tries again with another, larger raft, but is again foiled by the creature. A third attempt again ends with the raft destroyed, but this time he is confronted by a giant red turtle, which stares at him, and forces him back to the island. That evening, the man sees the red turtle crawling up the beach. In anger, he hits it on the head with a bamboo stick, then flips it over onto its back, stranding it. While working on another raft, he feels remorse and returns to turtle but it is too heavy for him to flip over. He fetches water for it, but when he returns it is dead. He collapses on the sand next to it and falls asleep. In the morning, the man is surprised to find a woman lying unconscious inside the shell, which has split. He fetches water for her and builds a shelter to protect her from the sun. When rain hits the island, the woman wakes up and goes swimming in the sea. The man searches the island for her, and when he spots her in the sea, gives her his shirt. The woman casts the shell adrift on the sea, the man does the same to his partially-built raft. The two swim together and form a bond. They sleep in the dunes. The couple has a son. The curious boy finds a glass bottle and his father and mother explain about the world it comes from, the story of how they came to be on the island and the red turtle. After accidentally falling into the sea, the boy learns he is a natural swimmer, and swims with three green turtles. He swims back to his mother who hugs him and looks out at the sea with apprehension. The boy grows into a young man. One day, while the man and woman are foraging by the shore, a tsunami hits and they run for the bamboo forest. After the tsunami recedes the young man, who had been filling his bottle inland, searches for his parents and finds his mother wounded, but no sign of his father. He calls the three turtles and they help him swim out into the sea where they find his father desperately clinging to some bamboo and rescue him. The young man finds his bottle, the family clean up the wreckage and burn the dead bamboo. One day the young man has a dream about swimming away into the sea. In the morning he says goodbye to his parents and swims away with the three green turtles, who are waiting for him. The man and woman continue to live on the island and grow old together, still very much in love. One night, after gazing at the moon over the ocean, the man closes his eyes and dies. The woman discovers his passing and grieves. The next morning she lies next to him, and with deep sadness lays her hand on his. Her hand transforms into a flipper, and now the red turtle, she slowly turns around, crawls down the beach and swims away into the sea.
Production
The film was co-produced by Wild Bunch and Studio Ghibli in association with Why Not Productions. According to Vincent Maraval, head of Wild Bunch, he visited Studio Ghibli in Japan in 2008 and met with Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki showed him the short film Father and Daughter and asked him to find its director, Michaël Dudok de Wit, with the prospect of co-producing a feature film. Wild Bunch approached Dudok de Wit in London and convinced him to take on the project. The screenplay was written by Dudok de Wit and Pascale Ferran.
The Red Turtle received critical acclaim. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 93% score based on 160 reviews, with an average of 8.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Red Turtle adds to Studio Ghibli's estimable legacy with a beautifully animated effort whose deceptively simple story boasts narrative layers as richly absorbing as its lovely visuals." Metacritic reports an 86 out of 100 rating, based on 32 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". In Japan it was released in theaters on September 17 and grossed a total of $328,750 during its first weekend.
