By: Danny Gonzalez Follow @dag0nzalez

Isle of Dogs is Wes Anderson’s latest film, starring the voice talents of many acclaimed stars such as Bryan Cranston, Ed Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, and a number of others.

The story takes place in Megasaki City, Japan, where an outbreak of snout fever has caused the corrupt Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura) to banish all dogs to Trash Island. When a young boy sets out to find his long-lost dog, Spots (Liev Schreiber), an adventure of howling proportions ensues.

Having prior experience with animation by directing the critically acclaimed film, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson has definitely improved upon virtually every technique utilized to make a truly charming and beautiful film.

There is something about the way the hand-drawn pictures are so meticulously detailed and how the stop-motion characters are so flawlessly rendered that had me in constant awe and admiration.

It is blatantly obvious that an incredulous amount of time and work went into crafting the environments in which these characters are set and that is something that really resided me.

The dialogue in which the boy, Atari (Koyu Rankin), shares with the group of mutts that have joined him in his quest is brilliantly done. In a way, it was almost as if the speaker was self-aware to a certain extent.

For instance, every line delivered by Bill Murray felt as if it were crafted for his real-life persona. Not to mention Bryan Cranston’s portrayal of Chief, the stray dog who bites, is a real stand-out amongst the plethora of gifted actors and actresses.

The constant visual wonderment was a delight throughout the entirety of the movie and it became evident that this was certainly an area that Anderson had especially focused on. In typical Wes Anderson fashion, every shot is precisely framed. Each shot has symmetry and every image you see is perfectly balanced.

While nearly every Wes Anderson film is aesthetically pleasing, Isle of Dogs definitely ranks near the top as one of his most stunning films to look at. Despite this, there were times where I felt the pacing of the film was rather drawn out, this being encapsulated by the multitude of unnecessary flashbacks that cease the progression of the main storyline.

One thing that especially troubled me was the peculiar decision not to include English subtitles for the Japanese speakers. Every Japanese character spoke in their native tongue and their dialogue was quite literally translated through an English speaker, played by Frances McDormand, on an electronic device.

This left me feeling disconnected from those characters, as their lines were being delivered by a completely different person at times. Besides these minor issues, Isle of Dogs is a visual masterpiece.

While the story can feel a tad uneven in certain areas, the considerably talented cast makes up for these shortcomings by delivering some of the most moving performances I have experienced in an animated film to date.

I give Isles of Dogs a 9.1/10.