Isle Of Dogs (2018)

In a futuristic Japan, the mayor (Kunichi Nomura) of an island nation bans all dogs, ostensibly because of a canine "flu", to an abandoned island called Trash Island. A young boy (Koyu Rankin) steals a plane and flies to the island to locate his beloved dog (Liev Schreiber). Written and directed by Wes Anderson (GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL). I was a great fan of Anderson's previous stop motion animated film THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX so I was really looking forward to this one. I was not disappointed. This is a wonderful movie. Anderson's film works on two levels. Purely as an animated family film, it's vivid and colorful and full of charm and humor. But it also works as a fable about corrupt governments intentionally manufacturing fear and discrimination to suit their own agenda. This isn't Pixar, it's pretty dark but also poignant and yes, rather sweet. The film is propelled by a fantastic percussion score by Alexander Desplat, who should pick up another Oscar for this. The only thing that bugged me was that all the bad guys were cat lovers ..... hmmm. The prestigious voice cast includes Bill Murray, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Jeff Goldblum, Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Greta Gerwig, Harvey Keitel, Tilda Swinton, F. Murray Abraham, Yoko Ono, Ken Watanabe and Courtney B. Vance who does the narration.