Young protesters in ‘Isle of Dogs’ mirror real life
In “an amazing coincidence,” the movie reflects the spirit of students rallying against gun violence.
“When people start to consider a world that’s bigger than themselves, that’s very moving.”
Co-creator Jason Schwartzman
Those scenes in the film strikingly resemble the spirit of what’s happening with Parkland, Fla., high school students who have protested and marched to call for changes in gun laws after the Feb. 14 shooting that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The movie is even being released the day before March for Our Lives, Saturday’s student-inspired national march.
“It is uncanny,” says story collaborator Jason Schwartzman. “It’s an amazing coincidence. It obviously was not planned that way.”
Screenwriter Anderson, Schwartzman, Roman Coppola and Kunichi Nomura began formulating Isle of Dogs more than four years ago with a strong focus on the idiosyncratic mutts, voiced by actors including Bill Murray and Edward Norton.
“When we started the movie, there wasn’t any effort to make anything political,” Schwartzman says. “It really just started with these dogs and figuring out their story.”
But as they explored the mayor
character (voiced by Nomura) and his unscrupulous true reasons for the dog ban, the story evolved to incorporate an opposing political force for change.
The force is youth. The spark starts with a 12-year-old boy, Atari (Koyu Rankin), the orphaned nephew in Kobayashi’s care who illegally flies to the island to find his beloved dog, Spots.
Atari inspires an American exchange student, Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig), who rallies fellow students at Megasaki High School and the staff of the Daily Manifesto school newspaper, spearheading change with pro-dog editorials, rallies and speeches.
“Basically, we have all these adults who are not listening to their hearts or conscience, and no one is seeing the great corruption happening,” Schwartzman says. “That led us to the younger people, who have to see through the BS. Their minds are more agile. And they have a say.”
Some critics have taken issue with the depiction of a white student leading her Japanese counterparts. “That subplot certainly runs up against uncomfortable associations with the white-savior narrative,” Vanity Fair noted in its review.
“Often, one group is persuaded when an outsider brings a different perspective to see what’s happening,” Nomura counters. “Here, that’s Tracy.”
All students join in as many clenched hands are united and raised in protest in Isle of Dogs. Schwartzman is thrilled to see students making their voices heard in the real world, too.
“I’m electrified, moved and fired up when I see people thinking about and doing right — opening their hearts and minds,” he says. “When people start to consider a world that’s bigger than themselves, that’s very moving. It puts something in your heart so when it pumps, it pumps a little differently.”