Mr. Gordo's House of Fallen Articles: New Review: Isle of Dogs (2018)

For those five people out there for whom Fantastic Mr. Fox wasn't esoteric or strange enough comes Wes Anderson's next stop-motion animated epic, Isle of Dogs, which makes Tim Burton's similar stuff look positively mainstream in comparison- and he once did a film about a guy accidentally marrying a corpse.

Perhaps needless to say, Anderson's output is an acquired taste, dividing most people right down the middle in terms of loving or hating it. And let me tell you, animating things does not help sway that figure one iota. Isle of Dogs is every bit as quirky and particular as any of his live-action features, and then some.

As those familiar with Anderson's work can attest, his primary ethos seems to be, more often than not: why create a mere film when you can create an entire world? Save maybe Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, pretty much his entire oeuvre is filled to the brim with an attention to detail that doesn't simply veer closely to overkill, it tramples it.

Don't get me wrong- it's one of the things I love about him, and certainly one of the main traits that gives his work the utmost re-watchability, always one of my favorite aspects of a given film. Anderson's movies are almost never one-and-done watches- they're made for fellow film obsessives like himself.

Some people hate that sort of thing- not so much a film being inherently re-watchable as it being nit-picky to the point of annoyance, but as someone who has struggled with OCD, they are firmly up my alley. Attention to detail is my bread and butter- it's why I count amongst my favorites the likes of David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Buñuel, Guillermo Del Toro, Pedro Almodóvar, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.

And boy, does Anderson go overboard with it sometimes, stuffing in details no one is ever going to see unless they have access to a TV as big as a movie screen, or they devour all the bonus features on the DVD/Blu-Rays of his work or check out the books based on or inspired by his movies- I highly recommend The Wes Anderson Collection, for one.

As such, this can often translate to information overload for some, and it's not exactly helped by Anderson's intellectual-to-the-extreme writing style, which often seems like the film adaptation of a book that doesn't exist, it's so verbose and admittedly over-written. I dig it, but I 100% understand how many people could find the sum value of all this overwhelming and more than a little pretentious.

That said, I think I can speak for all those fans who do love Anderson's movies in saying that they REALLY love it, and relish any opportunity to get lost in these oddball worlds Anderson creates. Isle of Dogs certainly fits that bill, and if, in spite of being an animated feature filled with lovingly-rendered pooches of all kinds, it will likely send most people's kids into a coma, that's fine. If movies like Watership Down or Heavy Metal have shown us anything, it's that not all animated features are for kids.

Not that Dogs is particularly violent or there's nudity or what have you, it's just super weird and verbose, which are aspects in an animated film that don't always click with kids. But if this one does, congrats: you're likely the parent(s) of one gifted, intelligent kid. (Not that you're not even if they don't enjoy it- like I said, Anderson is an acquired taste, and I imagine that goes double for kids.)

The plot revolves around a "Dog flu" (think "Bird Flu," but for dogs) that infects Japan's canine population, directly resulting in all the dogs being shipped off to "Trash Island," which is just what it sounds like: an island where Japan dumps all their waste and failed equipment and the like. Needless to say, this does not go over well with everyone.

Chief among the slighted is Atari (Koyu Rankin), whose dog, Spots (Liev Schreiber) is the first to be banished by his dastardly Mayor, Kenji Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura), who, somewhat tellingly, is naturally, a "cat person." Is there really a "Dog Flu" or is it a sinister plot by the Mayor to get rid of all the dogs so that the cats can reign supreme?

Determined to find out is wily student reporter and American foreign exchange student, Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig). Meanwhile, Atari takes off in an airplane to travel to Trash Island to hopefully rescue poor Spots. But is it too late? He aims to find out, with the help of a pack of scrappy strays, including the grumpy loner Chief (Bryan Cranston) and the formerly domesticated Rex (Edward Norton), King (Bob Balaban), Boss (Bill Murray) and Duke (Jeff Goldblum).

As with most films like this, it's all about the journey, not the destination, and naturally, along the way, the group encounter lots of obstacles, including robo-dogs, the Mayor's thugs, an industrial machine meant to crush and smash all things that enter it, and the unconfirmed rumor of cannibal dogs that feed upon those pooches that are unlucky enough to cross their path.

