top of page
neckfoothandwarcmu

Isle of Dogs: A Film Review and Analysis



In 2038, an outbreak of canine flu spreads throughout Japan, including the fictitious city of Megasaki, with the risk of becoming contagious to humans. The city's authoritarian mayor, Kenji Kobayashi, ratifies an official decree banishing all dogs to Trash Island, which is immediately approved despite the insistence of Professor Watanabe, the mayor's political opponent, who states he is close to creating a cure. The first deported canine is a white and black-spotted dog named Spots Kobayashi, who served as the bodyguard dog of 12-year-old orphan Atari Kobayashi, the mayor's distant nephew and ward.




Isle of Dogs




Six months later, Atari hijacks a plane and flies it to Trash Island (now nicknamed "Isle of Dogs") to search for Spots. After crash-landing, Atari is rescued by a dog pack ostensibly led by an all-black canine named Chief, a lifelong stray. With their help, Atari first finds a locked cage that apparently contains Spots' skeleton, but learns that it is not him. They then fend off a rescue team sent by Mayor Kobayashi to retrieve Atari. Atari decides to continue his search for Spots, and the pack decides to help him. Chief initially declines but is then convinced by Nutmeg, a female ex-show dog, to help the boy out of obligation. The pack seeks advice from sage-like dogs Jupiter and Oracle, who surmise that Spots might be held captive by an isolated tribe of dogs rumored to be cannibals.


Meanwhile, Watanabe finally develops a successful serum and shows the results to Kobayashi, who only dismisses him. The professor objects, only to be put under house arrest and killed by a piece of poisoned sushi by order of the mayor's hatchet man, Major Domo. Tracy Walker, an American exchange student and member of a pro-dog activist group, suspects a conspiracy and begins to investigate. In the process of investigating, she gains feelings for Atari. Kobayashi and his political party are revealed to actually be responsible for the dog flu outbreak, seeking to eliminate the dogs after Kobayashi's cat-loving ancestors tried to do 1,000 years previously; they were foiled by a child samurai resembling Atari.


During their journey, Chief and Atari are separated from the others. Atari gives Chief a bath, revealing his white and black-spotted coat and thus his striking resemblance to Spots. The two bond and rejoin the rest of the pack, and are saved by Spots and the dog tribe from another rescue team. Spots confirms that he is Chief's older brother and that he was rescued by the tribe, who were test subjects from a secret lab that was abandoned after a tsunami. Spots became their leader and mated with a female tribe member named Peppermint, who is pregnant with their first litter. Because of these circumstances, Spots requests for Atari to transfer his protection duties to Chief. Chief is initially hesitant, but both he and Atari accept, and bodyguard duties are officially transferred to Chief. An owl later brings word that Kobayashi has rounded up all the exiled dogs and plans to exterminate them with poison gas.


Tracy confronts Watanabe's closest colleague Yoko Ono, who confirms Tracy's conspiracy theories and gives her the last vial of serum. At his re-election ceremony, Kobayashi prepares to give the extermination order when Tracy presents her evidence of his corruption. Kobayashi proceeds to deport Tracy, but before he can do so, Atari and the dogs arrive. They confirm the serum works by testing it on Chief and curing him. Atari addresses the crowd and recites a haiku he wrote and dedicated to Kobayashi, rekindling the sympathy that once existed between dogs and humans. Touched by Atari's words, Kobayashi officially rescinds the dog ban. Enraged, Major Domo yells at Mayor Kobayashi for breaking the Mayor's campaign promise and tries to kill Kobayashi and initiate the extermination himself, but thanks to Spots and the activists, Domo's plans are thwarted. Atari and Spots become gravely injured during the struggle and are taken to a hospital, where Kobayashi donates one of his kidneys to save his nephew. It is later revealed that while Kobayashi did win the election, he won't hold office because he was caught in a scandal. Therefore, all mayoral powers and authorities will transfer to his next-in-line, Atari.


One month later, Atari officially becomes the new mayor of Megasaki, and has all dogs reintegrated into society and cured of the dog flu, while Kobayashi and his propagandists and co-conspirators are sent to jail for political corruption, doing 30 days of community service, and paying fines of no less than 250,000 while Major-Domo faces a possible death sentence. Tracy and Atari become a couple, while Chief and Nutmeg become their bodyguard dogs and begin a relationship. Meanwhile, Spots (recovering from his injuries) has had a statue erected in his honor and resumes raising his litter with Peppermint under the care of a priest at a Shinto temple.


