Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Isle of Dogs

July 30, 2018

Isle of Dogs - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack
 Video on Demand

Isle of Dogs

Isle of Dogs is the latest movie by Wes Anderson. It is a stop-motion animated film that had one of the best theater averages of the year during its opening weekend and is one of the best limited release hits of 2018. Is it also one of the best limited release hits? Or did it get by on star power?

The Movie

The film begins with a brief prologue about how the free dogs of Japan were defeated in battle and how the Age of Obedience began. They also talk about a hero, a young boy, who betrayed his species in order to save the dogs from total annihilation. Dogs became pets and man’s best friend. However, the leader of the human army, the Kobayashi clan, never forgave the betrayal.

Flash forward to the 2030s and the city of Megasaki. Mayor Kobayashi is warning the citizens of an outbreak of dog flu, which could spread to the human population. His solution is to round up and exile all dogs to the Trash Isle. There are some who don’t agree with him, notably Professor Watanabe, who claims the exile is cruel and unscientific and if he is as close to a cure as he believes, it is also unnecessary. The crowd is unmoved by the professor and demand the Mayor’s plan is implemented immediately. Kobayashi agrees and as a sign of solidarity, sends his family’s guard dog, Spots, away as the first dog to be exiled.

Six months later and the dogs have gotten weaker and sicker due to living on a trash pile, but the humans are just using their condition as proof that they all have Dog Flu. We meet a pack of dogs, Chief, Rex, King, Boss, and Duke. All of them, were indoor dogs that were pampered and are now on the verge of falling apart, both mentally and physically. All of them, except for Chief. He was a stray and as a result, he’s holding up better than the rest.

After a brief appearance by Nutmeg, a purebred female dog that seems to have missed the memo that the dogs of Trash Island look like a mess, there’s a plane crash. The pilot of the plane survives and it is a young boy, Atari Kobayashi, the ward of Mayor Kobayashi, and he’s here for Spots. We learn in a flashback that Atari was in a train crash that killed both of his parents, but he was adopted by Mayor Kobayashi and given Spots as a guard dog. A guard dog. Not a pet. However, they clearly bonded, as Atari was willing to fly to Trash Island to rescue his beloved dog. The pack we meet is willing to help him, mostly (Chief is not interested in helping any human.) but when they get their first lead where Spots might be, we run into spoilers.

Recently, I saw someone talking about The Grand Budapest Hotel and how they hated that movie. They hated it, because they lived in Budapest and the movie’s portrayal of the city is completely detached from reality. When they were talking about that, my immediate thought was, “Oh yeah, Budapest is a real place.” I’m not an idiot; I knew Budapest was a real place, but Wes Anderson’s movies are so strange that I don’t consider them as taking place in the real world. People in real life just don’t act like characters in Wes Anderson movies do. I never considered how people who live in the real world places that are used as backdrops would react to how they are portrayed in the movie. This is such a big issue in this film that even people who don’t live in Japan might still have problems with this aspect of the movie. Isle of Dogs isn’t the worst offender in this case, I would argue The Darjeeling Limited is the worst offender, but this is close. The Japanese villains are caricatures and not real people.

On the other hand, if you say to yourself, “This is not a movie about Japanese people. It’s a movie set in an alternate reality that just happens to have some Japanese aesthetic elements thrown in.” then there’s more to recommend, assuming you are a fan of Wes Anderson movies and stop-motion animated films. There are a lot of caveats in this review. What I’m trying to say is there’s a very specific target audience for this movie. If you don’t like Wes Anderson as a filmmaker, then this movie isn’t going change that opinion. It has the same quirks that nearly all of his films have. Unfortunately, I think it is one of his weaker films and I consider it the weakest since The Darjeeling Limited. The characters are just not as engaging as they are in other films by the writer / director and this makes the usual quirks a little more irritating than endearing.

I’m not saying Isle of Dogs is a bad movie, far from it. If you love Wes Anderson and his filmography, then this movie will almost certainly be one of your favorites of the year. If you only merely like his work and prefer his more grounded films, then maybe try a rental first.

The Extras

Extras are limited to a series of six featurettes, with a total running time of 21 minutes. That’s disappointingly low. Most of the featurettes are behind-the-scenes / making of featurettes, some focusing on the animators, the puppets, the sets, the cast, etc. They are worth checking out, I just would have liked them to be longer and more in-depth.

The Verdict

Isle of Dogs is a very good movie that will almost certainly appeal to its target audience. It doesn’t have as wide mainstream appeal as Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Fantastic Mr. Fox, etc. There are not a lot of extras on the DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack, but it is worth picking up for fans of Wes Anderson.

Filed under: Video Review, Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson, Bob Balaban, Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Kunichi Nomura, Akira Ito, Koyu Rankin