Isle of Dogs

"Loyalty has a scent. And it smells like rebellion."

2018 1h 41m EN

🙌

7.8

BANGER

★7.8TMDB · 5,599

AdventureComedyAnimation

Synopsis

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In the future, an outbreak of canine flu leads the mayor of a Japanese city to banish all dogs to an island used as a garbage dump. The outcasts must soon embark on an epic journey when a 12-year-old boy arrives on the island to find his beloved pet.

“Loyalty has a scent. And it smells like rebellion.”

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Cast

Bryan Cranston
Chief (voice)
Koyu Rankin
Atari Kobayashi (voice)
Bob Balaban
King (voice)
Edward Norton
Rex (voice)
Bill Murray
Boss (voice)
Jeff Goldblum
Duke (voice)
Kunichi Nomura
Mayor Kobayashi (voice)
Fisher Stevens
Scrap (voice)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Wes Anderson
Writers: Jason Schwartzman, Roman Coppola, Wes Anderson
Languages: English, Japanese
Countries: United States of America, Germany

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 8 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Japanese.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United States of America, Germany.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

227+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Wes Anderson, shot by Tristan Oliver. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alexandre Desplat. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Ralph Foster shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Bryan Cranston and Koyu Rankin and Bob Balaban carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Wes Anderson directs. Tristan Oliver behind the camera. Alexandre Desplat scores. Ralph Foster cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America, Germany. Dialogue in English, Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 8 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Japanese.
3International production across 2 countries: United States of America, Germany.
4227+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Wes Anderson, shot by Tristan Oliver. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Alexandre Desplat. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Ralph Foster shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Bryan Cranston and Koyu Rankin and Bob Balaban carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Loyalty has a scent. And it smells like rebellion.".
10IMDB entry: tt5104604 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Tristan Oliver
Original score: Alexandre Desplat
Editing: Ralph Foster
Production design: Adam Stockhausen
VFX supervisor: Tim Ledbury
Sound: Chris Scarabosio
Runtime: 101 min · 1h 41m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $35,000,000
Box office: $72,991,435
Return: 209% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Isle of Dogs (2018)

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Wes Anderson

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2020-08-12
★ 5/10
I was very fond of Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson's first stop-motion animated faire. Isle of Dogs less so. It's most certainly not a bad movie, but my expectations were pretty midling and, personally, they were not met. Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole.
CinemaSerf2025-05-25
★ 7/10
Now as someone with a bit of an hate/hate relationship with man’s best friend, the idea of rounding them all up and shoving them on an island where nobody needs to worry about abandoned bags of their crap littering the place up sounded quite appealing. “Atari”, however, doesn’t share my disdain for these smelly critters and so decides that he is going to try and track down his own mutt after it had been deposited onto the “Isle of Dogs”. He is the adopted son of the hereditary mayor “Kobayashi” of this Japanese community and so when his attempt to retrieve his long lost pal goes a bit awry, the authorities mobilise gadgets galore to try to return him to civilisation. Meantime he has fallen in with a disparate pack of hounds who are determined to help him find his erstwhile companion - and it’s soon a race against time before his dad plucks him back alone for some proper delousing. Of course, as he bonds with his new friends he discovers all about the deadly disease that was responsible for their incarceration in the first place and concluding that a vaccine might be in order, decides it is time to confront his old man and get these flea-ridden mongrels back marauding our streets again. This is quite possibly my favourite Wes Anderson film as it marries some quirkily effective animations with some solid characterisations and a really quite enjoyable story of curiosity, teamwork and loyalty. Along the way, there is plenty of detail from the surrounding imagery and plays on words and phrases to only thinly veil criticism of not just the not so subliminal concept of product placement itself, but of many of the products it places, too. The writing keeps the plot moving along entertainingly and though I usually don’t much like films that personify dogs (even Disney ones) this is a compact and frequently quite funny review of mankind’s attitudes to their pets. If only we put half this energy and dedication into looking out for each other! Good fun.