Isle of Dogs

**Isle of Dogs** (*犬ケ島*) is 2018 stop-motion animated film directed by Wes Anderson. It is set in the futuristic Japanese city known as Megasaki, where after an outbreak of dog-flu, all dogs of the city are exiled to an island of trash. However, one boy known as Atari Kobayashi flies to this island in order to rescue his pet dog, Spots.

## Plot

20 years in the future in Megasaki, Japan, an outbreak of dog flu occurs. Kenji Kobayashi, the mayor of Megasaki, enacts a ban that exiles all dogs to Trash Island. Spots, a mixed-white-and-black-spotted-dog who was the former body guard for Atari Kobayashi, a orphaned boy who is 12 years old.

Six months later, the protagonists of the movie, the Alpha Pack, come into play. The Alpha Pack consists of Boss, King, Rex, Duke, and the de facto leader, Chief. They are shown to be powerful and fierce, fighting another pack for food and winning. However, all the dogs except for Chief express the desire to return to mainland Japan, missing their human masters and old lives. Chief berates them, as he grew up a stray and does not like humans

Atari steals and hijacks a plane to help him search for Spots, who was the first dog to be exiled. After the plane crashes, Atari is left unconscious and injured. A pack of dogs find Atari and try to help him, with the exception of Chief. The dogs argue because Chief doesn't care for humans, but the rest of the pack wants to help Atari find Spots. Chief refuses to join because he believes that having a human master is against his principles.

Meanwhile, back in Megasaki, Professor Watanabe discovers a three-in-one serum. It contains a cure for dog flu, a treatment for snout fever, and the ability to reduce litter size by 75%, curbing the canine oversaturation crisis. However, when he shows what he discovered to Kobayashi, the mayor ends up deciding not to remove the dog ban, placing an executive order which states that all dogs must remain on Trash Island.

The next day, a rescue team comes to forcefully return Atari to Brick Mansion. This includes a rescue drone, three human operatives, and a robotic dog. They are nearly successful, managing to fully strap Atari down and begin carrying him away, but the Alpha Pack attacks the humans, with Chief attacking the robot dog. Chief is almost killed until Atari grabs the controller for the robot dog and deactivates the attack mode. The rescue drone receives heavy damage and crashes into the island, though everyone gets out of the way in time.

When Mayor Kobayashi finds out, he tells the regional news that Atari was "kidnapped" by the dogs and that when he is found, he'll be grounded for the rest of his childhood. Kobayashi also vows to "violently destroy" the Alpha Pack.

When Atari commands the dogs to sit, they all do so, except for Chief, who walks out of the shelter in an act of defiance. He finds Nutmeg, a female dog that was brought up earlier in one of Duke's rumors. They talk about humans and their former lives, with Nutmeg revealing that she was bred and groomed to be a show dog, though she does not consider this to be her identity. Chief talks about being a stray and how he isn't fond of humans, which brings Nutmeg to question if he is going to assist Atari with finding Spots. When Chief asks why he should, Nutmeg remarks, "Because he's a 12-year old boy. Dogs love those." She then leaves.

As Atari sleeps, the Alpha Pack discusses what to do. They worry over Atari's physical and mental health due to the propeller clutch stuck in his skull. Duke mentions that Atari is the distant nephew of Mayor Kobayashi, to which the party grows nervous. However, they decide to travel across the Middle Fingers to get advice from Jupiter and Oracle, two sage dogs who live farther out than the rest of the dog society. Chief returns and states that trying to help Atari will get the pack euthanized. He is outvoted, with Rex becoming the new de facto leader.

Back in Megasaki, Professor Watanabe is placed under house arrest for criticizing Kobayashi's policy concerning the dogs. A school newspaper, The Daily Manifesto, begins discussing the event. An American exchange student, Tracy Walker, suspects that Mayor Kobayashi is controlling a conspiracy to get re-elected in the upcoming vote by ordering the Municipal Dome to spread Anti-Dog propaganda and suppressing Watanabe's cure to turn Megasaki's citizens against their dogs. When asked for proof, she says she does not know if she can provide any.

