Isle of Dogs 2018

     The dogs in the city of Megasaki Japan are suffering from an outbreak of dog flu.  It has spread through the city and Mayor Kobayashi has ordered all dogs are to be sent to Trash Island.  Atari is a young boy and he sets out alone in a small plane to find his dog Spots.  Atari is the mayor’s ward, he is an orphan and his parents were killed in a tragic accident.  He encounters five other dogs and they agree to help Atari find Spots.  Atari is very lonely and he is hoping to find his best friend Spots.

     This may be the most unusual film I have ever watched??  It can be described as focused, detailed and Wes Anderson-ey.  The talking dogs are so FUNNY!!  Their circumstances and situation is not funny at all.  I can see why Atari really wants to find his dog!!  The scenery of Trash Island shows how desperate a situation this is for the dogs!!  There is a huge contrast between this Island and how beautiful the imagery of  Megasaki is.  There is LOTS of detail to take in with just one viewing!!  3 ½* (I liked this movie) 

101 min, Animation directed by Wes Anderson with the voices of Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Kunichi Nomura, Akira Takayama, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Akira Ito, Scarlett Johansson, Harvey Keitel, Yoko Ono.

Note:  Imdb 7.9 out of 10, 89% critic 88% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 1 ½*, Common Sense Media age 11+, Positive Messages 3*, Positive Role Models 3*, Violence 4*, Sex 2*, Language 2*, no Consumerism, Metacritic 82 out of 100 with 55 critics 8.1 out of 10 with 344 reviews, The Telegraph 4* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in the UK.  This movie was filmed by stop motion and a team of 670 people did 13,000 still photographs.  Most of this team worked previously with Wes Anderson on Fantastic Mr. Fox of 2009.  Anderson hosted a competition for the voice cast for this film.  The only requirement was to donate ten dollars or more to the Film Foundation.  This is a non-profit founded by Martin Scorsese.  It specializes in the preservation and restoration of film around the world.  Jeff Goldblum was faced with scheduling conflicts and he recorded his lines of the phone in California.  The title is a play on words.  Said quickly and fluidly it sounds like “I love dogs.”  It only works in English and loses the meaning in the Japanese pronunciation of Kanji, “inu ga shima.”  Megasaki City is a word-play on the city name of Nagasaki.