ISLE OF DOGS – Review

ISLE OF DOGS is a treat for fans of director Wes Anderson, who makes a welcome return to stop-motion animation ten years after THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX. Anderson’s new film looks raggedly beautiful, is hilariously off-balance, warm-hearted, and perfectly composed and detailed – much like every other Wes Anderson movie. The title is a reference to Trash Island, a mountainous accumulation of garbage where, in the near future, the canine population of Megasaki City in Japan is banished by cat-loving Mayor Kobayashi (voiced by Kunichi Nomura). This is after a plague of Snout Fever (also known as the Dog Flu) has broken out, endangering both dogs and humans. The pooches are dropped from planes onto the island where they battle over maggot-infested food scraps plucked from piles of trash. Mayor Kobayashi’s 12 year-old nephew Atari (Koyu Rankin) commandeers a small airplane and crash-lands it on Trash Island in hopes of finding his cherished pet Spots (Liev Schreiber), who’d been dropped there six months earlier. Atari is aided in his search by a motley band of alpha hounds including tough stray Chief (Bryan Cranston), leader Rex (Edward Norton), former dog food commercial star King (Bob Balaban), gossipy Duke (Jeff Goldblum), and former sports mascot Boss (Bill Murray). Their journey leads them across the island, where word has it that Spots may be among a savage pack of feral dogs and they soon discover that the enclave is not only a trash heap, but also a dumping ground for a failed nuclear plant. Back in Megasaki, tenacious (and freckled ) American foreign exchange student Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig) leads a pro-dog resistance movement against Kobayashi’s government after discovering, with the help of scientist Yoko Ono (Yoko Ono), a conspiracy to suppress a found cure for Snout Fever.

Original, eye-popping, and somewhat topical in its story about a shady government fabricating its own truths to feed fear and prejudice, ISLE OF DOGS is essentially a Wes Anderson movie with eccentric humans replaced by eccentric stop-motion mongrels. Anderson’s clever script (co-written by Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman) is casually but meaningfully voice-acted by a stable of Anderson stalwarts who deliver their lines with the same cadence that makes his live-action films so endearing (Scarlett Johansson, F. Murray Abraham and Tilda Swinton are also on board). The cool pauses, the dry wit and clever humor are all in full effect and the way this movie comes together is a testament to Anderson’s distinctive abilities (the sushi prep bit is pure Anderson). It all plays out under another of Alexandre Desplat’s terrific, off-beat scores. Anderson is clearly enamored of Japanese cinema and culture and while much of the dialogue is spoken in Japanese without translation (though sometimes explained in narration by Frances McDormand’s ‘Interpreter Nelson’), there’s never doubt as to what is going on in the story. There’s a lot to take in a second viewing is likely mandatory to absorb all of the detail and personality. It may be slightly over-extended and the standard complaint about Wes Anderson that his visuals are so colorful and characters so whimsical that the story often takes a back seat to the quirk could apply (but not enough for me to dock it any points). ISLE OF DOGS isn’t a movie that will appeal to children or tweens looking for a more energetic animated film and I’d say it’s even less kid-friendly than THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX, but it’s a genuine charmer and deserves a prominent spot in the run for this year’s best-animated feature Oscar.

5 of 5 Stars

ISLE OF DOGS opens exclusively in St. Louis March 28th at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theatre