While the Alpha Pack crosses the Middle Fingers, they discover many abandoned human structures. A failed utility complex, washed out by tsunami. An abandoned power plant, demolished by earthquake. The remains of a deserted industrial estate, destroyed by volcanic blast. This may hint that humanity was not able to fully curb the effects of climate change, leading to mild or moderate destruction of costal areas. This is fully plausible, as the film takes place in 2038. It is evident that they managed to at least partially slow or even completely stop climate change, however, due to the fact that human society is still fully functional, and that low-lying cities such as Megasaki and Cincinnati have not been flooded.

The pack starts to talk about what foods they loved when they were with their owners, and Chief reveals that he wasn't always a stray. He once had a family for about a week, before biting a child's hand to the point it bled because he was afraid of being injured. He was locked inside a toolshed, where an old lady which Chief says he believes was the grandmother, came in and fed him. That was his favorite meal. It is at this point that Jupiter and Oracle reveal themselves to the group.

A secret conference is held by Mayor Kobayashi. In the conference, it is revealed that Tracy's suspicions are correct; Kobayashi is intentionally creating circumstances to get dogs banned due to his personal grievances with them. He enlisted the help of several people. Chairman Fujimoto of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical released massive quantities of contagious tick larvae into the Megasaki metropolitan area, creating an unprecedented animal disease outbreak. General Yamatachi, Commander of the Megasaki Municipal Task Force, oversaw the deportation of 750,000 animals to Trash Island. Supervisor Kitano of Kobayashi Robotics developed the most promising artificial lifeform in the history of corporate technology, the robot dogs. Yakuza Nakamura, head of the Clenched-Fist Gang, eliminated all Pro-Dog opposition through bribery, extortion, intimidation, and violent force. In the translated words of Kobayashi himself, "Brains have been washed. Wheels have been greased. Fear has been mongered."

Robotic dogs begin to search for Atari, given the DNA sample from the blood found on the portion of the propeller clutch removed from his skull. The plane's black box is also recovered. Tracy and the members of The Daily Manifesto hold a protest to the Kobayashi regime, providing a transmission from Atari as his plane failed, showing how much he truly loved his dog. Tracy encourages the young masters of Megasaki to unite against the conspiracy.

Jupiter and Oracle begin to recount the story of a pack of aboriginal dogs who were treated very poorly by the Kobayashi Canine Testing Facility, until the tsunami, earthquake, and volcano decimated their influence on Trash Island. The dogs were then freed, becoming wild and savage. Jupiter suspects that Spots is a prisoner of the aboriginal dogs, calling him "Dog-Zero". Duke shares a rumor that the aboriginal dogs are cannibals.

In a secret location, an itamae makes a bento box of sushi, applying a very small amount of poisoned wasabi to one of the calamari slices. The delivery address is marked as the location in which Professor Watanabe is under house arrest. The sushi is delivered to him, and he eats it all, save for the one slice of poisoned calamari. He scoops the wasabi onto his index finger and just barely touches it with his tongue. The poison is exceedingly potent, as this miniscule exposure kills Watanabe. His death is reported as a suicide, most likely due to media manipulation by the Mayor. The hunt for Atari continues. Watanabe's assistant, Yoko Ono, is shown to be very upset by his death, likely enraged.

Atari and the Alpha Pack hop into a trash tram heading towards the smaller island where the aboriginal dogs live. The tram separates in half, causing Atari and Chief to end up on a different wire than the rest of the pack, though it is close enough for Rex to tell Chief to meet them at the causeway, but Chief exclaims the Rex is not the leader, leading to a vote. However, before they can commence, the tram containing remaining members of the Alpha Pack enters a machine-like building titled "Crushing, Compacting, and Incineration" **(破砕圧縮と焼却)**, separating them. An hour later, Atari and Chief are dropped in an abandoned Kobayashi Park. Atari rides a pagoda slide against the wishes of Chief, causing him to be abandoned. When Atari whistles, afraid, Chief whistles back and returns for him. The rest of the Alpha Pack is still in the other tram, which narrowly avoids crushers and compactors, but enters a vat of paint, causing the dogs to be dyed lime green. The tram then enters the incinerator, with numerous coils turning on and glowing red-hot.

