By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Wes Anderson
Cast (Voice): Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Koyu Rankin, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Kunichi Nomura, Akira Takayama, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johansson, Harvey Keitel, F. Murray Braham, Yoko Ono, Tilda Swinton, Fisher Stevens, Ken Watanabe, Live Schreiber and Courtney B. Vance.
Rating: Excellent.
Academy Award Nominee Wes Anderson brings his eight film “Isle of Dogs”. This is Anderson´s second animated feature film and again he is at the top of his game.
Set in the city of Megasaki City, Japan the movie tells the story of Atari Kobayashi (Koyu Rankin) a boy who is in a journey to find his dog Spots (Live Schreiber) after he has been banished by Atari´s legal guardian Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura).
Spots is been sent to Trash Island, where most of the dogs of the population are sent due to an apparent dog flu virus.
Atari decides to go to Trash Island and find his dog. In his journey he will meet Chief (Bryan Cranston), Rex (Edward Norton), Boss (Bill Murray), King (Bob Balaban) and Duke (Jeff Goldblum), who happen to be dogs who have been sent to the island as well.
The group eventually will help Atari in his quest to find his dog and bring back all the dogs to the city of Megasaki where they belong.
Like most of Wes Anderson´s films “Isle of Dogs” is very original and you can tell that it has his touch in it, due to the amount of humor of the film possesses.
Another thing that has become Anderson´s trademark is that like in most of his work, he focuses in the meaning of friendship and relationships.
In most movies with similar themes normally are focused in humans and I like the idea that they used animals, in this case are dogs which has never seen before.
Wes Anderson again crafted a brilliant screenplay with interesting characters and I love the fact that all of them have obstacles in order to reach their goals. Anderson is the kind of filmmaker that likes to raise the stakes constantly and this is what makes him unique.
Anderson directed a film that it´s very original and I believe that so far this can be the most challenging he has ever done since the portrayal of Japan is totally the opposite as we normally have seen it in movies and here it looks completely different that we are used to see.çNot only the look of the film is impressive, but the way how Anderson directed the cast was superb and all of them gave their voices to unique characters, specially in performances like Bryan Cranston and Edward Norton, who really good in this film.
From the minute the movie started I was practically engaged and I love how Anderson used the voice over in this film so we can understand the world the movie is set.
With “Isle of Dogs” I also felt that it´s a political statement, specially in times that we are living now around the world where we can see constantly the abuse of power and authority and here Anderson used his wit and humor to portray it.
Another thing I felt is that it is a criticism towards people who are in power and how they use it to their best interests.
The score by Academy Award Winning Composer Alexander Despla which marks his fourth collaboration with Anderson, is again fantastic. The way how he compose his music to portray Japan was top of notch and every single music cue had a meaning for every single character.
Another thing that I have learned from watching Wes Anderson´s films is that you definitely learn something new from each movie that he has done in his career and “Isle of Dogs” is not the exception.
I must say that “Isle of Dogs” is a film that people will be talking about it for quite some time and I do believe that is going to be a movie that can be in the radar for next year´s awards season.
If you are a fan of Wes Anderson I can guarantee you personally that you are going to love “Isle of Dogs”, which I consider a masterpiece and one of the best film of this year that you cannot miss.