This is my first Wes Anderson movie, and I'm happy to say that I really enjoyed this movie.
This is Wes 2nd stop motion film, (I also must watch Fantastic Mr. Fox) But enough rambling from me, here is my honest review.
Isle of dogs is a witty, detail packed, beautifully animated, and overall well made movie which should be a must watch, wether you like Wes Anderson as a director or not.
I want to touch on the humour. This movie is packed with dry, yet witty and smart jokes. most of these jokes landed for me, and it never came across as cheap or quickly thrown in, and from what I've seen, his other movies like The French Dispatch have roughly the same humour.
The cinematography is very distinct and very appreciated. I love how the "camera" has these wide shots. It gives you a sense of the world they live in, and overall is generally well done.
The animation is gorgeous, and you can just see how much effort and love was poured into this movie. I would consider stop motion as the hardest form of animation, and the fact that this movie wouldn't feel the same if it wasn't in stop motion kinda just drives home the point of how beautiful the world that these people made. If you pause at any moment in the movie, you get a wonderful piece of art.
My only complaint with this movie is that some things that came up felt a little random, with no real reason to happen. (spoilers ahead so uh, go watch it if you haven't already.) When Tracy said she had feelings for Atari, it felt a little out of the blue, or when Spots "dies" but somehow survives underground. Honestly I feel a little harsh on the movie with this criticism, considering there was a lot to unpack about the movie maybe I didn't catch something but Idk. Anyways, those are minor criticisms about the movie that kinda don't really matter.
The pacing is a great part of this movie as well. It feels perfectly paced. Even when nothing is happening, I never lost interest because the pacing of the film was just so on point.
TLDR: This movie is fantastic. It has great animation, cinematography, details, pacing, hilarious, you name it, the movie probably has it. The films only limitations is it's somewhat random plot points, but in the big picture that doesn't really matter. Definitely a must watch. 5/5