Atari throws a stick, to which Chief initially refuses to fetch. He finally does, claiming it is not because he was commanded to, but because he feels sorry for Atari. When he returns with the stick, Atari holds his face and calls him a good boy, then hugs him. He then opens a metal case labeled "S.K." (presumably short for Sanitation Kit), which contains a dog brush, flea soap, fur tonic, coat clippers, and a tail comb. He disrobes to his underwear and begins to bathe Chief in a vat of water. It is revealed that Chief does not have black fur, but is actually white with black spots and was simply covered with copious amounts of grime from his time on both the streets of Megasaki and Trash Island.

Atari discovers that Chief has exactly the same fur coat as Spots does, although Chief has a black nose though. Atari thinks they are part of the same rare breed, and then Chief remembers that when he was a puppy, almost all his siblings except for one died. Atari and Chief begins getting along with each other, and Chief evens plays the shortest round of fetch with Atari in both fiction and non-fiction. Eventually Atari and Chief find their pack, but Kenji's men attack them the second time, but Spots appears. A flashback is shown of Spots' time on Trash Island, with him being taken by the supposed cannibal dogs, who are not actually regular cannibals. They only resorted to cannibalism once, as a means of desperate survival. They freed Spots from his cage, and he meets Peppermint.

Spots defends the pack by using military-issue teeth grenades to destroy some of the robot dogs, and the aboriginal dogs take care of the rest. Spots, Chief, and Atari all jump into the canal, along with the rest of the aboriginal dogs. The tram carrying the rest of the Alpha Pack breaks, and they fall in too. While floating through a tunnel, Spots reveals that he is to be a father, asking Atari to relieve him of his position. Chief is infuriated by this, telling Spots how much he went through to get to him. Spots then reveals that he is Chief's older brother by five minutes, and that he was the runt, but is no longer. Kobayashi tells the media that Atari and the Alpha Pack died in a sluice channel. Major Domo uses this as an opportunity to spread further Anti-Dog sentiment.

Spots recounts the history of the Canine Testing Facility and reveals that Peppermint is his mate. Duke tells the Alpha Pack that Kobayashi Pharmaceutical created Dog Flu, to which they are not surprised.

A owl that Spot understands brings word to the pack that Kobayashi is planning to order death for every dog on Trash Island following his re-election. When the pack finds out these circumstances, they begin building boats to travel to the mainland. On the main boat, Peppermint gives birth, leading to Spots asking Chief to replace him as Atari's bodyguard. He accepts, and Atari places the headset on Chief's ear. Atari feeds one of the pups with a bottle.

Tracy approaches Yoko Ono, who initially states that it is too late to stop Kobayashi. However, once Tracy gets in her face, snapping her out of her grief, she reveals that Tracy's theory is accurate, and gives her the last cure. At Kobayashi's re-election ceremony, he announces his plan to the public, along with the robot dogs as replacement pets. Kobayashi wins the election by a landslide at 98.6%. Tracy comes in and she reveals evidence of his misconduct. Kobayashi claims that Tracy has been sent by foreign special-interest groups to agitate disorder and incite anarchy. He then cancels and nullifies Tracy's study visa, deporting her back to the United States. Major Domo brings in the red button, which will activate the robot dogs on Trash Island, causing them to poison all the dogs from Uni Prefecture.

Right at the perfect moment, Atari and the pack come in, proving that Kobayashi lied. Chief is given the cure, proving its effectiveness. Atari begins to read off a statement to the assembly, with Tracy recording the English translation personally. He then reads a haiku he made on Trash Island, revealing the friendship that dogs and humans once had together. After the haiku, even Kobayashi begins feeling sympathy, removing the ban on dogs. But Kobayashi's right hand man, Major Domo, becomes enraged, yelling at Kobayashi for breaking his campaign promise, and tries to kill Kobayashi with a robotic dog and tries to trigger the extermination of all dogs himself.

After the fight, Domo sees the button, and he and Mayor Kobayashi grapple over it before Domo successfully presses the button, completely unsympathetic that it would also result in the countless deaths of the human citizens of Megasaki who are now in the way. But by the time the signal reaches the extermination electronics (via the signal demultiplexer), they are hacked. The human exterminator's poison backfires, the robotic dogs return to normal, and the drones start going haywire due to a hacker from Tracy's school, causing the extermination electronics to malfunction and fail, shocking Domo in the process and foiling his extermination plans.

