Almost a decade after delivering the modern classic Fantastic Mr. Fox, writer/director Wes Anderson returns to stop-motion animation filmmaking with Isle of Dogs. Naturally he’s packed the film’s voice cast with an all-star lineup of stars and his regulars, as well as a few newcomers. Now for Fox Searchlight‘s trailer and the film’s synopsis…
Set in a dystopian future Japan where dogs have been outlawed due to a “dog flu” and have been quarantined on a remote island, Isle of Dogs follows a boy named Atari Kobayashi who ventures to the titular island to search for his dog, Spots. Atari receives help from five local dogs named Rex, King, Duke, Boss and Chief who are fed up with their isolated existence and must protect the boy from the Japanese authorities who have come to retrieve him.
Sold! I’ve loved Anderson’s films since Day One, but he seems to be firing on all cylinders lately. Even beyond the aforementioned Fantastic Mr. Fox, both 2012’s Moonrise Kingdom and 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel were absolutely delightful. The fact that he’s claimed his primary sources of influence on this one are the films of Rankin/Bass and Akira Kurosawa only further cements my interest. You couldn’t keep me away from this film with a stick of dynamite.
Isle of Dogs is an original stop-motion animated comedy. It is written and directed by Wes Anderson, from a story by Roman Coppola, Kunichi Nomura, Jason Schwartzmann, and Wes Anderson. The film is produced by Scott Rudin, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales, and Wes Anderson. It showcases the vocal talents of Bryan Cranston as ‘Chief’, Edward Norton as ‘Rex’, Bill Murray as ‘Boss’, Jeff Goldblum as ‘Duke’, Bob Balaban as ‘King’, and F. Murray Abraham as ‘Jupiter’. The voices of Kunichi Nomura, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Courtney B. Vance, Fisher Stevens, Mari Natsuki, Koyu Rankin, Harvey Keitel, Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Ken Watanabe, Akira Ito, Akira Takayama, Yojiro Noda, Frank Wood, and Yoko Ono also appear.
Isle of Dogs arrives in theaters on March 23rd, 2018.
