Isle of Dogs Review

Wes Anderson's most recently released film "Isle of Dogs" which came out in 2018 is about an edict from the mayor of a Japanese city, ruling that all dogs must be sent to a trash island due to an outbreak of a canine disease. "Isle of Dogs" features stop motion animation, along with an ensemble voice cast to deliver a compelling and unique story. The world that it takes place in is set up very well, and appears believable. The characters are well developed and very charming, leading to the audience caring about them once they face precarious situations. Dialogue is very clever and funny, and is much more elevated than your average screenplay. The film also has themes related to politics that can be related to modern society. While there were some complaints about how the film doesn't show English subtitles for the conversations in Japanese, I felt that it added to the difficulty of communication when there is an unknown language involved. The audience can understand what the dogs are saying, which is an unrealistic element, so the film creates the barrier for communication by not knowing what the Japanese people are saying, generating somewhat of a satirical tone. The moments of direct translation could have been thought out of better, but overall I liked that technique. The way the film ends is paced a little quickly, and probably could have been drawn out a little bit more. Besides that, "Isle of Dogs" is a very entertaining movie due to Anderson's unique direction, the amazing stop motion at work, good characters, and very interesting score and soundtrack. It does its job, and pretty much anyone can enjoy this movie.  A