Checked out the new Wes Anderson stop-motion animation flick Isle of Dogs. This is his second stop-motion flick after the superior Fantastic Mr. Fox. But like Fox, it’s still got his usual style that you may have seen in other flicks like Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, and Moonrise Kingdom.
Set in Japan twenty years in the future, the city of Megasaki has responded to a canine flu by exiling all the dogs to nearby trash island. A young boy steals a small plane and flies to the island to find his dog but crashes and a pack of friendly dogs must help him find his pooch. Meanwhile, it is revealed that the corrupt mayor is in the pocket of Big Cat and Big Robot Dog… and that there may not actually be a dog flu at all.
The first half of the movie is very charming. The four+ dogs all speak in the usual Wes Anderson quirky hipster ways meshed with things dogs might talk about. The speak English and don’t understand the boy pilot (named Atari) who speaking Japanese (because, of course they can’t understand each other). The dogs and the boy become friends (“he’s a twelve year old boy. Dogs love those”) and go on an adventure. It’s very cute and fun in that arch somewhat distanced Wes Anderson-y way.
The second half gets way into the weird corrupt politics of the mayor and his political party. This sequence loses a lot of the charm and fun as the first half and I kind of checked out. The overall movie is still good but I think they made a big mistake having so many human politics get in the way of the dog movie.
The voice cast is full of both American and Japanese actors, though I don’t know how big the Japanese actors are. But we do get a number of the Wes Anderson usual actors plus some new ones including Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansen, Jeff Goldblum, Greta Gerwig, Yoko Ono (!), Harvey Keitel and many more. It’s an impressive cast who do a good job as voice actors (given the usual Wes Anderson slightly removed, arch acting style).
Overall, it’s an enjoyable movie if you like that special Wes Anderson style of writing and dialog delivery. I found it funny and charming for its first half, less so for the second. It will not be my favorite of his flicks but it’s worth watching if you are a fan of his unique style.
Score: 81