'Isle of Dogs' is an animated masterpiece with a few bones to pick

Infected with a highly contagious disease, abandoned by their previous owners, and dumped on an island that has literally and figuratively gone to the dogs, a pack of canine survivors become unlikely heroes, as they embark (no pun intended) on an unexpected and dangerous quest to escape their seemingly inevitable fates.

For an animated film with such a straightforward plot, Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs” leaves its audience with a lot to unpack. Featuring a narrative told in stop-motion animation and shot in the auteur’s signature style, “Isle of Dogs” is an engrossing commentary on inequality, oppression, and other societal ills — one from which its viewers may likely draw real-world parallels.

“Isle of Dogs” is set in the fictional Japanese city of Megasaki. From the language used by most of the human characters to Megasaki’s visual elements, the film showcases what audiences would reasonably guess is a Westerner’s opinion on what makes Japan, Japan.

To Anderson’s credit, however, the depiction of this culture in “Isle of Dogs” is far from offensive; the choice of setting the film against this backdrop was less of an attempt to appropriate Japanese culture and more of a conscious decision to give this film an interesting and memorable identity.

It is also worth noting that while the film’s human characters frequently speak in Japanese, their lines are rarely subtitled. Perhaps, this is an attempt to highlight how Japanese lines would make about as much sense to non-Japanese speakers — which would be the majority of this film’s audience — as human languages in general do to dogs.

 

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Dec 19, 2017 at 10:00am PST

READ: Wes Anderson, Bill Murray, and Jason Schwartzman talk about 'Isle of Dogs'

Right from the very beginning of, it becomes apparent that the backbone of the film rests upon the age-old trope of dogs versus cats, albeit with a twist. Far from being merely a simple, direct conflict between pooch and puss, the film focuses on the dogs’ struggle to survive under the harsh and unfair conditions set by an oppressive regime, supported by a society that, by its own inaction, has all but executed them with its bare hands.

In fact, had “Isle of Dogs” been completely devoid of humans, it would have been eerily reminiscent of Art Spiegelman’s critically acclaimed graphic novel “Maus,” a powerful account of the horrors of the Holocaust depicting Jews as mice and Nazis as cats.

Beyond its basic plot, “Isle of Dogs” brings relevant issues into the spotlight. It explores systemic oppression, racism, the silencing of dissenting opinions in a free society, and even fake news. “Isle of Dogs” is a film with quite a few ideas to put forward, and it uses our favorite furballs as its collective mouthpiece.

A considerable amount of work went into the making of “Isle of Dogs,” and it certainly shows. Over the course of 445 shooting days beginning in June 2015, a total of 1097 puppets, 240 sets, and 850 shots were used — a testament to the director and his crew’s dedication to this project.

With top-notch voice actors, beautifully rendered characters, a solid script with healthy amounts of humor and drama, and Anderson’s precise, distinctive cinematography, “Isle of Dogs” combines captivating aesthetics, razor-sharp wit, and the irresistible charm of man’s best friend to create a truly remarkable, politically charged production. — LA, GMA News

Isle of Dogs opens on May 30 in selected Ayala Malls Cinemas: Glorietta 4, Trinoma, Market!Market!, Cloverleaf Balintawak, and Fairview Terraces.