Isle of Dogs 2018

Isle of Dogs 2018

Directed by: Wes Anderson

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Stop-Motion Animation

An outbreak of canine influenza spreads throughout Megasaki a fictional town in Japan, banishing all Dogs to Trash Island to stop the risk of contaminating human population, the first dog they deported was a dog named Spots owned by an Orphan Boy named Atari Kobayashi who was a distant nephew and ward of Mayor Kenji Kobayashi who ordered all dogs be banished to Trash Island. Six months later Atari Kobayashi hijacked a plane to go to the island now named Isle of Dogs in a quest to find his dog Spots.

Our central character goal is only to find his dog, but then realizes not only finding his dog is the main concern but giving the dogs back their right as an animal, oppressed by his uncle’s selfish motive, eliminate all dogs because Mayor Kobayashi’s ancestors are dog-haters.

Dogs banished were all household pets, but because of fear that they might infect people they let go of their canine friends, in an abandoned island to be neglected and forgotten, some of them can’t even remember their names or where they came from, the central theme revolves around limited political freedom, conspiracy, murder and displacement of animals that has said to have been infected with a virus, Tracy a foreign exchange student from US wants to prove that this disease is just a conspiracy.

What so Interesting about this film was, it’s too smart, discusses a topic that is obviously political, narrated visually friendly although the subject was serious, the protagonist was a 12 yr old boy who can’t speak English, a pack of dogs who can talk and speak English, and a pug whom they call Oracle because it seems to see a vision of what’s coming.

Wes Anderson films always have a distinctive narrative and visual style, specific only to his created story like Isle of Dogs, the characters are too refined, talks formally, sound intellectually with sometimes funny speech pattern, uses stop-motion animation technique like Fantastic Mr. Fox in 2009, background music has the same style and arrangement with the other films such as The Grand Budapest Hotel 2014, and Moonrise Kingdom 2012, and most especially the palette color all similar to his other films, his directing style is one of the most artistic, and charming films I’ve ever watched, his signature was all over the film, the story may have touched hot topics, but the materials used was presented nicely and maturely to its audience.