Isle of Dogs **** (2018, voices of Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton) – Movie Review

Writer-producer-director Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated comedy feature is a posh quirky treat – witty, clever and consistently amusing. It is rich and strange, but directly appealing, and, with its beautiful animation, quite the smart-looking art object too. It is a technical triumph, with a brilliant score too by Alexandre Desplat. Anderson won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.

Set in a dystopian future Japan, the film tells how Kobayashi (voice of Kunichi Nomura), the authoritarian new mayor of Megasaki City, signs a decree banishing all dogs to Trash Island after a dog flu virus spreads throughout the canine population and threatens humans too. The story follows the quest of a young boy, Atari Kobayashi (voice of Koyu Rankin), who flies in to go in search of his dog – the only human to do so – and finds a nice helpful pack of canine survivors to help him.

Isle of Dogs has no identifiable purpose except to put a smile on our faces, and is a unique experience, but the risk in making something completely different should pay off in happy movie goers.

The press conference for Isle of Dogs at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.

The film’s equally quirky, large ensemble voice cast also includes Bryan Cranston (as Chief), Edward Norton (as Rex), Bob Balaban (as King), Bill Murray (as Boss), Jeff Goldblum (as Duke), Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Courtney B Vance (narrator), Fisher Stevens, Harvey Keitel, Liev Schreiber, Bob Balaban, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, F Murray Abraham, Frank Wood and Yoko Ono (as the voice of Assistant-Scientist Yoko-ono). They bring a lot of character to the table.

Though all about a boy and a pack of talking loveable dogs, Isle of Dogs is a smart and sophisticated movie for grown-ups, but older kids should love it too. The five main dogs in the pack, Chief, Rex, King, Duke and Boss, all have names meaning a leader.

Though Anderson uses stock Japanese characters, fables and culture, and in a gently humorous sort of way, he is very careful to be respectful of Japanese culture, indeed he seems to be celebrating it. Of course it could be set in a dystopian future America, and on an island off, say Washington state. So you may ask the question, why wasn’t it? Anderson says Isle of Dogs is influenced by the films of Akira Kurosawa and the stop-motion animated TV holiday specials made by Rankin/Bass Productions.

Isle of Dogs is a US-German co-production, produced by Indian Paintbrush and Anderson’s own production company, American Empirical Pictures. Anderson writes with Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomura.

The film’s production began in October 2016 at the 3 Mills Studios in East London. The cast went to England to record their lines, except for Jeff Goldblum who recorded his lines over the phone from California because of film scheduling conflicts.

Anderson’s long-time collaborator Anjelica Huston is credited as the Mute Poodle.

The famous Isle Of Dogs is of course in East London, begging another question, why the film was not set in a dystopian future England.

At 101 minutes, it is the longest stop-motion film, beating Coraline (2009) by two minutes. Yet it goes by in a flash.

Songs include ‘Midnight Sleigh Ride’ by Fifties band Sauter-Finegan and ‘I Won’t Hurt You’ by The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

Anderson previously made the animated film Fantastic Mr Fox (2009).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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