Wes Anderson, ‘Isle of Dogs,’ (2008) (internet) United States and Germany. Duration 1:41:10. Available at Gostream https://gostream.site/isle-of-dogs-2/ [Accessed 04/03/21]
Film stills accessed from https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/isle-of-dogs-trailer-photos-wes-anderson/
‘Isle of Dogs' is a stop-motion adult animation film by Wes Anderson, set in futuristic Japan, that explores the notion of human and animal relationships through a particular narrative cast upon the perspective of dogs. As the story goes, the city's mayor, one day, commands for all dogs to be deported to an offshore island, due to "snout fever," - a canine pandemic covertly instigated by corrupt, cat-loving authorities. The dogs refer to their new residence as "Trash Island," which is also the city's dump station. The wasteland quickly becomes revealed as a site full of sickly but sustained life, rats, birds and dogs scavenging off the frequent tips dropped through an overhead rope-trolly contraption. In my observation, the film refers to the underbelly of a landscape that has been manicured and controlled by authorities, who also form boundaries of travel and interaction within its society. While the governing power inside the metropolis exercised their power through dictatorship, revolt breaks out amongst the younger human population, who aim to overthrow the governing party and restore the dogs' place in the city.
I am interested in how the film explores various binaries as it unfolds: human and animal, artificial and organic, dystopia and utopia, pets and pests, society and wastelands, as well as the battling pro-dog and anti-dog parties that form yet another layer of absurdly conflictive exploration of discord, and its authority/influence within society. These binaries invite a look through the perspective of the animal characters and follow their journey through the encounters and perils within this particular environment that is manufactured around human comfort and efficiency.
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Notes: Wastelands; political /environmental affairs; human & non-human relationships/binaries; interventions within tidal landscapes / utilising the ocean as a barrier for pests and outcasts; the ‘slimy’; post-apocalyptic narratives; the underbelly of society; landscapes manicured and controlled by authorities that establish boundaries of travel and spatial interactions; cultural and socio-political ideas of class, power and …; the encounter of the other side of society, meeting the outcasts; mundanity with absurd humour and some grisly violence; technological advancements such as the ‘killer robot dogs’ - kind of funny but also threatening presence - also an extension of the authorities and the enemy for the other dogs; also, interestingly - as humanised as they are, these dogs operate outside the realm of politics and function mainly for the benefit of their ‘owners’ and desire to live in solidarity with humans… this corresponds to the idea of
..; environmental factors obviously but the film rather addresses issues of …. through the viewpoints of canines, which in turn have issues of their own.
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