Isle of Dogs

Especially at a time when CGI-heavy visual effects bombard us, it's indeed heartening to experience an old-school animation film like this. It's one of the movies that should be experienced on the big screen to truly appreciate all the intricate details that have gone into creating it step-by-step. But it's also a movie that you'd want to own just to admire its beauty as every screenshot is a work of art worth hanging on your wall.

The animation is smooth, the characters are quite vivid and most of the dialogue are lightly comedic. The familiar voice cast helps keep the attachment going...

Director Wes Anderson's latest, despite featuring a talented voice cast that includes Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton and others doesn't have his usual bite.

Overall, despite a stretched narrative of 130 minutes, Isle of Dogs is a thought-provoking film that is worth a watch.

Like Anderson's 2007 film, The Darjeeling Limited, which set in India, Isle of Dogs has also been accused of cultural appropriation. Beyond the 'white saviour' trope of an American exchange student saving the day, one wonders if there's more to Anderson's decision of keeping Japanese uninterpreted. There is so much to be read in the film that Anderson's claim of it originating simply as the story of dogs in a trash island seems like a distant, unimaginable past.