Collar-ful characters defy the law
Isle of Dogs (Cert PG, 101 mins)
Since his critically acclaimed debut feature Bottle Rocket, writer-director Wes Anderson has skipped merrily down the path less travelled with offbeat ensemble comedies including the Oscar-winning magnum ludicrous, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
In 2009, he dipped his big toe into stop-motion animation with a quirky adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox.
The auteur returns to the painstaking art form for self-consciously offbeat buddy comedy, Isle Of Dogs.
Set on the Japanese Archipelago 20 years into the future,the film’s chief villain is self-serving politician Mayor Kobayashi (voiced by Kunichi Nomura), who is responsible for overseeing the well-being of the gullible citizens of Megasaki.
As an ardent cat lover, Kobayashi decrees that the only way to eradicate an outbreak of virulent snout fever is to exile canines to a remote island, where Megasaki dumps its residential waste.
Voters comply and the Mayor’s 12-year-old ward Atari (Koyu Rankin) is forced to bid farewell to his shaggy companion, Spots.
The resourceful tyke defies the Mayor and menacing henchman Major Domo (Akira Takayama) to steal a plane and fly to the island to be reunited with his pet.
Atari crash-lands and befriends a disparate pack of mangy mutts including Chief (Bryan Cranston), King (Bob Balaban), Boss (Bill Murray), Rex (Edward Norton) and Duke (Jeff Goldblum).
They embark on a daredevil mission to overturn the Mayor’s edict.