FFS Movie #2: Isle of Dogs

Isle of Dogs is Wes Anderson's most recent movie (released in 2018) and fits into my theme of Rotten Tomatoes' highest rated movies directed by Wes Anderson (that I haven't already seen). I watched this movie second because it has a higher rating than Bottle Rocket, which I watched first, and a lower rating than The Grand Budapest Hotel, which I'll watch next. I wanted to see how each of these movies sized up against each other and if I could notice any qualities that would make it clear why one is considered "better" than another. I guess I'm saving the best for last, although I have so enjoyed the first two with the lower ratings.

In essence, this movie is about a boy, Atari, going on a quest to find his dog. On a Japanese island called Megasaki ruled by this tyrannical mayor, all dogs are banished to "Trash Island" because of a dog-flu infecting the population. The mayor's son runs away to rescue his protector, his best friend, his dog, from Trash Island, and  enlists the help of other dogs to find him. Meanwhile, in Megasaki, there is an election between the incumbent mayor and the scientist leading the search for a dog-flu cure who insists that the mayor is maliciously misinforming the public to turn them against dogs forever. I'll just say that it was sort of eerie to see movie characters wearing masks and talking about this "unprecedented outbreak" that requires the dogs to quarantine while referring to "Dog Zero." 

There were a lot of ways that this movie was a lot like Bottle Rocket -- and by extension, all of his other movies. Composition is always a huge part of his films, and there was a shot where the rule of thirds came up when 2/3 of the frame was filled with trash from Trash Island and a mountain with a mysterious dog perched on top in the top 1/3 of the frame. In Bottle Rocket, there was the shot I discussed in my review of 2/3 of the frame filled with grass as a car rolls in, small, in the top 3rd. There was also the token Wes Anderson shot of a direct overhead shot of a master plan, this time entitled, "Top Secret Attack," that the mayor (who I thought looked eerily like Charles Foster Kane) was planning to set into action against the dogs. The essence of the plan was "Top Secret" was laid out so plainly and boldly in the title, offering a bit of that subtle humor he's so good at. In Bottle Rocket, Dignan presented Anthony with his plan for the major "HEIST" they were about to pull off. Silly, silly. There was also the comical, almost pointless portrayal of violence: in Bottle Rocket, the men shooting the guns or holding them against the hostages of their heists just seemed goofy and blundering, like they may either shoot themselves in the foot or drop the gun. Though the weapons themselves are scary, the plinky-plunky music playing over the shooting montage and the close-ups on the guns being shot reduce that greatly; in Isle of Dogs, the big brawls between the dogs are always enveloped in white cotton that mixes about as different dog legs and tails and snouts poke out of it (photo below). 

One little moment I want to mention because of how charming it was was when Chief, the black stray dog that greatly disliked Atari at first and wanted nothing to do with him, was left to temporarily supervise and guide Atari alone on his quest to find Spot (his dog). While walking through a gross industrial plant on Trash Island, Atari stumbled upon a rusty old slide he really wanted to slide down. He wasn't tall enough, though, and Chief made that very clear to him as he crushed his hopes of riding the slide. Atari inched back into the frame after Chief walked on, though, and made his way to the stairs that led up to the slide. Chief came back and gruffly told him no, but maintaining eye contact, Atari defiantly stepped up one step. Chief glared and said "noooo" and, after a pause and more eye contact and silence, Atari stepped up another step in total defiance. I thought this little moment was a hilarious role reversal of how dogs and people normally interact. I constantly find myself calling my dogs inside, only for them to stare me in the face and then run away from me. The dog took on the role of looking out for the seemingly helpless boy and the boy got distracted and wanted to ride the slide, much like a dog in real life might chase a squirrel or bird or stick out of the blue. It was just a really goofy, sweet moment. 

In terms of what makes this movie one of his best, there are a lot of feasible reasons. A big one, I think, is the sheer amount of characters Anderson included and made figurines for. There were nearly 900 dogs and people that had to be hand-molded, individually hair-poked, painted, and arranged. See this video for more on that -- it's super interesting! Because it was stop motion, there were also really quirky moments where a dog would shake dust off of himself and the dust would fall to the ground like gray cotton wisps that were clearly tangible clouds of something or other. When the dogs got in brawls, they were enveloped in a churning ball of white cotton or pillow stuffing material. That tangible aspect of what would normally be just wind or dust was such a unique effect that helped to characterize the movie. 

It was also fascinating how he used the foreign location and language as a storytelling technique and not just a plot descriptor. There were subtitles occasionally, but for the most part there was either a physical character translating Japanese to English on-screen or we just had to infer the meaning of the untranslated Japanese from tonality and facial expressions. This is actually one of the scenes I'd like to analyze: Atari is brought into this cave by dogs made from colorful bottles after he was knocked out in a plane accident, and when he comes to, the dogs are all standing around him. Atari gets angry because of the dog-eviction order, obviously, and starts yelling and storming about in Japanese. He's centered and in the middle-ground while the dogs are flanking him on either side in the foreground, almost have an aside with the audience as they whisper, "I wish somebody spoke his language." It's this sort of mirroring that the dogs do of the audience's thoughts that adds humor and a connection for the audience who might otherwise feel isolated and distant from the characters because of the language barrier. Later on in this scene, the boy is pacing about while the dogs have a conference about whether or not to help him find his dog, Spot. They are backlit, their heads and chests shadowed against the bright bottle wall behind them. 

One really neat thing I just figured out is that, in the video I linked, they discuss how they made 4 different dog molds in terms of differing shape of snout, head, size, etc. There were four dogs in this scene (and for that matter, four main dogs who help him throughout the whole movie) that all had different physical characteristics, even in the darkness, so it was easy enough to tell who was who when we could only see their outlines. What a clever touch, and so effective. It made the discussion really shrouded in secrecy as they tried to hide their "democratic" conversation from the boy. This chat was several minutes long and could have easily gotten boring to watch and listen to, but the cheekiness of the dogs' characters paralleled with the bright colors behind the dogs made it really fun and engaging to listen to and watch for the whole duration of the scene. 

I really think the use of language is what makes this movie so unique and interesting. I watched a video  analyzing its purpose within a storytelling lens and it made a really good point about how the untranslated Japanese washing over the audience that leaves us staring dumbly at the characters, trying to make out facial expressions and tonality, is similar to how a dog would feel when a person speaks to it. It's that kind of divide between the species that is so essential to the central conflict of the movie that is then bridged when Spot and Atari have little headsets that translate for one another. This illustrates the close relationship between the two of them, building up exigence for Atari to actually go and find Spot. It's incredible how language is used to be so essential to the story line and character relationships without ever being really directly mentioned (besides the one dog aside I mentioned above).