If some of this sounds a little scary for kids, I suppose it is, but none of it is even remotely graphic as something like the aforementioned Watership Down- which, BTW, is getting a reboot via Netflix soon, so perhaps it will scar yet another generation soon, lol. That said, the movie is PG-13, so I suppose tread lightly with younger kids that might be freaked out by the sound of any of this. (Spoiler for parents: rest assured, no dogs are shown being eaten by cannibal canines, so you're safe there, at least.)

For the adults out there, though, this will either be captivating and absolutely delightful, or flat and boring as all get-out, mostly depending on your tolerance for Wes Anderson's patented brand of whimsy. It is, however, probably the only animated film you'll see to feature a track by the obscure, left-of-center psychedelic rock band The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band ("I Won't Hurt You," for those interested- you can listen to it here), which likely won't surprise those familiar with Anderson's past soundtracks of musical ephemera.

While Isle of Dogs is admittedly an acquired taste by design, just like Anderson's other films, it really is kind of charming, and those who typically hate his stuff might just give him a pass on this one, especially if they love a good dog-centric flick.

While most of the names in the cast won't surprise those who follow Anderson's work, it is worth mentioning that the newer recruits slide into this movie nicely, including Gerwig, Schreiber and especially Cranston, who handily steals the movie as the grumpy Chief, whose mantra is "I bite." Also cropping up are Courtney B. Vance as the narrator, Scarlett Johansson as former show-dog Nutmeg, Ken Watanabe as a surgeon and Yoko Ono as assistant scientist, um, Yoko Ono, because of course she is.

Being as how the movie is set in Japan, the whole thing serves as a bit of a tribute to legendary director Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Rashomon), with Easter Eggs to that end, accordingly. Note some of the music, for one.

It's also sort of Rankin-Bass adjacent, though I suppose that goes without saying, as stop-motion animation is almost synonymous with their stuff by this point, in particular the much-beloved Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Year Without a Santa Claus.

I also loved the way that the film allows all the Asian characters to speak their native language, often using a "translator" to re-voice them for the American audience, while at the same time helpfully "translating" the barks and woofs of the dogs into English for everyone as well. (There are no subtitles, incidentally.)

It's an amusing conceit and works well to bridge the gap between the two central audiences for the film, both honoring its Japanese sources of inspiration and making room for their American collaborators in a way that isn't insulting. There's also a manga adaption of the tale, because of course there is.

While I heard some grumbling on Twitter about the "white savior" character- that would be Tracy- it's clearly not Anderson's intent for that to be the case, not in the least in that the real heroes are Atari and Chief, not Tracy. She simply helps to expose the Mayor's evil plot, whereas its Atari's journey that is the film's central plot-line.

Whatever the case, in the current climate, I suppose its inevitable that some people are gonna bitch about something, especially whenever so-called "Cultural Appropriation" is involved. I don't get the sense that Anderson meant any harm whatsoever, except to pay tribute to the culture that so obviously inspired this film in general.

So what, are filmmakers not supposed to make movies about cultures different than their own, now? Is that what it's come to? Those people can suck it. If anything, we need more of that sort of thing, as long as its reasonably PC, which this film totally is, IMHO. I get the whole "White Savior" trope being a slight, and in a lot of cases, it is offensive. This is not one of them, so settle down, people. Haters gonna hate, I guess.

For the rest of us, Isle of Dogs is enjoyable enough, especially if you're an Anderson fan, or a fan of Japanese culture in general. No, it's not laugh-out-loud funny. Have you ever seen an Anderson film that was, really? His forte is more of the smiling-knowingly-in-amusement approach than lol-inducing, as anyone who's seen even one of his movies knows by now. Anderson favors the cerebral thinking-man's jokes over the yuks- not exactly a shocker, there.

I will say that I enjoyed it more than Fantastic Mr. Fox on the whole, though I suspect kids might enjoy the former more. Unless they lean more towards dogs, maybe. Just know that this isn't exactly a Disney film, nor is it trying to be. If you don't like your animation on the droll humor side, then it's probably not the film for you. I liked it just fine, though, for whatever that's worth.