Wes Anderson's - Isle of Dogs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt__kig8PVU

oh this looks great! been waiting for him to follow up FMF properly. he should just do animation

or, he should do MORE animation

looking forward to this

i keep thinking he should have directed an adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express

in a world... where all dogs are male

This looks great. I loved FMF and indeed an orient express/agatha christie piece adaptation would be nice.
Or a remake of the cartoon with animals "around the world in 80 days" !

loads of actresses billed, I'm sure we'll have a decent quotient of female dogs

There's a female dog in the trailer!

That said all the main characters in his movies are males. I guess because there's a strong autobiographic element in his work.

Anyway, this is great. I think I'd be OK with him not just making but remaking all of his films as stop animation.

There's a token female dog in the trailer!

fixed!

and a girl protagonist who apparently exists to idolise the boy. ok it's just a trailer, i'll wait.

fixed!

Maybe they're all fixed.

excited for all the thinkpieces to come from this

Looked/sounded great on the big screen this weekend before Logan Lucky.

i guess i'm just going to go out there and say i can't wait to watch these dogs. i have slowly morphed into one of those weird dog people

hahaha a friend showed me this trailer and I was like, "wtf is this, the new Wes Anderson movie?"

it looks good though

Or a remake of the cartoon with animals "around the world in 80 days" !

― AlXTC from Paris, Monday, 25 September 2017 13:14 (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes!

That said all the main characters in his movies are males

"all" is a huge overstatement

"huge" is a huge overstatement

Bitch bitch bitch

^clever

also a possibly accurate prediction of how many will have speaking roles

This looks like it will be great but what a corny pun of a title

Err what's the pun ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Dogs

“I love dogs”

xpost

"isle of dogs"/"I love dogs"

iirc there was a long Vic & Bob routine about it in the Smell era.

see also Spinal Tap performing at a blues/jazz (or was it a jazz/blues?) festival on the Isle of Lucy.

Ahah obviously ! sorry it totally went over my head !
I mean, there's an island AND dogs on it...

http://www.vulture.com/2018/02/watch-a-clip-from-the-wes-anderson-movie-isle-of-dogs.html

Looked pretty, and the plot seems fun. I’ll definitely see it.

But a quirky American filmmaker making a film about Japanese trash dogs voiced by white actors seems incredibly tone-deaf and blatantly appropriative for 2018.

And yeah, I know I’m a buzzkill and that I’m probably watching movies wrong. But fuck Wes Anderson and his “those wacky Orientals” shit.

What would Edward Said say?

hey don't forget the blatant sexism.

- Edward Said

It's good. And the dogs aren't the problem, it's very clear that they speak a different dog-language than Japanese which is translated into English. Quite a bit Orientalism, though, to say the least. A looooot of woodcut imagery and haiku poetry.

Does it fetishize Japanese culture, appropriate it, or is it just a homage/appreciation?

Hard to say, really. And it's probably not for me to say? But at times it's quite overwhelming the level of detail that goes into it, the backgrounds are at times 'inky' like in scroll painting, and there's a whole subplot that seems inspired by the student demonstrations in the sixties. It's not oversexualized schoolgirls and pokemon, it's obviously sincerely appreciative. But still. A few things irks me. But again, not for me to say.

I would have preferred Isle of Bunnies, but this looks fun.

feels like this has been about to come out for fucking ever now, really tired of seeing the trailers for it, get it out already

I like doggies, but a theater full of 'em, no. (SF's Roxie)

Monday’s event was conceived by Andrea Bertolini, a senior account executive with Allied Integrated Marketing, which is publicizing “Isle of Dogs.” The stop-motion film, opening nationwide on Friday, is set in the fictional Japanese city of Megasaki, where all the dogs have been banished to a dump called Trash Island. Ms. Bertolini said she knew as soon as she saw the trailer that she wanted to hold a dog-friendly screening.
“I thought, ‘Who would be amenable?’ A lot of chain theaters probably would have said, ‘Have a nice day,’” Ms. Bertolini said. (There are also dog-friendly screenings scheduled this weekend in British theaters.)

But the people at the Roxie Theater were excited about the idea — and they had experience. For the last two years, the New York Dog Film Festival has traveled to the theater, which has welcomed canine customers alongside their humans.

