Isle of Dogs Review/List of 10 dog animations

4,3

Isle of Dogs (2017)

Wes Anderson

Cast: Bryan Cranston, Kofu Rankin, Edward Norton, Scarlett Johanson, F. Murray Abraham, Kunichi Nomura, Greta Gerwin, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Tilda Swinton, Bob Balaban, Francis McDormand, Akira Ito, Harvey Kaitel, Yoko Ono, Liev Schreiber, Ken Watanabe and Courtney B. Vance

Length: 105 min
Country: Germany, United States

Is it a coincidence that the title "Isle of dogs" sounds a bit like "I love dogs"?  It almost seems like it was a premeditated choice since Wes Anderson's latest effort is a love letter to 'man's best friend'. An odyssey about the most honest form of love that exists. The love between a 12-year-old boy and his dog.

Accompanied by the magnificent Taiko drumming and the haunting male choir composed by Alexander Desplat, Isle of Dogs is a jaw-dropping stop-motion animation set in a futuristic dystopian Japan.
Following an epidemic of "snout fever" and "dog flu" in the city of Megasaki, Mayor Kobayashi (whose puppet is modelled to resemble the prolific iconic actor from Seven Samurai;, Toshiro Mifune), ordered all dogs exiled to a giant landfill site called "Trash Island".
His nephew Atari's dog, named Spot, is the first one to be sent to the island inside an unbreakable cage. Atari (Koyu Rankin), a twelve-year-old boy, is bereft by the loss of Spot and angry towards his uncle’s 'anti-dog' society. We join him as he undertakes a quest to Trash Island with the hope to find his best friend. 

Among these meticulously designed mountains of herring tins, broken washing machines and general detritus, he will come across a pack of self-declared "alpha dogs": Duke, the husky gossip  (Jeff Goldblum); Boss,  a former mascot for a local baseball team (Bill Murrey); King, a fallen star of dog food spots (Bob Balaban); Rex, the democratic voice of the group (Edward Norton) and Chief, an untamable stray dog (Bryan Cranston).
It's a long and tortuous journey, filled with sabotage, conspiracy, odourless robotic dogs, a clairvoyant pug and more.

Influenced by such masters of Japanese cinema as Yasujirō Ozu, Hayo Miyazaki and Akira Kurosawa, Wes Anderson’s second attempt in directing animation is without a doubt the most ambitious stop-motion feature film ever made.
Collaborating again with London based 3 Mills Studios (the same people that brought to life the scruffy puppets and the autumnal landscapes in an adaptation of Roald Dahl's 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'), Anderson combines his maniacal sense of symmetry, the rigour and traditions of Japanese culture with the discipline and patience that stop-motion technique requires. The result is overwhelming. Every shot is an unparalleled masterpiece of craftsmanship.
Instead of the colourful wallpapers, vinyl records and binoculars in Moonrise Kingdom, or the pastel red corridors in the luxurious Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson focuses on the outcasts and the forgotten in the garbage dump.
Every single piece of trash is an exquisite, detailed, miniature artefact. It's an endless sequence of arresting landscapes: an abandoned rusty amusement park, a plane crash on a field of handwritten newspapers, a luminous shelter made of glass bottles.  You can even notice some minuscule fleas constantly moving in the dog’s fur (which has been planted on each puppet hair by hair, using lama fur).

The dump is in stark contrast with the landscape of the city of Megasaki (240 sets and 44 stages have been created for the film). We come across an almost unchanged Japan, with Uki-yo paintings in the style of Hokusai and Hiroshima, elegant cat sculptures, ’ Maneki Neko’, as well as a boldly futuristic Japan with high skyscrapers and a red City Hall inspired by the architect Kenzo Tange.
The film has been criticized for 'fetishising' Japanese culture. I disagree. For me Isle of Dogs is instead a celebration of beauty, motivated by genuine admiration and handled with knowledge and respect.
However, it is an interesting choice to leave the Japanese speaking characters without subtitles. All barking has been translated into English, whereas every Japanese section is sporadically translated by exchange student/activist Tracy (Greta Gerwin) and interpreter Nelson (Francis McDormand), otherwise left untranslated. Obviously we see the adventure from the perspective of the dogs, but maybe Anderson also didn't want subtitles to distract from the visually stunning production design, focusing more on the emotions rather than the meaning of the actual words. Emotions that are delivered magnificently by the great cast of voice actors. These dogs wouldn't be the same without the deep gravelly voice of Bryan Cranston, the soft and smoky voice of Scarlett Johansson as Nutmeg, or the wise and deep voice of F. Murray Abraham as Jupiter.
There has always been a language barrier between humans and animals, but this never stopped dogs from being 'man's best friend'. Why? Because of empathy and basic emotional understanding which is universal and impossible to put it into words. It's surprising how much of the story is clear even if some sections are in a foreign language. The only words spoken in English by Atari (Soon after a hilarious Haiku) were "Who are we?".

Who are we? It's the question that has always been asked when horrific things happen in our history.
The segregations, the scapegoating, the censorship, the experiments and political propaganda are occurrences that we can easily find in every history book. The question recalls the horrors of the concentration camps or even the internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II (which is rarely talked about).
Maybe, what Anderson wants to say, is that we can learn a lesson about humanity from our quadruped friends. That even under the fur of a wild aggressive dog ("I bite") there is a big beating heart.

