ISLE OF DOGS

If you've ever watched a Wes Anderson film before, you'll sort of know what to expect with each new film he delivers; a quirky story, a bunch of oddball characters, an impressively talented ensemble cast and an immaculately shot feature presentation. Isle of Dogs is his latest offering and it sees the director return to the world of stop-motion animation.

When a dog flu virus spreads through the canine population of Megasaki City in Japan, the mayor signs a decree banishing all dogs to Trash Island. When 12 year old Atari Kobayashi (Koyu Rankin) crash-lands on the island searching for his dog Spots (Live Schreiber), the first dog to be sent to Trash Island, he comes across a band of dogs; Rex (Edward Norton), King (Bob Balaban), Duke (Jeff Goldblum), Boss (Bill Murray) and Chief (Bryan Cranston), and they set about a journey to find the boy's dog.

Isle of Dogs is one hell of a breathtaking film to watch, with the fine detail in the stop-motion animation and the meticulous framing of every single shot making it feel as if you're staring at a piece of fine art hanging on the wall rather than a film. When a film like this comes along, you can't help but sit back and just admire it.

The story is such a heartwarming one, Atari's determination and loyalty towards finding Spots together with the story behind Chief's coldness towards humans making for a film very hard not to take a liking to, the richness to both the narrative and characters will make you just fall in love with some of the dogs on show. The film is topped off with some of Anderson's signature dry humour that had the audience in raptures at times.

Coming to the performances, Isle of Dogs features a fountain of talent lending their voices to proceedings. Vocal performances can often be forgotten in the midst of all of the year's performances however, some of the work here deserves to be remembered for a long, long time. Bryan Cranston's work on the voice of Chief is so spot on that he'll be close to bringing the audience to tears and Edward Norton is wonderfully funny as Rex, the dog in the group questioning Chief's leadership. 

Isle of Dogs shows a case of not being able to teach an old dog new tricks for Wes Anderson however, when he can repeat those tricks as well as he does, it becomes a film that entirely deserves all the praise it gets for being such a sheer bundle of joy to behold.

Verdict: ★★★★★