“We love dogs,” Ms. Fondevila said. “We had no doubts.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/movies/isle-of-dogs.html

the vulture promo coverage is all great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOKzXQdA4Nw

the blue eyed dogs in trailers thing is bugging me, it's jolting to me in the way that blue eyed dogs SHOULD jolt because, the hell is that? the eyes generally, in which the whites are almost anthropomorphically visible, is weird too. Anyway, this is a movie I'm likely to be enjoy as an Anderson and dog liker, but there are things going on (obv the Japanese signalling all over the place) I just don't know how to parse without at least seeing the movie.

Uk premiere at canary wharf cineworld or gtfo

this is a masterpiece and fuiud

I do not like doggies, but I did enjoy this movie, which isn't really about them, albeit not as much as I loved its feline prologue. It's not a masterpiece or his best, but a good one. For all the talk of the Kurosawa references, two or three of which I caught, I had more fun noting the Hitchcock ones.

...among others

For a film featuring dogs, a curious lack of butt-sniffing.

It calls attention to itself as a filmic construction, in a way stop motion films usually don't. Perhaps because it takes such a large amount of work to make it at all convincingly alive that any undermining of that work seems especially counterproductive.

You've both seen Fantastic Mr Fox right?

Well, a strict definition of mise-en-scene would exclude "lots of onscreen text, lots of divided screens, lots of quick cuts"; but beyond that, all of those things are present in p much all of Godard's work, for example. Even if we're just talking about a mise-en-scene that's unprecedented for stop motion animation, some or all of those elements can be found in work by the Brothers Quay, Švankmajer, Terry Gilliam, even Ray Harryhausen. The obvious attention to detail and decorative filigree of IOD doesn't even feel unprecedented in Anderson's work, tbh.

Love FMF - felt that this presented its information in a much more breathless (Breathless?) and immersive way - demanding that you pay attention to the whole screen at once. I'll watch it again at some point and note examples

I've seen Fantastic Mr Fox several times, and if you can't see the difference then I don't know what to tell you.

If anything, the mise-en-scene of IOD reminded me a bit of David Hockney's variations on Chinese scroll painting, where multiple events are happening within the same frame, and in a horizontal, left to right direction.

Oh I know what you mean, there were bits I thought looked great even as they were reminding me of Metal Gear Solid, or Prosperous Books, or some of the stuff Ward just noted.

I agree the unique aspects are more related to camerawork and editing, and that it's of course inspired by lots of other filmmakers - that scene I wrote about is a copy from Citizen Kane, no? - but the level of control is unique, and the combination with the model work seems like the culmination of this aspect of WAs work.

Prospero's Books, fucking phone. Anyway novelty isn't a critical criterion for me

Yeah, NV, Greenaway is a good reference as well.

It's a sugary intertextual treat but that's WA in general for me

I haven't seen Prospero's Books, but late works like 'Eisenstein in Guanajuato' and 'Goltzius and the Pelican Company' tries to get the same kind of control. Greenaway is much more European, though, much more invested in creating something new out of high art, where WA is pretty pop.

It's great. They're both great. It isn't a competition.

that part was in your head - i just said if you want great retro-animation you should check it out

fwiw i don't believe both are "great" - i will remember the hedgehog in the fog for the rest of my life and despite the neat/unusual design of this movie i am not going to remember its wise-cracking dogs and their plan to stop the evil mayor much beyond next week

unless somebody reminds me of it, and then i'll probably remember a feeling of vague annoyance at ukuleles that weren't actually in it but may as well have been

oh look, it's a shuttered country club! the bygone world of wholesome elites!

this is unfair on this film and not what happens imo - like, did you not read about the sushi prep scene taking weeks if not months to get right? that is no mere dressing

― imago, Thursday, April 5, 2018 6:08 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously? it doesn't matter how much time went into it

LMAO the white sushi chef who spoke in a fake Asian accent got a consulting credit on "Isle of Dogs," can't handle this, life is too on the nose sometimes https://t.co/RtHK34vaZh pic.twitter.com/siGLT2UiM8

— Serena Dai (@ssdai) April 2, 2018

Oh for people who want to see the film, I was seated rather close to the screen and i think i missed some elements, the film needs broad scanning to be fully enjoyed (or maybe I'm getting older).

I watched FMF this week after seeing IOD. It plays much closer to your normal WA film, just with animals (I think it's not nearly Roald Dahl enough to really get the material but that's a separate thread). IOD is a lot more active and 'busy' in terms of what's in the frame. It seems like an advance for him, a formal progression, if not in any other way. But then I wouldnt expect him to progress in any other way.

you mom gets busy, in terms of what's in the frame

i liked FMF a lot but it definitely does not feel like a roald dahl story in any way.

seriously? it doesn't matter how much time went into it

― flappy bird, Thursday, 5 April 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Finnegans Wake took 17 years of Joyce's life have some respect ;-)

lol

Xpizzost - my mom is actually more of a narrative than composition person. I will ask her to watch IOD and report back.

