Isle of Dogs - Review
This review of Isle of Dogs is spoiler-free!
So, we've made the journey through the Odyssey that is Wes Anderson and his unique style of filmmaking. We've seen Moonrise Kingdom, tackling young love and growing up without those who you need the most. We traveled to the Grand Budapest and following the journey of the lobby boy Zero from his youth to his old age and his friendship with Monsieur Gustave H. Finally, we travelled to the home of Mr. Fox and his family and watched them get revenge on their human neighbors in one of Anderson's best and most creative films. Now, we've arrived at the reason we started this journey through the world of films created by a filmmaking genius, dare I say. Did Isle of Dogs end up being his first dud, or does it follow in the footsteps of the films that came before and show just why he's such a great director and story builder? Let's discuss Isle of Dogs!
We are transported to a near future Chinese Archipelago, Megasaki City in which the new mayor has declared his attention to signing a decree banishing all dogs to Trash Island, creating an exile colony. Why would he want to do this? The dogs of Megasaki have been victims of a horrible dog flu that is threatening the cross the species barrier. When his dog, Spots, is transferred to the Isle of Dogs, Atari Kobayashi goes off to search for his lost friend. There he meets a pack of friendly dogs who seek to help him along his journey. Little does he know that his small search for the dog he lost could impact the lives of nearly every dog on the Isle and every human in the Prefecture. This is another example of Anderson's capabilities with storytelling, and throughout the entirety, I was feeling a mixture of three different emotions: happiness, sadness, and pure euphoria. Anderson's stories have a way to evoke emotion and engross you in their films, and Isle of Dogs does exactly that. Excellent work and probably one of my favorite stories from the man himself.
As mentioned above, our main human character is the young boy of Atari Kobayashi, voiced by Koyu Rankin. So since this film makes it a point to state that most of the foreign languages are not translated (for comedic reasons), we don't ever get to hear what Atari is saying, but the animation helps to understand just what he's feeling. Rankin works with this to deliver a memorable performance that while many will consider underrated, helps to anchor this story. On the other side of the story, we have the pack of dogs Atari meets on the Isle. I could talk about each and every one of these dogs and their voice actor, but Chief takes the cake and is given the most work with. He's a tough-nosed stray dog voiced by Bryan Cranston, who is forced to go against his own natures and work with Atari due to his being outvoted by the rest of his pack. I can't speak too much about Chief, but Cranston's performance is powerful and moving. He's quickly become a necessary commodity in films and whether he takes a small role or a starring role, you can bet that he'll be a bright spot in the movie.
Isle of Dogs is another classic showcase of the talent that Wes Anderson presents on screen. To some, I'm sure that the art style and animation may throw them off as it's not the usual, but the usage of stop-motion animation is what makes this film such a charm and delight. Combining this with the symmetric camera angles and shuffling scene work, and you have a film that just exudes joy and childhood determination. I hadn't realized this until now, but all of Anderson's stories have a connective tissue to the stories of children, and here we are introduced to that same theme work. Along with this theme of childhood determination, I think Anderson absolutely nails the relationship between man and dog, along with the mannerisms of dogs. These aren't just props for the story, they're characters and they have feelings and emotions just like the humans.
It's hard to explain why Isle of Dogs is such a beautiful movie in the grand scheme of things, but it's not often I come out of a movie without any true negatives. Yes, Isle of Dogs isn't a perfect movie by any standards, but when placing it in the spectrum of the other films I've seen by Anderson, this absolutely goes near the top of the list. Fantastic Mr. Fox and this film create a small genre of their own that I would love to see more directors use, but I would be completely fine if this was kept to Anderson and his stellar work. Getting excellent performances out of the entirety of the cast, Isle of Dogs is a joy to watch and a memorable experience for anyone who knows the feeling of having a dog, or just youthful determination and inability to give up.
