A “dog flu” is rampant among the canines in the Japanese city of Megasaki. Mayor Kobayashi, leader of a dynasty of inveterate cat-lovers, orders all the dogs banished to Trash Island—beginning with his family’s dog, Spots. Well, actually the dog of his orphaned nephew, Atari. The 12-year-old boy absconds with a propeller plane and crashes it on the “exile colony,” the only person brave—or foolish—enough to try to recover his canine friend.
So begins director Wes Anderson’s great new film “Isle of Dogs” (sounds like “I love dogs” if you say it aloud), an epic stop-motion puppet animated adventure. The setup can bring to mind our present political moment of strongmen (or wannabe strongmen) and bigotry and deportations and refugees. Though those subjects rest mainly in the background. In the foreground, this is another of Anderson’s melancholy fables of bad dads and their sons who stumble along trying to piece back together their broken hearts.
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Let’s stipulate that if you’re not a fan of the way Anderson collages together references and influences into rococo Joseph Cornell dream-box nostalgia extravaganzas this film will not change your mind. If you are a fan, you’ll want to nominate this confection for Oscars. It’s a moving and funny film that’s also entertaining to little kids.
In “Isle of Dogs,” a pack of five scruffy misfit mutts (voiced by Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Jeff Goldblum and Bryan Cranston) find the boy. “Are we eating him or is this a rescue?” former little league mascot Boss (Murray) asks.
It’s a rescue. So instead of continuing to squabble over trash bags of rotting food, they set off on a “Dirty Dozen”/“Seven Samurai” journey across the post-apocalyptic island—strewn with references to “Godzilla” as well as the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown. They set off to help Atari track down his lost dog—if Spots is still alive.
Anderson conceived “Isle of Dogs” with Kunichi Nomura (who voices the mayor), Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman. The dogs speak English and the Japanese characters speak Japanese, but somehow the film doesn’t feel very diverse. Some Japanese-speakers have criticized Anderson’s references as stereotypes and the Japanese dialogue for being simplistic. But you don’t have to speak Japanese to sense the problem. At the center of the cast—an excellent cast—is a group of older white dudes. Female characters are sidekicks, mates, consciences, like the sexy showdog (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) who urges a rebel mutt to be more kind. And, goodness, must the Japanese city’s savior be a little white exchange student from Ohio? I generally love Anderson’s films—this one included—so I wish I wasn’t worrying that the pleasurable nostalgia he conjures wasn’t also somehow maybe betraying a longing for a return to a bygone whiter, maler America.
So … “Isle of Dogs” is a boy adventure story—of self-discovery and self-sacrifice. Chief (Cranston), the stray dog who rejects all masters (“I’m telling you I don’t fetch”), confesses that when he was caught once he tried to connect with a boy whose family took him in. But he ended up biting him instead. Who knows why?
“I bite,” Chief says repeatedly. Early on, it comes across as a snarled threat. Later, it feels like a warning to keep away because he’s so lost and broken that he doesn’t know what bad things he might do. The film is a story of wounded people fearing what they’ll do if they let anyone get close again.
The pack finds menacing robot dogs, buzzing drones, cruel animal experiments, long-lost siblings, dastardly conspiracies, tasty dog treats, puppies. There are separations and reunions, reversals and revelations, humor and delight (one scene has to be a shout out to “Harry the Dirty Dog”), changes of heart and even a satisfyingly happy ending.
“How does it feel to be a former stray?” Chief gets asked at the end. He replies in the bruised but hopeful language of 12-step recovery: “I take it one day at a time.”
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