Suspect most mums are narratively inclined.

this looked nice but suffered from usual wes anderson short-comings: no character development, unearned moments of emotion, rote plot with a chase and a crazy plan that just might work etc. i found myself sort of bored and done with it by the time they left the island.

feel like he's the one director who is most guilty of the novelist's crime of writing the same novel in various different ways.

also orientalist as hell and wes anderson is cancelled obv

Ever seen a Woody Allen film?

one helluva come-on

Spoilers ahead

The thing I disliked the most was the reveal that Chief and Spot were actually brothers. Felt way too easy, and Anderson, as much I love his films, is guilty of that sometimes.

Yuri Norstein could teach Joyce a thing or two about bloody-minded commitment to a project, he's been working on his feature film The Overcoat since 1981!

Tale Of Tales is such an extraordinary, singular piece of work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ52H1YlOm4

This was dry to a fault.

Omg the sushi consultant, I remember that guy!

This thing was a beauty to look at; he's really learned how to treat these stop-motion things as if they art films. A couple of shots nodded toward Cries and Whispers.

yeah, the plot is mostly irrelevant, but the frame & the motion are just gorgeous to stare at.

Good movie but pretty much agree with everything jim in vancouver said, especially: “i found myself sort of bored and done with it by the time they left the island”. (well I did kind of like the showdown at the end). The main complaint I had leaving the movie was that the other original dogs were m.i.a. by the end of the movie.

The action and story were a lot stronger than what I had imagined coming into the movie so despite the ending losing focus on some of the characters I enjoyed myself.

And the art aspect was top notch.

I think this is easily the weakest soundtrack and score of any of his films. I’m not sure why that is, like why he/they chose to be so sparing and dull with the music in the this one, but all I’m left with is the taiko opening (mandatory?), that terrible WCPAEB track, and a whistle there that keeps being reduced to the Smoke on the Water riff in my mind. Which is funny, to me, but I don’t think it was the intent.

as WA disappointments go this was way, way less annoying than Life Aquatic or Darjeeling Limited, where I left the theater genuinely annoyed that I had been snookered somehow. This was just... not as much fun as FMF or GBH.

The stop motion special effect I’m most interested in from this one is the swirling water at the shore of the island, seen in the beginning when Spots is being conveyed from the mainland. I know how they do rivers and waterfalls (scrolling plastic wrap). I enjoyed the shredded paper dust clouds. I thought the cottonball melee combat seemed like a bit of a cop out.

this is a masterpiece and fuiud

― imago, Saturday, 31 March 2018 22:13 (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that terrible WCPAEB track

love that song.

his soundtracks have always been wack af, i'm glad there was only one 'song' song here that i can remember (the wcpaeb).

good movie.

this is a masterpiece and fuiud

― imago, Saturday, 31 March 2018 22:13 (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, I have recently watched FMF again recently and it's pretty impressive just to see how his work on the dogs in both movies has evolved.
I love FMF but visually, IOD is in another league.
So many brilliant and beautiful moments/ideas.
I wonder if he can top that and do another animation movie...

his soundtracks have always been wack af, i'm glad there was only one 'song' song here that i can remember (the wcpaeb).

― brimstead, Tuesday, May 1, 2018

kind of agree but the use of "2000 Man" in Bottle Rocket is grebt

"the plot is mostly irrelevant"

as soon as that chase started in TGBH i realised he is quite bad at plots.

plots schmots

So many brilliant and beautiful moments/ideas.

I think this might have made a good silent movie.

hum. no because the voices are fun too !
Actually, for all their incredible artistical and technical qualities, I'm not sure his animation movies would be as good if the voices weren't made by his VIP/usual suspects cast.
Like the exact same movies as IoD or FMF but with a voice cast of unknown actors would certainly be a little less fun.

I thought the voices were underutilized in this one, vs. FMF. Just too unexpressive and monotone.

It's more hit&miss, yeah.

Finally saw this last night, can't say I loved it. I thought FMF had a lot more emotional depth and humor. This film just seemed unnecessarily dark and depressing. Don't really need to watch endless sad, abused, and sickly dogs to feel something.

This was fine, but no FMF indeed.

usual wes anderson short-comings: no character development

I wonder how you measure this? Not one of the problems.

If that's an issue at all for you it would have to be a dealbreaker, no?

What characters? This is a bunch of little kids dressed up in animal costumes.