BARKS AND RECREATION

structure with pithy chapter headings like The Little Pilot, The Rendezvous and Atari’s Lantern to neatly bookmark his visually stunning odyssey. The detail of miniature sets and character figures is remarkable and there are some lovely touches like multiple uses for cotton wool and lice slaloming through dogs’ matted fur in skin-crawling close-up. Yoko Ono enjoys a throwaway cameo as a plucky research scientist called ... Yoko Ono. The film is arch, knowing and impeccably conceived but emotionally a tad chilly, revelling in the inventiveness and imagination of the writer-director’s unique vision at the expense of collaring our emotions for a satisfying walk.

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 the wellbeing 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