Isle Of Dogs

I love the films of Wes Anderson and his quirky brand of directing has resulted in many of his works entering my faves of all time, especially The Royal Tenenbaums,. I also, as you all know, love Japanese culture, re: J-pop, J-Movies and of course J-Dramas, and I was excited to see this blend of two of my favorite things in Wes Anderson's latest film "Inu Gu Shima~Isle Of Dogs", a film about a Japanese boy going to rescue his dog when all dogs are exiled to an island due to a plague scare...

The first clip I ever saw of this movie was this excerpt of a sushi chef slicing and dicing up a plate of sushi, and I was thrilled by how great it looked...

I have to say though, having just finished watching the movie...that I was underwhelmed.
Sure, it was very detailed with bits of Japan,, but them being in Japan seemed so secondary. I mean, though the background characters speak Nihongo (with the voice of Frances McDormand voicing over the important parts in English) all the dogs not only speak only in English, but have English names. I'm not sure why this even needed to be set in Japan? And having the hero of the show be a feisty white girl exchange student just...bugged me?

Meh. Next time I feel like watching another stop-motion show from Anderson, I'll watch the infinitely superior Fantastic Mr. Fox again.
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com