a review of 犬之岛

Isle of Dogs is the second stop-motion film by Wes Anderson that I have watched. The other one is Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), which I rather liked. I've got a love-hate relationship with Anderson's creations. On the positive side, I admire his talent for impeccable aesthetics, but on the negative side, I find his particular type of dry, absurdist, intellectual humor often slightly boring. His narrative style is regularly plagued by monotonous rambling and the elucidation of inessential details, as if the story is told by a brilliant but absent-minded, mumbling professor. This challenges my attention span and weakens the overall impression and momentum of the film. Next to this, I found it difficult to empathize with the characters in Isle of Dogs. I thought only a few of the many characters were likeable or interesting, particularly the human characters were not very likeable. No, that isn't because I'm a cat lover. 😉 I guess the stoic expressions and rigid motion of the characters are partly to blame for this, although they were expertly crafted.