Review of Isle of Dogs (2018) by Nick S — 08 Oct 2018

Let me start this by saying that I have literally never been more excited for a movie in my life. The only other occurence I can think of is my pre-teen mind going wild to see The Hunger Games back in 2012, but believe it or not, I've changed over the past six years. Ever since the first social media postings, and the release of the first trailer- cut to "I don't think I can stomach anymore of this garbage"- I've been hooked. One of my favorite kids' movies has always been Fantastic Mr Fox, a movie that I believe demonstrates that kids movies can be an art, and don't have to be dumbed down and pointless; so seeing Anderson return to stop motion warmed my pre-teen heart and made me really nostalgic. Upon first look at the trailer, one thing can be immediately seen. The animation.

Holy shit, the animation. While Fantastic Mr. Fox's animation was choppy and a bit awkward, Isle of Dogs is fluid, absolutely ridiculously detailed, and so gorgeous, it's hard to believe that they didn't have a constantly rotating group of animators due to jumping out the damn windows from boredom-caused insanity. Wes was dipping his toe into the pool of stop motion, testing the waters, seeing how things felt. In Isle of Dogs, Wes say his faults in animation, had a stronger budget, and took a complete cannonball, soaking the deck of the pool, and pissing off the neighbors' kids as he did so.

Isle of Dogs is a refreshingly original story in a time where all movies seem to be adaptations, sequels, or reboots; and where all kids movies seem to be Sherlock Gnomes. It tells the story of a pack of dogs exiled to Trash Island, due to the demands of a totalitarian leader Mayor Kobayashi, who wishes to eradicate all dogs through manipulation of the public, lies, and violence; even going so far as to work with the Yakuza, a notorious transnational organized crime group in Japan. More specifically, it follows the mayor's distant nephew, and ward to the Mayoral Household, Atari Kobayashi, who was orphaned three years before the story takes place due to a devastating train derailment. He was gifted Spots Kobayashi, his personal bodyguard dog, upon entry to the Brick Mansion. To kick off the dog displacement, and just to show he really means business, Mayor Kobayashi sends off Spots as the very first dog to be exiled, Dog Zero. The movie follows Atari, and his search for Spots, with the help of Chief, a rough stray dog from the streets of Central Megasaki, Rex, a wiry haired and quirky dog owned by a schoolmaster, Boss, the mascot of the Megasaki Dragons baseball team, Duke, a gossip loving husky, and King, the famous Doggy Chop dog.

While the trailer may seem to show that the dogs will perform as an ensemble cast, the real limelight goes to Chief, who's aggressive and rude demeanor contrasts with the hopeful and determined dog lover Atari. Their growing friendship and teamwork is wonderful, and something I'll cover later in the video. The truth is, Rex, Boss, Duke, and King really disappear halfway into the movie and don't show up until much later, leaving the real character development to be with Chief and Atari. This does bring up a bit of a problem, since while we see a character arc and lots of personal development with Chief, the other dogs are merely decorations to the story, whether it be Rex, to be the social leader of the group, calling upon them to take votes, King, to do really nothing but occasionally add to the discussion, Duke, who adds a typical Jeff Goldblum-esque comic relief, or Boss, a character that even after four viewings, I still struggle to see his purpose. Chief is the emotional drive, and the others are simple characters to accompany and garnish.

Isle of Dogs tells its story in a series of chapters, flashbacks, going back and forth in time freely, and switching from the characters on Trash Island to the characters back on Megasaki. While it would seem that juggling so many different times and places would surely cause the story to collapse into a confusing mess. Wes Anderson manages to bridge them all in an easily accessible way, where you always know where, when, and why you are in a certain place. If you were seeing this film for the first time, you would have absolutely no problem figuring out what was happening. I have to give props to the storytellers for being able to constantly say things like "Three Years Earlier", "End of Flashback", and "A Few Months Earlier" without sounding like the French title card narrator from Spongebob Squarepants.

One departure that Isle of Dogs took from the other works of Wes Anderson is that the story is full. There is not much to be left up to interpretation, it doesn't end on an ambiguous note, and it certainly doesn't have the audience guess and theorize what the ending could be. As a matter of fact, the last ten minutes or so of the film go into detail how the story concluded, and what the characters are up to now. With that being said, Isle of Dogs leaves the viewer feeling satisfied, almost as if the movie was a storybook. I found this particularly interesting considering that this is a Wes Anderson film. In Fantastic Mr. Fox, the animals make their home burrowed under the Boggis, Bunce, and Bean supermarket, a lucky instance, but not without the grim reminder that they are still living underground, and they can't steal from the same place forever. In Moonrise Kingdom, in an ending that made me cry for about two hours, Suzy and Sam are allowed to stay together, however it is hidden to all except Captain Sharp, who drives Sam to and from Suzy's house for their daily visits. In The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Author moves off to South America, never to return to the hotel, and the fate of Zero is completely unknown. In Isle of Dogs, Atari becomes the mayor, he gets the girl, keeps the dog, and everyone lived happily ever after.

I love the story very much, but good god, the sets, character designs, and camerawork are just so wonderful. Fans and parodyers alike of Wes Anderson are highly familiar with his esoteric style of centering shots, rather stilted dialogue, quirky stories and characters, and meticulous effort into perfectionism. I am happy to say that Isle of Dogs may very well be the most Wes Anderson thing to ever come out of Wes Anderson. I would highly suggest you watch the "making of" videos released by Fox Searchlight. These videos go in depth and provide us a look into the development in this film, and if you don't believe every shred of my voice when I say that this movie took a shit ton of effort, just watch a second of any of these videos.

I really believe that Isle of Dogs is a significant step forward in the animation medium. The sad truth is, that most casual movie viewers see animation as a kids medium, something that only children can enjoy, and something that can only convey a silly story. Isle of Dogs is political corruption. It's dark, it's morbid, and it's mature. What animation fans and animation itself both need is more movies like this.

All in all, I truly believe that Isle of Dogs is something special. I'm glad to have been following it for so long, and I truly believe that it was worth the wait. You best believe I'm gonna buy the blu ray as soon as it comes out. And on the chance that it's still in theatres when you see this video, definitely treat yourself, and check it out.