Review of Isle of Dogs (2018) by Drew185 — 12 Apr 2018

Barking up the wrong tree.

Isle of Dogs is lost at sea. It drowns in its own self-indulgence. And sinks to darker depths than it can withstand. Isle of Dogs is a stop motion animated movie that looks and feels like Fantastic Mr. Fox and many other Wes Anderson movies. But Isle of Dogs leaves behind Mr. Fox's clever humor and goes full dark on the audience. The trailers made Isle look like a humorous animated kids movie about talking dogs with a simple boy searching for lost dog storyline. This was a gross misrepresentation. Isle of Dogs is a dark meandering conspiracy drama with no momentum. It bounces from title card to title card for an hour and forty minutes, never building up any sense of natural flow. This isn't due just to the choppy, symmetrical visual style. It's due to convoluted, broken storytelling that is confusing even for adults. Kids will not enjoy this movie. There are several adult themes throughout Isle of Dogs that are not suitable for children. The movie deals several times with suicide. I know that's a big deal in Japan, but it's a very serious tragic topic that needs to be delicately addressed. There are numerous depictions and discussions of graphic animal abuse to dogs. Early on we're shown a dog skeleton and led to believe that the boy just discovered his dead dog. There is also graphic violence, and a bloody surgery scene. The plot is really a massive mess of political/corporate conspiracies that overshadow the simple search for a lost dog. And we have to discuss the bilingual dialogue. Much of the movie is in Japanese. Only part of the Japanese dialogue has subtitles. Are you kidding?! This is an American movie released in America. It must be in English or have English subtitles. But even the English dialogue is lame, overcooking the Wes Anderson style. The visual style makes it hard to take anything very seriously, despite the heavy subject matter. But there is little else to lighten the mood. And without any likable or memorable characters, it's hard to stay engaged to the end. My advice is don't bother starting the trip to the Isle of Dogs.