Weekly Film - Isle of Dogs


The isle of dogs is a 2018 stop motion comedy drama which was directed by Wes anderson. It is set in Japan, 20 years into the future where dog fever is at epidemic proportions and is threatening to cross the specious barrier. The mayor of the town outlaws all dogs to trash island. Our story takes place when a 'young pilot' flies to the island to try and find his lost dog Spots.

The first thing i would like to talk about with this film is the fact its stop motion. This style of animation is uncommon in Hollywood films as its long and tedious but allows the team to focus on every little detail and that is clearly shown in the film. The dogs are ragged and the fur on them looks greasy and dirty, this tells the audience that the dogs have been here for a long time and that this place truly is filthy. The animators also deliberately missed out frames in order to give the animation that ragged feel which gives the effect of creepiness.

The cinematography in this film is beautiful. Wes Anderson's main motif is square symmetrical shots which are definitely present in this film. The use of this massively helps the audience understand where characters are or travelling to. It also establishes the scene and can also be used for comic effect. An example where this square wide shot is used for comedy is when they are describing the flue and we get a drawn out long shot of a single dog sitting on a mountain then a pause then he sneezes. The comedic timing of this also massively helps the joke.

The character design in this film is outstanding and really helps the audience connect with each character. Each character has a backstory and each of these backstories can be subtly hinted at through the use of character design. An example of this is that one of the dogs is from a baseball team and his collar has a baseball on it. This subtly reminds the audience that although these dogs are stray they still have that human connection back at home. The city scape is also designed really well and also makes the audience believe we are in japan in the future as there are always small details in every shot that shows us this. An obscure example is that even on trash island there are small stacks of newspapers which are written in japanese.

The main character, Chief, is voiced by Bryan Cranston. The way he voices the dog in the beginning of the film is really impact full as you could tell just by his voice that he is a stray as he sounds grouchy and more raspy than the others. The decision to only have the dogs speak english and occasionally some humans worked really well as it made you feel closer to the characters you could understand. It fit in perfectly with the tone of the film.

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