Looks good! Dystopian future / sci-fi is a first for Wes and to be frank, I didn't expect it. I thought it would be set in contemporary times. I think this film will really cement him as a master stop motion picture maker. So many details and it just looks amazing. I hope that he continues to do a stop motion picture every so many years.
I saw the trailer the other day when it was released. As with any Wes Anderson film, I can't wait for it. It looks fantastic.
[Fry]I see what you did there[/Fry] Yep! Been a long wait for this one, and as usual, it looks like it'll be worth it.
Heard about this, didn't realize it was stop-motion, but it's Wes Anderson so I will definitely see it at some point.
Hurm... I love stop-motion movies, or am at least inherently interested in them, but this trailer does nothing for me. Nor have I been tempted by any of Laika's movies, or Tim Burton's stop-motion flicks. Maybe I'm only a claymation stop-motion fan? I've also never seen an Anderson film, and this doesn't look like the place to start. (That would probably be Budapest Hotel, from what I've heard.) To be precise, this looks freaking awful, the worst of hipster sentimentality and superficial foreign exoticness rolled into one. Pass!
I highly recommend Fantastic Mr. Fox, both for Wes Anderson and stop-motion (as well as a great adaptation of a classic Roald Dahl tale).
I have a soft spot for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou which is probably his most accessible or least accessible movie depending on your sensibilities.
Until The Grand Budapest Hotel, Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was my favorite Wes Anderson film and I knew I was in the minority in the opinion. However, The Grand Budapest Hotel is such an amazing film on all levels that it edges out Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou for me.
The Life Aquatic is definitely my number-two Anderson movie to check out, by miles. Going by the trailer, though, Fantastic Mr. Fox looks like pure cinematic pain and misery.
And that's where you would be wrong. Just like you can't judge a book by its cover, you can't judge a film by its trailer.
In case you were in the need for a cast of stop-motion animation dogs to talk behind the scenes about the characters they play in a film, as directed by Wes Anderson, then you're in luck!
Behind-the-scenes video about stop-motion animation. Seeing the levels of detail this film's stop-motion animators put into their craft really helps one appreciate all of the hard work they put into this project.
Has anyone else seen the film yet? I finally got the chance to see it today when my local art theater started showing it. The film is sweet and eccentric, dark and funny, beautiful and profound. In other words, another Wes Anderson classic. Moreover, the film's deeply-detailed stop-motion animation makes Fantastic Mr. Fox look like a simplistic drawing (and I love that film, too).
Saw it three times on opening weekend. Loved it! Agree with everything you've said. And yeah, the stop motion is just phenomenal. It may also be the only sci-fi we get from Wes. Loved the retro tech, the characters, especially the gang of dogs (so i was a little bummed that they took a back seat once they got to Spots location) All in all, very enoyable, and with a different feel and look than the usual Hollywood fare. Some of my favorite scenes: Atari whispering into the mic for Spots after being scolded for petting him Atari saying "Fetch it!" in commanding tone twice with no result then saying "Fetch it?" And of course the whole scene where he's standing in front of the slide with the samurai standee with the "you must be this high to ride" sign. The sign is brilliant, but Atari slowly backing up everytime he's told not to....comedy gold. Say what you will about Wes Anderson's overall style, but I always respect the guy for always making the movies he want's to make in the way that he want's to make them. He's earned his success and it's nice that more and more actors want to work with him.
Wow, three times on the opening weekend! I would've probably seen it again but I had to go my local art theater to see it, so it's not convenient to double-up on films as I often do when I go to the regular theater. I was also a little bummed out that the gang of dogs took a backseat in the final act of the film, but the whole act was so thrilling that I hardly noticed. Of course, I completely agree with what you said about Wes Anderson. I understand why he's not everyone's cup of tea, but I love all of his films and I will always be first in line to see a new production from him. Always an unique experience.
I haven't seen Isle of Dogs yet, but it looks so good. I'm actually not a fan of his movies overall. I find them really boring and all the same 'meh' characters. I never did finish The Life Aquatic, it was just so boring. But I'll be damned if anyone says Wes Anderson isn't one of the greatest artist cinema has seen in decades. His style is amazing even when I don't like the movies. I came across this review quote and explains why Wes Anderson is insane or a genius. Wes Anderson’s animated feature Isle of Dogs might be the most lyrically disjunctive movie ever made: Nothing fits together and everything harmonizes, magically. - David Edelstein Vulture
Thread bump, since I just found this film at the library. I was curious about it since I've long been interested in Japanese culture and media, and I'd read debates over Isle of Dogs's portrayal of Japanese culture, with some saying it was stereotyped and appropriative, while a Japanese-American writer in The New Yorker praised its authenticity. What I saw was kind of odd compared to the Japanese TV and movies I watch. It was steeped in Japanese traditionalism; like many Western portrayals of Japan, it played up the "exotic" Eastern stuff like traditional theater and art and Japanese baths and sushi and stuff, with little of the high-tech modernity that I associate with Japan. I can see how it could be taken as stereotyped. But then again, there's a certain symmetry to it, given the degree to which many of the Japanese shows and movies I see are obsessed with Western culture, peppered with English words, and so forth. Both cultures want to portray what's different about each other. But it did make it feel more like a heightened, fairy-tale Japan and made for an odd contrast with the actual Japan I see in Japanese shows and films. As for the film as a whole, I didn't care for it. It was weird and dark and off-putting and tonally odd, and its humor didn't work for me. The conceit of the film was that human speech was mostly untranslated but dog barks were rendered into English. Okay. But the dogs didn't act like dogs. Dogs are enthusiastic and emotional and guileless and wear their hearts on their, err, forepaws. These characters just stood around staring at the camera and talking in deadpans like they were appearing in Ingmar Bergman's Dragnet. Their stoicism and reserve would've been a better fit to cats. (Also, why did they all have English names and Roman-script nametags?)