Give credit to Wes Anderson, he certainly tries stuff most
prominent directors of Hollywood don’t—can you imagine Adam Sandler going out
on a limb to make a stop-motion animated film about deadpan talking dogs in a
retrofuture Japan that also happens to be led by Bryan Cranston? Not to be
confused by Paul S. Anderson, who hasn’t made anything watchable since 1997’s
Event Horizon and mostly churns out cinematic housefly attractions with
Resident Evil films, this Anderson at least gives us something to turn our
heads with Isle of Dogs.
I must admit, growing up on old Eastern European stop-motion
kid’s shows you probably haven’t heard of, I do have a soft spot for this sort
of animation. And the first thing that’ll strike you here is how masterfully
it’s done—there’s lots of unique backgrounds, not a single fingerprint on any
puppet, and everything from crowd scenes to conversations looks exactly as it
has to. I actually had the luck to speak to one animator who attended a
screening, and it seems Anderson himself personally oversaw every aspect of the
production, which had a minimal of CG (save for the occasional spot of 2D
animation here and there). This is his second production of this sort after
Fantastic Mr. Fox, which was also well done, but here it just stands out a
little bit more.
But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself—let’s talk about the
plot. Set in a near-future Japan as imagined by the 1970s, Isle of Dogs is set
in a Japanese city hit by a canine plague, leading it’s population of pooches
to be banished to a nearby island covered in garbage and decaying industrial
ruins. It focuses on a group of dogs led by the self-professed stray Chief,
played by Bryan Cranston, who is accompanied by, eh, um, er, Jeff Goldblum,
Bill Murray, Edward Norton (who meets Goldblum once more after Thor), and Bob
Balaban. Cranston is definitely the lead, with the others being appreciated,
but they’re not really as integral to things as the marketing might lead you to
believe.
Before long a young boy called Atari, presumably descended
from the Sega clan, crashes on the island looking for his beloved companion,
and despite misgivings and language barriers the dogs are soon marshalled into
accompanying him through various lovingly handcrafted landscapes of absolute
literal garbage. There’s a lot more to talk about beyond that, like Atari’s
adopted villainous uncle conspiring with a cat-themed conspiracy to eradicate
the dogs. And a subplot involving Scarlett Johansson’s trained show-dog.
And then there’s the students plotting against said uncle
led by Greta Gerwig’s Tracy—who some might find a bit incongruous and on the
nose in her characterization. Honestly I found myself more invested in the
subplot about the scientists trying to find a cure under the tyrannical uncle’s
regime—yeah, there’s another one there to boot.
Basically, for a cutesy-looking stop motion film about
talking dogs, there’s a lot of stuff going on, which I suppose is something you
can expect from Wes Anderson, along with lots and lots of facial close-ups, in
full force here. It does make the film feel slightly
thinly spread, but there’s enough technical expertise in full force and weird
deadpan-ness that I didn’t mind so much.
There’s lots of dialogue in Japanese, with enough context to
give you the gist. Anderson puts in everything from taiko drums to anime
references to classical ukiyo-e art. Hell, the music from Seven Samurai is very
prominent amidst it all. Some might find it all stereotypical or overly
aesthetic-focused, but then one of the supervisors in production was Japanese,
so I’ll let you make your own mind up about it. For me, it’s at least not as
silly as some actual depictions of Japan’s cultural heritage from itself (you’d
think that infamous noble Oda Nobunaga really was a tentacle demon from hell
given how many times that happens in anime).
All in all, Isle of Dogs is a well-made animated flick if
maybe needing a little more focus in the plot, but there’s fluffy puppet
animals for the kids and deadpan humor for the grown-ups, so if you can get
past some certain things then give it a shout. Cranston continues to show he’s
got the chops for pretty much any role that gets thrown at him, and even if I wish
Goldblum (er, eum) and Murray got more focus, they’re still welcome presences. And
if you’re a dog lover? All I’ll say is there’s a lot that’ll pull at you…
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