April 18, 2018 – Isle of Dogs, which opened in some cities last month, finally made it to Laramie last week, so I went to see it on discount day at a local theater. I was expecting a strange movie, because it is a Wes Anderson film, and it doesn't disappoint in that regard.

On odd thing about this film is that a significant amount of the dialog is in the Japanese language, with no subtitles, but in some other scenes, there are English subtitles, or English translations. It is a real mixed bag. Like “Lost in Translation,” Bill Murray is in this film, and the theme of “failure to communicate” is prominent.

This stop-motion animated film reminded me a lot of an earlier Anderson animated film, “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” I think I like Isle of Dogs a bit better than that, but I like both a lot less than Anderson's “Moonrise Kingdom,” which remains my favorite Anderson film by far. I am just not into Anderson's OCD production designs, his recurring themes of dysfunctional families, wounded, struggling people, and his unique brand of ironic, bittersweet, deadpan humor, for the most part. Full appreciation of Anderson's films require an acquired taste that eludes me.

Anderson wrote the screenplay for this film, but the story, as usual for him, is a collaboration with others, in this case, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomura. In this story, the powerful dog-hating Japanese family, Kobayashi, has conspired to exile all dogs to a garbage island near Megasaki City. Apparently, the family likes cats (anybody heard of ailurophobia?).

A young boy, Atari, flies an airplane to the island to try to find his exiled guard dog, Spots. There, he is befriended by a pack of dogs, who mostly agree to help him. One of the dogs, a stray named Chief, resists helping the boy, but eventually befriends him. There are some nice scenes between these two. At the same time, there are some very dark themes in this story as well, including murder.

Mayor Kobayashi is determined to kill all the dogs, by using propaganda to stir up public sentiment against them. He plans to poison all the dogs on the island. Atari and the dogs learn of this and race to stop Kobayashi's evil plan. Obviously, there are a number of references to pop culture in the character names used in this film.

I see some political metaphors in this film, with a corrupt leader stirring up hatred and division, using scapegoats, and xenophobia to heighten tensions, fear and mistrust (sound familiar?). This is a funny film, but the ironic humor is offset by murder, corruption, lies, bitterness, disappointment, betrayal and distrust. The story's resolution allows for some healing, but the wounds are too deep for a full recovery. This is a very bittersweet story.

Like all Anderson films, there is a quirky soundtrack, which includes songs from the last century, including the very offbeat, but affecting song, “I Won't Hurt You,” performed by The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (1966). It also includes songs from Akira Kurosawa films. This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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