Review: 'Isle of Dogs' Excels with Anderson's Unique Style

Cameron Lee ’20 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
When it was announced that Wes Anderson’s new film was a stop-motion animated film about dogs in a dystopian version of Japan, it was pretty easy to imagine what the final finished product would look like. And with Isle of Dogs that’s pretty much what we get; a beautifully crafted, humorous, sweet, and quirky film about man’s best friend with all the motifs and thematic material we’ve come to expect from a Wes Anderson production.
The story takes place in a dystopian future version of Japan; dogs have been declared a public safety hazard due to “Canine flu” and have been sent to a trash island off the coast. A young boy named Atari (Koyu Rankin) crash lands a plane on the island and with the help of a pack of dogs goes searching for his lost dog Spots (Liev Schreiber). The cast is enormous featuring the likes of Bryan Cranston, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Frances McDormand, Greta Gerwig, Courtney B. Vance as the narrator, and for some reason Yoko Ono playing herself as an assistant scientist.
Case in point there’s a one minute scene of a chef preparing sushi that’s so detail-specific that it borders on self-indulgence. All the Japanese characters speak in Japanese without any subtitles, while all the dogs speak in typical Wes Anderson dialogue while Alexandre Desplat’s beautiful score plays in the background.
Wes Anderson films are practically their own genre at this point; his style is so specific that it’s impossible to see him switching things up. He is the quintessential hipster filmmaker and Isle of Dogs is yet another notch in his already impressive belt. It sucks you in from the opening scene up until the credits roll. It’s hard not to have a ball watching all the craziness unfold on screen even if you’ve seen this exact same formula before – it’s hard to be mad at a film this creative and fun.
Overall Grade: B+
Watch The Trailer:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt__kig8PVU[/embedyt]