Movies you might like if you like Isle of Dogs

The Incredible Journey (1963) by Fletcher Markle

Plague Dogs (1982) by Martin Rosen

Ran (1985) by Akira Kurosawa

The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013) by Isao Takahata

Niche List of the week

10 animations about dogs

Animation and animals always go hand in hand, perhaps because it's hard to get a talking dog in a live action movie. Often associated with children entrainment, especially when animals are involved, Animation is an incredibly versatile medium, which can go in surprisingly dark places.
Among some Disney favourites and some heartwarming short films, there are some shocking and disturbing films about mistreated animals. Movies as Plague Dogs, Dog and The Master are very far from being suitable for children. All the dogs in this list have something in common, their desire to be loved by fellow humans. Can we learn something from dogs? Do man deserve to be dog's best friend? Was Goofy too anthropomorphic to make into the list?
Here are the films (Ordered by year)

• Lady and the tramp (1955) by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson

An old-fashioned Disney Classic for dog lovers. It's probably the most romantic film in this list.  A romance between Lady, a domestic cocker spaniel from a posh neighbourhood and Tramp, a happy-go-lucky stray mongrel dog. The story has a dog-hating aunt, a baby, some problematically racist Siamese cats and the most iconic spaghetti scene in the history of cinema.

• 101 Dalmatians (1961) by Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Wolfgang Reitherman

Another iconic Disney Classic, based on Dodie Smith's 1956 novel with the same title. With the gorgeous background of London and a bold jazzy soundtrack, The Hundred and One Dalmatian recounts the story of the untidy pianist Roger and his domestic Dalmatian Pongo. Roger and Pongo meet Anita and her Dalmatian Perdita. Whereas Roger and Anita get married, Pongo and Perdita have a litter of 15 puppies. Aristocratic Cruella DeVille, the quintessential Disney antagonist, is willing to try anything to get their fur.

• Mitten (1967) by Roman Kachanov

Mitten is a heartwarming Soviet stop-motion short film. It tells the story of a little girl who desperately wants a dog, but her mum doesn't allow it.  She will start imagining that her red knitted mitten is a poodle.

Well received in the festival circuits and awarded at Annecy Film Festival, Mitten is a short and sweet delight. 

• Plague Dogs (1982) by Martin Rosen

One of the hardest movie to watch from this list. Plague Dog was adapted from Richard Adams's novel with the same name, author of Watership Down (which was also adapted by Martin Rosen). Always been in the shadow of the incredible Watership Down, it is a less known animated masterpiece on mistreated animals. It focuses on the cruelty of vivisection. Rowf and Snitter are two dogs who escaped from a laboratory where they perform inimaginable cruel experiments for animal research.

• Wrong Trousers (1993) by Nick Park

This genuinely hilarious, smart, Oscar-winning clay animation from Aardman Studios is a delightful gem. It is impossible not to fall in love with these charming puppets: The naive cheese addict Wallace, his mute incredibly smart dog Gromit and a crazy mysterious penguin. Without a doubt, my favourite of the "Wallace and Gromit" series.

• Dog (2002) y Suzie Templeton

Bafta-winning stop-motion graduation film from the Royal Acadamy of Art, directed by Peter and Wolf Suzie Templeton. Templeton uses stop motion to dig into the darkest places. In its only 5 minutes, Dog explores the hopeless life of a motherless kid, his dog and his abusive father. The view is heart-wrenching.

• Triplette of Belleville (2003) by Sylvain Chomet

Partly a satire on American society, partly a film noir, partly Nouvelle Vague, Sylvain Chomet's Triplets of Belleville is a wordless, odd, charming masterpiece. It tells the story of elderly Madame Souza and her obese dog Bruno, on a quest to find her cyclist grandson who has been kidnapped by the French Mafia. Accompanied by an irresistible swing soundtrack and with an incredibly unique design, Triplets of Belleville"is a film like no others.

 

• My Dog Tulip (2009) by Paul Fierlinger, Sandra Fierlinger

My Dog Tulip is a quirky hand-drawn digital animation about the bond between an old man J.R. Ackerley (Christopher Plummer) and his German Shepard Tulip. Based on the memoir of J.R.Ackerley himself, My Dog Tulip is honest and beautifully made, but at times odd and tedious. 

I found some scenes uncomfortable to watch. For instance, when the old man seems to be turned on by his dog genitalia. 

• Up (2009) by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

Possibly one of the most moving opening scenes in the history of animation (or even cinema in general), Up is one of the most original and funniest Pixar films to date. It centred on a grumpy old widower called Carl Fredrickson, which turned his home into an aircraft by inflating thousands of colourful balloons. We join him with chubby little scout Russel in an unforgettable adventure towards the Paradise Falls in South America. The movie would be the same without one of the cutest talking dog Doug. Not to forget the gorgeous soundtrack from Micheal Giacchino.

• The master (2016) by Riho Unt

Estonia has a surprisingly long tradition of stop-motion animation. Nukufilm Studios (one of the oldest and largest stop-motion studios in northern Europe) won the jury award at Annecy Film Festival with the darkly twisted return of veteran Rihno Unt. It tells the story of a dog and a monkey waiting for their owner to come back. Soon they realise that he is not coming back and chaos begins. It's a tense crescendo which climaxes with shocking horror. Music composed by Arvo Pärt. I died watching it.





These lists are open to recommendations. If you have a film in mind that should be on the list please leave a comment and tell us what you think.