Review of Isle of Dogs (2018) by Metaflix — 04 Apr 2018

‘Isle of Dogs’ is going to most readily be compared to 2009’s ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’, Wes Anderson’s first stop motion picture, and given that the former is Anderson’s second time trying his hand at stop motion, one would expect both the technical and artistic aspects of the film to be of greater sophistication. Simply put, Anderson succeeds on both fronts.

Setting the film abroad in Japan poses numerous language and translation issues that have to be addressed throughout the film, and Anderson nimbly uses it to his advantage. Furthermore, each of the dogs is given a meaningful amount of depth and characterization. That being said, there were a handful of times I felt my attention drifting throughout the movie, and I found myself less emotionally invested in the plight of the characters as the film went on. In the end, Anderson has brought to us another prototypical Wes Anderson film, a unique combination of his particular form and function that we’ve come to know and enjoy, so while I certainly recommend seeing the film, I think it would really take being a dog lover to really love this movie.