Heartwarming and comedic, well-developed characters, and hard work- that’s how to describe the new movie “Isle of Dogs.”
This action-packed, stop-motion movie released in March managed to score a 92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It has a combination of English and Japanese speaking actors, including Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, Akira Ito, and Akira Takayama.
The movie tells an endearing and suspense-filled story in which infected dogs overrun Japan’s streets. They begin to dump the canines on Trash Island (the name speaks for itself). The plot continues as a young boy named Atari Kobayashi (Koyu Rankin) ventures onto the island in search of his dog, Spots (Liev Schreiber). He is found and accompanied by a pack of dogs on the island, led by a reserved and aggressive leader with street dog origins named Chief (Bryan Cranston). With well put together mystery, action, and comedy, this dystopian-esque movie is a definite recommendation.
One of the major things about this film that made it so impressive was its use of multimedia to tell the story. Not only did it showcase impressive stop-motion animation (which is hard and grueling enough), but there were snippets of 2D animated scenes in the movie in places such as TV screens for added creative flair.
The characters and humor were a huge part of why the movie was so endearing as well. Each had his/her own different, contrasting personalities that were easy to take a liking to, and the subtle jokes weren’t forced onto the audience. The whole show tied together exceptionally well with each character contributing to the success of the whole film.
There weren’t too many cons to the movie at all, and the few that were present weren’t a big issue. One major one was that it was a little too predictable how it would turn out (no spoilers). This, however, was not as much of an issue as it would have been in a film that was not crafted as well as “Isle of Dogs” overall. There were very few negative aspects of the movie at all, which explains why it had such a high rating and positive feedback.
Overall, this movie is one hundred percent recommended. Since the movie is rated PG-13, it would be advised for parents not to take their young kids to see this, having mild violence and swearing. That being said, teens and older children would enjoy this movie. Even adults could be entertained by this movie. With a positive message from the majority of people who watched it, this movie is a highly recommended watch.
