Review of Isle of Dogs (2018) by Grantd243 — 24 Apr 2018

Isle of Dogs is a mesmerizing stop motion animated film by Wes Anderson. It's the story of a population of dogs that get exiled from Megasaki City to Trash Island basically because the mayor of the city is a cat person.

But, he also exiled his ward's dog, and as a result the ward (who is a 12-year-old boy) decides to go to the island to find his dog. He crash lands on the island, and a group of dogs decides to help him find his long-lost friend.

Quite the adventure awaits. The story of Isle of Dogs is entertaining. There is subtle humor and quite a bit of world building that helped me become immersed in the world. But, if I'm being honest, the animation style is the main reason why I enjoyed this film so much.

If this had been a live action film, heck, even if it had been a computer animated film, I don't think it would have connected with me nearly as much as it did. The animation style is just so unique that I was pretty invested from the get-go, and the story was serviceable enough to keep me invested.

I do think that this is the type of film that's hard to generally recommend to everyone. Not everyone will like the story, and not everyone will like the animation style even if they typically like animated films.

If you like Wes Anderson, you'll like this one. Otherwise, you may just have to give it a shot and see what you think.