Anderson Countdown Part 9 - Isle of Dogs

Hello everyone and welcome to Some Like It Scott's newest Countdown miniseries: the Wes Anderson Countdown. To honor one of the great still-working indie writer-director auteurs, who's next film ASTEROID CITY comes out later this year, Scott, Scott, and Jay will be watching all 10 of the American filmmakers' works to-date, from his origins with the '90s heist-comedy BOTTLE ROCKET, all the way to his latest feature, 2021's star-studded anthology drama THE FRENCH DISPATCH. Join us each week over the next 10 weeks as we progress through Anderson's full oeuvre in the buildup to ASTEROID CITY!

On Part 9 of the Anderson Countdown, Scott, Scott, and Jay revisit Wes Anderson's second attempt at stop-motion animation: ISLE OF DOGS. Set in a fictional near-future, dystopic Japanese city called Megasaki, ISLE OF DOGS charts the journey of a young boy, Atari (Koyu Rankin), whose authoritarian uncle and legal guardian, Kenji Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura), as authoritarian the mayor of Megasaki, has banished all dogs to 'Trash Island', a small island off the coast of Negasaki, under the pretense of a dangerous double-pandemic: canine flu and snout fever. Atari's canine companion, Spots (Liev Schreiber) is the first dog to be transported to the 'Isle of Dogs', and after several months of planning, Atari sets out to rescue him. Once Atari makes his crash landing onto the island, he meets a pack of dogs that include the stray leader, Chief (Bryan Cranston), as well as Rex (Ed Norton), King (Bob Balaban), Duke (Jeff Goldblum), and Boss (Bill Murray). Together, Atari and his newly met companions set off across Trash Island in search of Spots, and quickly learn that Atari's uncle has more dastardly plans in store, both for Megasaki and the dogs on Trash Island. The countdown crew reflect on what Wes has done to evolve his game since his first animated outing in FANTASTIC MR. FOX, who brings the most heat out of the ensemble voice cast, and whether the themes of the film resonate more deeply after a global pandemic of our own.