LogFAQs > #962338029

3. Isle of Dogs

Ermine: 1
Johnbobb: 2
Red: 2
Inviso: 11
Karo: 12
Evillord: 18

Total: 46

Ermine: I go back and forth between if I like this film more or less than Fantastic Mr. Fox but it's so hard to choose because they are both so damn good. I think Mr. Fox is overall a stronger film but good god the highs of this one blow Fox's out of the water.

Part of why I love this movie so much is that it's a serious movie about animals... and it's done in a more tasteful way. Sure you have things like Watership Down and Plague Dogs but like... animals movies have two sides of the spectrum it seems. Downright depressing and gorey shit... and then happy go lucky nonsense and there is honestly very little in between. Isle of Dogs fits a bit closer to the first option, but still has that humor and charm that makes me just so happy to watch it over and over.

Chief is an incredible character. Never before have we had such a deep animal character be the focus of a film and I love absolutely every moment with him. What a wonderfully written character. Best dog.

The film isn't without its faults though. I think the side plot with whatsherface trying to figure out everything is kind of... um... unneeded? It was... fine, but in a movie like this, fine isn't good enough, and it actively steals scenes away from the main plot that we all care more about. Due to the fact that we had this sub plot, we got less time with the other dogs and as such, they didn't really feel like fleshed out characters at all. If the whole movie was focused on the dogs and Atari, I really think it would have benefited from it. You have to change some things around with the plot of the film, but I absolutely think it was doable.

Thankfully, we get enough time with Chief that he still steals the show and overall the movie is just a damn good time with many laughs and fantastic movies that I'll never forget.

Johnbobb: There's so much to love about this film. The way Wes Anderson's direction bleeds into each shot in a way animated films rarely ever attempt. The incredible soundtrack. The dark (at times, almost painfully so) humor. It takes the simple premise of a boy searching for his lost dog and twists it in all sorts of complex and interesting ways, and I adore it.

Red: Isle of Dogs? That sounds awesome. Actually you quickly realize the whole concept was horribly depressing and needed to be fixed. This was actually a movie I meant to watch forever ago and somehow never got around to watching until this list was approaching. But most of the dogs are great, and while they are given human voices we are quickly informed with the intiial trash fight, which was pretty funny, that they are still very much dogs. Granted, they are mostly awesome dogs and they go on an adveture to thwart an evil politician and return dogs everywhere. They also cure themselves from a dog pandemic because timing.

Inviso: Despite the fact that this doesnt top my list the way Fantastic Mr. Fox did (Editors Note: Fantastic Mr. Fox actually got SECOND on my list for Western Animation 1), this was still an extremely commendable effort from Wes Anderson. The movie has subtle humor dispersed throughout, though its largely concentrated towards the beginning, and becomes more emotional and sentimental as the movie progresses. It would be so easy to tell a story of a boy who goes looking for his lost dog and finds a different dog along the way, but I think the choice to set the movie against a backdrop of political activism and unrest really gives it a unique twist. Its especially topical when you consider the filming began in 2016, right after the Brexit vote, and leading up to the Trump v. Clinton election. Ultimately though, its a heartfelt story about a boy and his dog, that gets subverted into that same boy with a very different (yet still similar) dog, and I feel like that middle chunk of the movie is very strong for the development of that relationship. The beginning is good comedy with an all-star voice cast, of course. And the ending is solid, with the evil vanquished by the metaphorical boy samurai through line of the film.

Karo: A weird Wes Anderson movie about a group of dogs who live on an abandoned trash filled island and speak in monotone voices. The film takes place in a bizarre and culturally insensitive version of Japan that seems like something that would exist in the mind of ignorant Trump supporters or in the world of South Park and it honestly makes me slightly uncomfortable.
Basically our canine heroes have to escape and try to stop the mayor of Japan from committing doggy genocide with the help of an American exchange student and her white savior storyline (also uncomfortable).
But the big failing lies in the characters, of the five main dogs only Chief has any personality whatsoever. They are also all male for some reason. There actually is a girl dog who appears in one scene and who had a ton of personality. She is in the movie all of five minutes. Yay for sexism.
I don't feel any real connection to the cast like I did in Fantastic Mr. Fox, and while the movie has the quirky charm typical of Anderson's stuff it doesn't feel as novel in style as his first animated film.
I love dogs, but Isle of Dogs left me wanting more on a number of levels. It is different from most animated films and that is admirable, but the heart that drove Mr. Fox is MIA here.

Evillord: I don't think Wes Anderson has ever made a bad movie, but his stuff tends to feel stylistically and thematically repetitive. Isle of Dogs was fun to watch and the dialog writing and direction were well-done, but I couldn't help but feel like it was snuggling too deeply into a firmly-established comfort zone.