Delightful ‘Isle of Dogs’ gets 41⁄2 wags of the tail

‘Isle of Dogs’ weird, wonderful and insightful

Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs” is delightful, giddy fun, but it’s more than that.

It’s also insightful and relevant, all while existing inside one of the signature wildly creative, self-contained worlds Anderson creates.

Seriously, if I had a tail, I’d be wagging it.

Anderson revisits stop-motion animation for the first time since the terrific “Fantastic Mr. Fox” andonce again gathers an all-star cast to give voices to furry creations that somehow impart more humanity that any episode of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” offers.

The story is set in the fictional Japanese city of Megasaki, where Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura) — a secret cat lover — makes a stunning announcement: The city’s dogs are suffering from a mysterious canine illness called “Snout Fever,” and are being banished to Trash Island, a run-down dump that’s home to a deserted nuclear plant and abandoned amusement park, along with mountains of the city’s garbage.

To show he’s just another citizen, Kobayashi makes his own dog, Spots (Liev Schreiber), the first exile.

But Spots is more than that. He’s also both the pet and protector of Atari (Koyu Rankin), who became Kobayashi’s ward after the death of Atari’s parents. Atari and Spots communicate with an electronic gizmo each wears in his ear, so Atari commandeers a plane to search for his dog and promptly crashes it on Trash Island.

Although he arrives only a few months after the banishment, there’s already a hierarchy among the dogs. (There are also pocket dog communities all over the island.) Atari crashes among a group of five dogs: Rex (Edward Norton), Boss (Bill Murray), Duke (Jeff Goldblum), King (Bob Balaban) and Chief (Bryan Cranston), a stray who boasts of not being part of the group while proving at every turn to be so.

Yes, spending time with this group is just as much fun as the list of cast names makes it seem. And there’s more: Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, F. Murray Abraham and, yes, Yoko Ono (!). Greta Gerwig plays Tracy Walker, an American exchange student who leads the protests against Kobayashi and the ban. Plus many, many more.

It’s entertaining to hear all the famous voices. But there is also depth here. It’s not just Atari looking for Spots. There is a bigger journey here. These dogs miss their former lives (with the possible exception of Chief), and hope to somehow return to it. On a deep level they are heartbroken and betrayed, by their government and their masters.

Of course there are plenty of quirks. This is a Wes Anderson film, after all. The dogs’ barks are translated into English. The Japanese humans’ words are not. Frances McDormand plays Interpreter Nelson, who translates the mayor’s speeches.

The animation is breathtaking, though not in a high-tech way. It’s just what Anderson chooses to focus on and the way the animators execute that vision. Even the individual hairs on the dogs are fascinating. The stop-motion is slightly herky-jerky, which somehow adds to the adorable factor, which is already high.

Anderson’s films, whether live-action or animated, are so idiosyncratic that they tend to divide people. If you like his movies, you’ll love this one. If you find his work too precious, too weird for weird’s sake, too slight and light to land, “Isle of Dogs” isn’t for you.

Or maybe it is. Maybe this is the film that will convert you. It’s a terrific film, one that deserves your attention, and the bark of your approval.