Isle of Dogs Review

Directed by: Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Royal Tenenbaums)

Starring: Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johannsen, Harvey Keitel, Tilda Swinton, Liev Schrieber

Written by: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Kunichi Nomura

Released: In theaters

Review: Wes Anderson delivers another great stop-motion animated film with Isle of Dogs.
It takes place in a near-future Japan, where all dogs have become the carriers of a disease called canine flu, and are quarantined to a island. The mayor's nephew runs away to the island to look for his own dog, with the help of a band of dogs.
The story is told mostly from the perspective of the dogs. Most of the human characters, including the boy, only speak in Japanese, translated by a completely different character, if at all. But, as we are informed at the beginning, "all of the dogs' barks will be heard in English." But it also very closely follows a related story on the mainland, about a government conspiracy behind the quarantine.
Even though it is an animated comedy about talking dogs, this film has a lot of dark material, mostly about the poor living conditions on the island, and certain parts of the conspiracy. This is probably the main reason for its PG-13 rating.
But despite all that, there is plenty of humor and much of it has a light tone. It has all of the trademarks of a Wes Anderson movie. It's kind of funny and kind of sad, and has a fast paced and consistently interesting story.
It may possibly be more for adults than it is for children (although I think that older children can watch it if they want to), it is still a great animated film with a lot of Wes Anderson's style.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars