On 21 February 2021, I watched on TV the stop-motion animated feature film Isle of Dogs, but it was not at all what I was expecting.
Directed by Wes Anderson, and released in 2018, Isle of Dogs sported a visual format that was very different from anything that I'd seen before, featuring over 1000 puppets for animation use. Yet somehow it was all a little too strange, too odd, to capture my interest and enduring attention, although I did watch it through to the end.
Isle of Dogs is set in a fictional Japanese prefecture, and its storyline is all about a corrupt cat-loving, dog-hating mayor, Kenji Kobayashi, whose cohorts have covertly created a dog flu that may jump to the human population, the risk of it doing so thereby giving him the excuse to banish all dogs in the prefecture to a trash-filled offshore island (the Isle of Dogs after which this movie is named). However, his young ward, Atari, sets off to rescue his beloved former canine guard, Spots, and, in so doing, uncovers the dastardly doings of his human guardian.
The dogs all speak American English (voiced by the likes of Bryan Cranston as Chief, Edward Norton as Rex, Bill Murray as Boss, Jeff Goldblum as Duke, Scarlett Johansson as Nutmeg, Harvey Keitel as Gondo, F. Murray Abraham as Jupiter, and Tilda Swinton as Oracle), the humans in Japanese, but with the helpful device of an American newscaster translating their dialogue, plus on-screen plot explanations, Having said that, these latter explanations are presented in such minute typeface and for such brief appearances that they are all but unreadable and therefore virtually useless.
Such a quirky movie as Isle of Dogs needs some quirky facts to go with it, so here are four (but there are plenty more, I assure you). When said quickly, 'Isle of Dogs' becomes 'I love dogs', which is what this film is all about. It was produced in East London at a studio just 3 miles away from a genuine area known as Isle of Dogs. Anjelica Huston is the voice of a mute poodle (don't ask me, I only write this stuff!). And in its Japanese version, fluent Japanese-speaking Yoko Ono, who voices in the English version an assistant scientist named…Yoko-ono, is overdubbed by a Japanese actress (which seems barking, if you ask me!).
I'm assuming that the humour in this movie was intended to come across as deadpan or at least laconic, but instead it merely seems stilted and uncomfortable, not so much throwaway as thrown away. All in all, Isle of Dogs is very weird and even slightly unsettling in parts, I felt. So although I know that it has a major fan base, and was even nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score, but didn't win either of them, losing out to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Black Panther respectively), this canine-themed animated film is not my box of dog biscuits at all, I'm afraid.
However, you may well feel differently, so please click here to check out an official Isle of Dogs trailer on YouTube, and decide for yourself whether this mutt-themed movie is for you.
And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!
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