Butler's Cinema Scene

“ISLE OF DOGS” My rating: B

101 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

So much is going on in Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs” that it’s hard to wrap one’s head around it.

Perhaps it’s best to let our eyes do all the work, for this is one astoundingly beautiful animated film.

Shot with the same stop-motion techniques as Anderson’s earlier effort, “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” this new entry employs the filmmaker’s usual deadpan humor with gorgeous Japanense-inspired designs and a yarn about human/canine relations.

It’s part sci-fi, part “Old Yeller.”

In an introductory segment designed to look like Japanense screens and woodcuts and propelled by throbbing Japanese drumming, an unseen narrator (Courtney B.  Vance) relates how, after an outbreak of “dog flu” and “snout fever,” all canines in the city were banished by the cat-loving Mayor Kobayashi, head of the ruling Kobayashi clan.

The dogs were transported to an island of trash off the coast where they learned to dig through the refuse for sustenance.

But not all humans are anti-dog.  A few still long for the days of “man’s best friend”; a pro-pup scientist is even developing a cure for dog flu.

The plot proper (the screenplay is by Anderson, who developed the story with Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomura) kicks in with the arrival of Atari, the ward of the Mayor who has stolen a plane and crash landed on the Isle of Dogs in search of Spots, his beloved guard dog, who was torn from him by the canine exodus.

The boy immediately teams up with a quartet of puzzled pooches (voiced by Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray and Jeff Goldblum) and the suspicious Chief (Bryan Cranston), who understandably nurses a bad case of anti-human sentiment.What ensues is a long trek across the island’s bizarre, junk-strewn landscapes, alternating with the machinations back in the city of Mayor Kobayashi, his cadaverous fixer Major-Domo, and a young American exchange student (Greta Gerwig) who is fomenting a young people’s rebellion against the dog-hating, fear-mongering status quo.

With its quest-like plot elements and emphasis on young people standing up for what’s right, “Isle of Dogs” sometimes resembles “Moonlight Kingdom” (in my book Anderson’s greatest film). The big payoff, of course, finds the boy and his dog (Liev Schreiber) reunited.

What gives the film its real drive, though, is the droll humor in which it has been soaked.  The dogs converse in English (the human characters all speak Japanese, usually with subtitles) and they do a pretty good job of imitating  teens hanging around a 7-Eleven. Even better is the spectacular character animation, which gives them such subtle facial gestures (usually in the eyes) that we can perfectly read their emotions. (By contrast, young Akira is like a porcelain doll whose features don’t give much away.)

The cast is deep in celebrity voices (Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johansson, Harvey Keitel, F. Murray Abraham, Yoko Ono, Tilda Swinton, Ken Watanabe, Fisher Stevens, Anjelica Huston) though in very few instances are they instantly recognizable.

In fact, that’s one of the film’s major shortcomings….there’s very little sense of individual personality in the characters (villains excluded).

That’s compensated for by the brilliant art design, deft animation (TV programs within the film are rendered in flat comic book anime style) and Anderson’s offbeat sense of humor.

| Robert W. Butler