"Isle of Dogs": The inevitable encounter between Wes Anderson's miniature garden world and Japonisme

“Isle of Dogs” synopsis

Japan in the near future. In Megasaki City, where canine influenza is prevalent, Mayor Kobayashi banishes all dogs to "Isle of Dogs" out of fear of infecting humans. One day, a 12-year-old boy boarded a small plane by himself and landed on the island. Atari is an orphan and the mayor's adopted son who came to save his dog and best friend, Spots. With five brave and kind-hearted dogs he met on the island as new companions, Atari begins exploring Spots and gets closer to the conspiracy of adults that will determine the future of Megasaki.

Index

• A rare director who maintains his artistry in both live-action and animation.
• Wes' miniature garden (or dollhouse) world
• Affinity between Japonism (broadly defined) and Wes films
• Between the possibility and impossibility of translation
  

A rare director who maintains his artistry in both live-action and animation.

``Isle of Dogs'' is Wes Anderson's ninth feature-length film, and his second stop-motion animated film after `` Fantastic Mr. FOX .'' Like Wes (other directors with the Anderson surname include Paul Thomas Anderson and Paul W.S. Anderson, I'll refer to him by his first name for the sake of intimacy), who directed both live-action and animation. There are not many filmmakers who do this. When it comes to big names, the names Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis come to mind first, but their animation works (Spielberg's `` The Adventures of Tintin' ', Zemeckis' `` Polar Express '', ` `Disney's Christmas Carol' ', etc.) However, compared to the filmography of the director's brilliant live-action films, the film's reputation and box office performance pales in comparison.

On the other hand, what about Wes' animation work? First of all, in terms of box office sales, `` The Royal Tenenbaums ``The The Grand Budapest Hotel,'' `` The Royal Tenenbaums ,'' and `` Isle of Dogs Kingdom,'' and ``Fantastic Mr. .FOX” is in 5th place (as of May 23, 2018, from Box Office Mojo ). The difference between "Moonrise Kingdom" and "Isle of Dogs" is about 11 million dollars, so if it becomes a hit of nearly 1 billion yen in Japan, which will be released on May 25th, it will move to third place, along with the sales in other countries. There is a good chance that it will. In other words, Wes' animated films have achieved box office results comparable to his live-action masterpieces.

In terms of visual expression, the "uniqueness" and artistry that can be seen in Wes' live-action films also overflows into the two animated films. In contrast to ``Fantastic Mr. FOX'', which was based on Roald Dahl's children's literature, ``Isle of Dogs'', for which he wrote his own original screenplay, received rave reviews from critics, calling it the culmination of Wes's films and his masterpiece. One after another (at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, he won the Silver Bear Award, which is equivalent to the director's award).

This time, we will explore the appeal of "Isle of Dogs" with a focus on Wes's writing style, but for reference, I would like to mention the name of Tim Burton, another major director who has a consistent writing style in both live-action and animation. I would like to mention it. Comparing the artistry of Burton and Wes, who are also masters of stop-motion animation, it is interesting to see a good contrast in terms of ``yin'' and ``yang'', ``mysterious'' and ``pleasant'', but Burton's works are different from each other. On occasion.

Wes' miniature garden (or dollhouse) world