Isle of Dogs is Wes Anderson’s stop-motion take on Saving Private Ryan. We’re on board.
The first trailer of Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs is here and contains all of the trademarks that made Fantastic Mr. Fox one of his greatest accomplishments. The story takes place in a futuristic Japan, where an influx of dogs has led to the development of a deadly ‘dog flu’. In order to save the population of Japan that dogs are shipped off to what was previously known as Trash Island. Now it has a name, Isle of Dogs and Japan’s dogs must learn to survive in their new habitat.
There is an additional problem. A young man by the name Atari Kobayashi is on a journey to retrieve his dog that was sent away. It’s difficult to say no to a twelve-year-old, so a group of dogs assists Atari on his journey to find his missing canine. Finding a lost ally in a place torn asunder? Sounds similar to Saving Private Ryan to me. Included in the mix of fantastical characters is a love interest for our adventuring young man, an evil mayor by the name Mayor Kobayashi, and plenty of ragtag dogs that are voiced by some of the highest quality voice actors around.
It wouldn’t be a Wes Anderson movie if it didn’t include a massive cast of some of the best-known actors working today. Of course, he brings his friends along and includes some new voices as well. The cast includes Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Tilda Swinton, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Liev Schreiber, F. Murray Abraham, Courtney B. Vance, Bob Balaban, and Yoko Ono.
Isle of Dogs has not hidden its intention to draw inspiration for Akira Kurosawa. Anderson has gone on record to state the director’s influence on the new film. There is also nods to the director on some of the promotional material released thus far.
It is incredibly ironic that Wes Anderson has decided to make a new movie featuring dogs. Let’s just say he has a history of killing them off in many of his movies. Isle of Dogs will give him plenty of opportunities to continue his wicked dog killing streak, but maybe we’ll be surprised and all the good dogs will survive.
We’ll find out when Isle of Dogs comes out on March 23rd, 2018.