Atari and Spots are very badly injured, and Atari's only kidney fails. Out of regret, Kobayashi gives Atari one of his kidneys so that Atari can survive. Due to a ruling unique to Uni Prefecture, Atari becomes mayor of Megasaki and removes the dog ban. Kobayashi and people that worked with him are sent to prison because of all their wrong doing, including Major Domo. They must pay a fine of ¥250,000 and 30 days of community service. Atari and Tracy fall in love with each other, and Chief finds Nutmeg, along with being the second bodyguard for Atari. Spots, who everybody, including the audience, presumed dead, is actually alive, and decides to secretly raise his litter with Peppermint in the Brick Mansion's basement.

## Crew/Cast Members

### **Crew Members**

#### Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson is an American film director, film producer, screenwriter, and actor. He has directed, screenplay and written *Isle of Dogs* and multiple other movies, such as *H&M - Come Together*, *The Grand Budapest Hotel* and his most well-known movie, *Fantastic Mr. Fox*. He was born and raised in Houston, Texas, USA back on May 1, 1969. He lived with his two brothers named Eric and Mel.

#### Roman Coppola

Roman Coppola was born and raised in Paris, France on the date, April 22, 1965. He is a producer and a writer and known for working on movies such as the *Moonrise Kingdom*, *The Darjeeling Limited* and *Apocalypse Now*. He had worked on Isle of Dogs as the co-writer.

#### Jason Schwartzman

Jason Schwartzman was born in Los Angeles, California, USA, on the date of June 26, 1980; He was born with the name Jason Franceso Schwartzman. He married Brady Cunningham in 2009 and had two children with her. He worked on *Isle of Dogs* as the co-writer.

#### Kunichi Nomura

Kunichi Nomura is a Japanese actor, writer, DJ, and radio personality that was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. He has worked on films in the past, films such as Lost in Translation and Grand Budapest Hotel. For *Isle of Dogs*, he had worked on the movie as the co-writer, along with being the voice actor of the character, Mayor Kobayashi.

*See the full list of people who worked behind the scenes here.*

## Voice Acting

* **Bryan Cranston** as Chief
* **Koyu Rankin (こうゆランキン)** as Atari Kobayashi (小林アタリ)
* **Edward Nortin** as Rex
* **Bob Balaban** as King
* **Jeff Goldblum** as Duke
* **Bill Murray** as Boss
* **Kunichi Nomura (野村訓市)** as Mayor Kenji Kobayashi (小林健二市長)
* **Akira Takayama (高山明)** as Major-Domo (家令)
* **Greta Gerwig** as Tracy Walker
* **Frances McDormand** as Interpreter Miranda Nelson
* **Akira Ito (伊藤彰)** as Professor Watanabe (渡辺教授)
* **Scarlett Johansson** as Nutmeg
* **Harvey Keitel** as Gondo
* **F. Murray Abraham** as Jupiter
* **Yoko Ono (オノ・ヨーコ)** as Assistant Scientist Yoko Ono (アシスタントサイエンティスト小野陽子)
* **Tilda Swinton** as Oracle
* **Mari Natsuki** as Auntie
* **Fisher Stevens** as Scrap
* **Nijirō Murakami** as Editor Hiroshi
* **Liev Schreiber** as Spots
* **Courtney B. Vance** as The Narrator
* **Yojiro Noda** as News Anchor
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## Reception

This Is One Of The Most Successful Movies Of 2018

## Trivia

* This is Wes Anderson's second animated film, following his previous work of Fantastic Mr. Fox in 2009.
* The title is a pun, as it can be read out loud as "I love dogs"
* 犬ケ島, the film's kanji title is incorrect as the letters for dog and isle are swapped. This is likely down for a stylistic choice in the film's title appearance.
* In Japan, the film is called Inugashima.
* The dog's fur is made from real animal fur-- specifically an alpaca's.
* Akira Kurosawa is cited as one of the influences for this film by Wes Anderson
* Anjelica Huston is listed in the films' credits as "Mute Poodle"