In October 2015, Anderson, who had previously directed the animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox, announced he would be returning to the art form with "a film about dogs"[11] starring Edward Norton, Bryan Cranston and Bob Balaban.[12][13] Anderson has said that he was inspired by seeing a road sign for the Isle of Dogs in England while Fantastic Mr. Fox was in development.[14] Anderson said that the film was strongly influenced by the films of Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki, as well as the stop-motion animated holiday specials made by Rankin/Bass Productions, the 1982 animated film The Plague Dogs, and Disney's 101 Dalmatians.[15]


Following the building of the Docks (especially the West India Docks and the adjacent City Canal), and with an increasing population, locals increasingly referred to the area as The Island. This area includes Millwall, Cubitt Town, and Blackwall. The south of the isle opposite Greenwich was once known as North Greenwich, now applied to the area around the Millennium Dome on the Greenwich Peninsula. Between 1986 and 1992 it enjoyed a brief formal existence, as the name Isle of Dogs was applied to one of seven neighbourhoods to which power was devolved from the council. The neighbourhood was later abolished.[6]


In the future, an outbreak of canine flu leads the mayor of a Japanese city to banish all dogs to an island that's a garbage dump. The outcasts must soon embark on an epic journey when a 12-year-old boy arrives on the island to find his beloved pet.


Isle of Dogs follows Atari Kobayashi, the 12-year-old ward of the mayor of Megasaki City, who goes in search of his pet, Spots, after the city exiles all dogs to a vast garbage dump to mitigate an outbreak of dog flu. Anderson directs from his own screenplay, based on a story by Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomura. Anderson assembled an all-star voice cast that includes Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Jeff Goldblum, Frances McDormand, F. Murray Abraham, Yoko Ono and Tilda Swinton. Opening in limited release March 23, the film expands to a full national release as of April 6 from Fox Searchlight.


This most popular and persistent explanation of the origin of the name Isle of Dogs states that it is where the king kept his hunting dogs while he was residing at Greenwich Palace. Various kings are named in the different flavours of this theory, from Edward III through Henry VIII to Charles II. I think the occasional Queen gets a look-in too.


The fertile story of the Marsh here is much admired, usually known by the name of the Isle of Dogs; so called, because when our former Princes made Greenwich their country seat, and used it for hunting, (they say) the kennels for their dogs were kept on this marsh, which usually making a great noise, the seamen and others thereupon called the place the Isle of Dogs.


Similar traditions have also named the hunting dogs as belonging to Charles II. We can discount them immediately, Charles II was born 1630, more than a century after the first written mention of the name Isle of Dogs!


The old definition can also be seen in other place names. The first mention of Houndsditch, for example, was in 1399, and was named after the dead dogs (i.e. of the general variety) that were thrown in the ditch outside the city wall. If it was named a century later, it would probably have been called Dogsditch. Pre-1500 London names such as Black Dog Alley and Dog House Fields were references to guard or hunting dogs.


The hunting dog theory would have us believe that the king kept his hunting dogs on a small island which was opposite Deptford, and not opposite Greenwich, the location of his palace. This at a time when the island (as we know it now) was largely marshland, prone to flooding and wild fowl were the only game.


Some varieties of the theory suggest that the king hunted further north, off the Island, past the River Lea, and that the hunting dogs were more conveniently kept over the river from the palace, to be picked up on the way. What is convenient about keeping the dogs not opposite the palace, and removed from the only road northwards towards the River Lea (a road which started at the location of the later Ferry House)? Why was it convenient to keep dogs there, but not the hunting horses? 2ff7e9595c


0 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Baixar Free Fire Max 2.93.1

Como Baixar Free Fire MAX 2.93.1 para Android Se você é fã de jogos battle royale, já deve ter ouvido falar Free Fire MÁX, uma versão...

Commentaires


!
Widget Didn’t Load
Check your internet and refresh this page.
If that doesn’t work, contact us.
bottom of page