Review 443: Isle of Dogs

Isle of Dogs is a whimsical, delightful & charming stop-motion animated film and another  from Wes Anderson.

In a dystopian near-future Japan, a dog flu virus spreads throughout the canine population.
The mayor of Megasaki City signs a decree banishing all dogs to a vast garbage-dump called Trash Island despite scientist Professor Watanabe (Akira Ito) insisting he's close to finding a cure.
12-year-old Atari, the orphaned nephew and ward of the mayor sets off alone in a miniature Junior-Turbo Prop and flies across the river in search of his bodyguard-dog Spots (Liev Schreiber).
There, with the assistance of a pack of five dogs: Rex (Edward Norton), King (Bob Balaban), Duke (Jeff Goldblum), Boss (Bill Murray) and Chief (Bryan Cranston), Atari begins an epic journey that will decide the fate and future of the entire Prefecture.

The plot is equal parts remarkable and imaginative
According to Cranston, Isle of Dogs is an allegory for disenfranchisement

Wes Anderson's animation direction is, the score by Alexandre Desplat is beautiful, the production design is stupendous and laced with detail, the puppets are superbly crafted and designed, the dystopian, futuristic Japanese setting is vibrant and rich with detail

Bryan Cranston, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, F, Murray Abraham, Angelica Huston, Ken Watanabe, Tilda Swinton. There's even this gangster dog voiced by Harvey Keitel.

Cranston, Murray, Goldblum, Norton, Balaban in particular are superb in their roles mainly because they're basically playing parodies of themselves and they're clearly having fun with their parts.