Isle of Dogs (Review)
Isle of Dogs is Wes Anderson at His Very Best!
I’ve never been a big fan of Wes Anderson’s aesthetic as a director since he can easily be described as the whitest auter working in Hollywood. However, I have to give credit where it’s due because it’s a perfect fit for Isle of Dogs making it easily my favorite of Anderson’s films and an absolute joy to watch. Honestly, I hope Anderson decides to stick with stop-motion in the future since he’s just so damn good at it.
Isle of Dogs is a twisting tale set in the fictional future city of Megasaki in Japan. Now, I’ve read one or two thought pieces on whether Isle of Dogs constitutes cultural appropriation, and I have to say there’s none of that to be seen. Sure it’s a white director telling a fictional story set in Japan, but the movie is filled with Japanese actors and actresses playing all the Japanese characters who speak Japanese. The dog’s themselves are played by white actors speaking English in order to demonstrate the language barriers between dogs and humans, a move which I think is absolutely brilliant. All in all Isle of Dogs seems less like cultural appropriation and more like admiration.
Like all Wes Anderson movies, this one has an absolutely killer cast. At the center is Bryan Cranston who plays a gruff stray dog reluctant to help humans with anything. However, during the course of the odyssey, he takes with a young boy who came to the Isle in search of his own beloved pet dog he slowly starts to change his stance on humans and eventually steps up. With him are several other dogs played by the likes of Ed Norton, Bill Murray, and Jeff Goldblum, all of whom are perfect for Anderson’s restrained performances Anderson likes from his actors. The film though is littered with voices you’ll recognize from Frances McDormand to Liev Schreiber and is one of the finest casts I’ve seen assembled in an animated film. Then again, that’s never really been an issue for the director. I was just surprised that one of the Wilson brothers or Jason Schwartzman didn’t make an appearance.
The animation in Isle of Dogs is absolutely spectacular. I would say it would even give one of Tim Burton’s classic stop-motion films a run for its money. Anderson focuses on creating incredibly detailed backgrounds for the characters to travel through. Though most of it takes place on “Trash Island” which is filled with, well, trash, the scenes that take place in Megasaki are vibrant without being too distracting from the action that is taking place within them. The dogs themselves are fairly stylized, but there is careful attention paid to distinguishing characteristics between the breeds seen in the film. Not to mention the fact that their fur is constantly jostled in the wind and most of the animals spend the film sneezing from “dog flu.” His style might not be realistic and is a bit cheesy at times (then again most of Anderson’s films are), but it creates a certain ambiance that makes it feel like a classic tale being told a long time ago. All in all, its an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful movie.
There are certain points in the film where the story starts to feel a little too convoluted. Unnecessary details are forced in to give the film a sense of lore, but instead feel clumsy. The core of the plot is incredibly solid and feels very much like a well thought out children’s tale that even adults can love. It’s just that Anderson doesn’t know when there’s too much of a good thing at certain points. That being said, this is only a minor annoyance at worst and it’s easy to gloss over it while sitting through the movie. For the most part, Anderson takes his time and lets the stop-motion beauty of Isle of Dogs do a lot of the talking for him. After all, it’s always better to show rather than tell when it comes to filmmaking, and this certainly shows all the painstaking love put into this movie.
I suspected that Isle of Dogs would be an amazing film and I’m happy that my high expectations for it weren’t let down. As I said before, this is easily my favorite of Wes Anderson’s movies and that’s coming from a guy who never really got the appeal of his sense of style before. His past films have all felt a little much to me, and Isle of Dogs seems to show a bit more restraint on his part. Though it certainly is stuffed with his unique vision and filmmaking aesthetic. Essentially, if you love Wes Anderson movies, you’ll love Isle of Dogs. If you don’t? Well, you’ll still probably love it.
