Wes Anderson will be returning to the big screen in 2018 with the release of his latest atypical creation, Isle Of Dogs, following up on the success of 2015’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. This time, he’ll be returning to the glory of stop-motion animation, and it’s looking very cool in the trailer below.
His last stop-motion film was in 2008, with the adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and continuing the canine theme he’s moving on to the domesticated cousin of the farmer haranguing whistler. The cast is another big name affair with a number of Wes Anderson regulars like Bill Murray (The Jungle Book) and Tilda Swinton (Doctor Strange), along with Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) and Scarlett Johannson (Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1).
Release date
Isle Of Dogs has a UK release date of the 30th March 2018, a little later than the US release a week earlier on the 23rd March. It’ll be up against sci-fi adventure Ready Player One at the box office in the UK, so it’s going to be a fairly tough opening weekend, but there should be more than enough Wes Anderson fans to make this a fairly close race.
Story
The animation is set in Japan, 20 years in the future in the aftermath of a decree from the corrupt mayor of Megasaki City to banish all dogs to a huge rubbish dump called Trash Island. In a move of open rebellion, 12-year-old Atari Kobayashi sets out to the island in a Junior Turbo Prop XJ750 that he hijacks to save his bodyguard-dog Spots.
Mayor Kabayashi has managed to convince the people of Megasaki that dogs have overrun the city and that a pandemic of canine flu has broken out. Only Atari puts up any form of resistance, but with the help of Chief, Rex, Boss and Duke, a band of dogs on Trash Island, he might just track down Spot and strike a blow against the Mayor’s tyrrany.
Cast
It’s another huge cast for the Wes Anderson production, but the lead role goes newcomer Koyu Rankin, who plays the voice of Atari Kobayashi. He’s joined by Bryan Cranston (Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams), Bill Murray, Edward Norton (The Grand Budapest Hotel) and Jeff Goldblum as Chief, Boss, Rex and Duke. The cast also includes Ken Watanabe (Transformers: The Last Knight), Greta Gerwig (Jackie), Courtney B. Vance (The Mummy), Harvey Keitel (Moonrise Kingdom), Scarlet Johannson and Tilda Swinton.
Isle Of Dogs will also feature Kunichi Nomura, Frances McDormand (Moonrise Kingdom), Fisher Stevens (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Nijiro Murakami, Liev Schreiber (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Akira Ito, Akira Takayama, F. Murray Abraham, Yojiro Noda, Mari Natsuki, Yoko One and Frank Wood.
Production
Wes Anderson has written and directed the film. You can see more from the production on the official Twitter page.
First impressions
Wes Anderson films are always special events and Isle Of Dogs looks set to be a classic, blending the brilliant style of Fantastic Mr. Fox with his unique storytelling. The trailer looks stunning and the cast is as perfectly selected as every other Anderson film has been. If this isn’t already on your watch list, then you might want to put it up.
