It’s a dystopian future where dogs have been quarantined on a remote island. It features a Japanese cast speaking their native langue. Bill Murray and Jeff Goldblum play dogs. It’s stop motion. It features all the hipster tones/music you’d expect: It must be time for another original film from Wes Anderson. Isle of Dogsis written by Anderson, with his some of his usual suspects: Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomurla. What looks like an insane movie, about a boy finding his dog, ends up being a brilliant piece of cinema that gives all the emotional feels while being fresh and creative.
The movie does take place in a strange dystopian future, where a strange sickness begins affecting all dogs, “canine flu”. The mayor decides to relocate all dogs to a remote island and quarantine it. A boy, Atari, ventures to the island to find his beloved dog Spot. Soon after reaching the island he is joined by a pack of good-natured dogs: Chief, Rex, Duke, Boss and King. They decide as a pack to help young Atari find Spot and evade the authorities.
The movie is a wonderful mix between Wes Anderson’s style and a strange version of Akira Kurosawa. The movie plays like a love letter to Kurosawa films like Seven Samurai and Ikiru. As bizarre as the movie is, it works on levels. The movie is beautiful: in tone, look and sentiment. Mixed with a wonderful voice cast and visuals, this is one of the best movies of 2018 so far.
One of the pieces that stand out is the look. Wes Anderson films have a look all to themselves and you can tell it’s him in just a few frames. He has mastered his expression and vision at this point. Maybe a little to his detriment: keeping with his same style continuously can get stagnant and keeps a director safe, where he no longer takes risk or challenges himself to grow. This is an argument to be made here about Anderson’s last few films. But what makes them still stand apart from others are his stories. He still manages to find these little tales and masterfully tells them in this own way. So I guess if it isn’t broken, why fix it.
The film is beautifully animated with each shot giving life to the movie. Wonderful bold colors and patterns in the city scenes are compared to the stark dullness of the isle of dogs: a wonderful contrast and mood for the characters within those settings. Some of the best scenes are of just the dogs sitting around discussing human behavior and how the miss their humans. This is a love letter to anyone who has ever owned a dog. The core of the movie is the relationship between boy and his dog, a feeling most people can connect with.
Anderson does something very interesting and different when using the native langue of Japan with his actors. He doesn’t give anyone dubbing or subtitles, unless they’re speaking dog of course. He uses translators or TV news reporting to translate what’s being said. It was done fun and creatively, allowing us to know what’s being said but also getting a chance to hear the beauty of another language in film. It’s very Wes Anderson for sure.
The voice talents are all great and used correctly within the story. And the movie is filled with all the Wes Anderson greats: Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johansson, F. Murray Abraham and Tilda Swinton to name a few. They all capture the tone of the film and just add a great flavoring to it. But the standout for me is Bryan Cranston as Chief.
He’s the main dog that Akira interacts with who ends up being his faithful companion during the film. Chief is a stray that has never known anything but pain from the human world, but here he manages to see what having a human friend can be like. Watching his growth brings a tear. Especially seeing Akira that would do anything for his dog. For dog owners this is going to hit all the feels right where you live.
The is very much a Wes Anderson film from start to finish, even if it’s animated with talking dogs. The movie is fantastic and is the feel good movie people could use these days. May not go down as one of Anderson’s greatest pieces of film but it definitely stands above others.
