Review of Isle of Dogs (2018) by Patrick A — 16 Apr 2018

Overall this is a good film for many reasons. For starters the animation and art direction is astonishing. Each set piece feels unique and beautiful. They took an abandon trash Island, and made it feel beautiful and unique. Then the main city is beautiful as well, and in my view did a good job capturing the feel of a Japanese city from my personal travels. The animation alone is worth seeing, and you can tell wes anderson and the entire team put a lot of effort and passion into the set pieces and animation.

Shifting to the story which is the main reason, then it's a solid story. it has a unique flare of a serious story, but with a lot of dry humor and over the top moments to make it feel light heart. what makes this story works so well is the characters. for starters the boy only speaks in japanese, and without subtitles. it's a risk wes took, and it works well. same thing for many of the japanese cast members, and it gives it a more unique flair how many don't, or rarely speak english. even when they speak english, then I can catch their accent which makes it feel real from personal experience. meanwhile the dog cast is amazing. bryan cranston puts in an amazing performance, and his character has the best development. it will make sense why he has the most development when you see it. his supporting characters including Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, and bob balabon were amazing. they help drive the simple story of a boy finding his dog, but there is much more then that. I won't spoil it, but you'll see a well thought out story.

Finally the music is amazing. the music is unique, and relies heavily on taiko drums which are amazing. Overall, it's a good film and I recommend everyone to check it out.